Tuesday April 16, 2019

Hello everyone!

Ava is doing really well right now 😄❤️. She has been cruising around everywhere! She can’t get enough of walking haha. It’s so wonderful to see. We took her to the park a few times already and she loves the swing. Landon and I both said to each other how nice it is to see Ava just have fun outside and “be a toddler”.

Her abdominal incision has healed up. Some stitches are still there, they take 6 weeks to dissolve sometimes. Her bum has had ups and downs. Her rash has improved from a couple weeks ago, but it is still there to where we do sitz baths and blow dry her bum while we can during the day. We felt pretty stuck here at home doing this for a while. It’s tedious and annoying for her, but it helps the most, so we will make it work! We seen her pediatrician today and her surgeon for follow ups. They were both impressed with how well she is doing. Her surgeon said that her scar tissue is stretching appropriately in her rectum when she bears down to poop. He did an exam today which she was not fond of 😩. We are to hold off on dilations and continue monitoring her pooping to keep her rectum hole size patent while she pushes. The next steps is to see how her scar tissue stretches while she grows. This will determine whether or not we will have to do dilations as she grows to assist this or surgical fix. For now, it’s doing what it needs to do 🙏🏼. Her occupational therapist is coming the end of the month.

Ava takes laxatives every day to help regulate her stool consistency. In the last week, we have seen regularity with her stool. We have been able to trouble shoot constipation episodes with diet and tweaking her laxatives. This will be ongoing for Ava for the rest of her life. With being post op a month, she has been proving her continence. However we will only know this more accurately when she grows and we beginning potty training. We will wait some time to continue to let her body adjust.

We have been cautious with germs and keeping clean with Ava. It’s so easy for Ava to get sick, and when she does..she gets really sick. She caught a gastric virus for 24 hours a couple weeks ago and Landon and I got so scared we were going to have to take her in. It’s incredibly scary to us when she is unwell as she deteriorates quickly from in the past. Luckily she passed it and was able to rehydrate at home.

We are so excited to have her outdoors more especially with walking. She loves the fresh air. It is amazing to see Ava play and have fun, especially without her ostomy bag. She was still playful and happy with it, however its amazing to not have to deal with it right now. She jumped over a big hurdle with this last surgery. She really is a true warrior. We are planning to go to jasper this weekend. We have had some play dates with her toddler and baby friends, which is plan to do more of. We will continue to update with everyone on her progress ❤️.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the teddy bear fun run for the Stollery May 11!🏃‍♀️❤️and thank u for everyone whose donated to the Stollery, means the world to us. #Ava’sArmy💪🏼