Fit for a Queen.........

It seems I am able to breathe a little today, and have very much enjoyed sitting down and concentrating on something other than bacteria for a change. I made this little wee stomacher for a special little Queen~ its all silk and soo teensy! I may add a few extra little touches, but kinde of like it plain as it is .....

I love making teensy weensie things, and this one fits right in~ it's just 1.5" tall!

Holding Steady!

Tressa is doing well today~ a little sick to her stomach this morning, but good! Her leg is quite sore today~ she was up walking too much yesterday I am sure, so no getting up today. She couldn't feel a thing yesterday, so the fact her leg is sore today is so wonderful~ it means there are healthy nerves there~ woo hoo! I am very pleased with how it looks today~ nearly identical to yesterday, and it has started to granulate. I know all your prayers are working!!! Thankyou thankyou thankyou~ a million thankyous could never be enough.

This is a picture of Tressa the day before her last surgery~ her best friend moved to Pennsylvania last week, but before she left, she came and showed Tressa how to crochet~ and I'm so proud of her she is really going to town on her little blanket!

SCRUB & WASH SCRUB & WASH SOME MORE
I have been trying to find information about the one bacteria that Tressa's first culture tested positive for, and come to find out I have been spelling it wrong this whole time~ it is in fact Acinetobacter Baumannii . If you would like to read more about this type of drug resistant bacteria, you can see a great sumary here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acinetobacter_baumannii

Reading the description is quite frightning, and makes me so much more happy with our Dr in cutting the whole of it OUT. We live out on a farm, and Tressa DOES shower every day....it is still a mystery to us all how she got this. It makes me want to hold down my children and scrub them all over with a hard bristle brush. I hope my dear readers will read its description, and be made AWARE of it, so that you will never have to deal with this in your family

Out for a WALK today!

We are doing pretty good today! Tressa's 'wound' was quite shocking to see in person, even knowing what to expect....but we all are good with it. She was very upset this morning when she caught a glimpse of it, and frightened, but we had some long talks and I honestly think she is A.O.K. with it now. I told her Id much rather have her with a hole in her leg, than not have her at all~ and as long as it heals with NO more infection, Ill TAKE IT! She does literally have a hole there, muscle exposed, but as soon as it starts to granulate, we will get some skin on it and GET TO COME HOME! She has no feeling there, so at least it isn't hurting her anymore. She has been released from her in bed restriction and today we got her up and out of bed for a walk and short trips OUTSIDE~ which really made her happy. Shes just on Unasyn & Primaxin now, and gets unhooked from her IV machine in between doses so shes much free~er now. The section of her leg they took out was sent to pathology, I would REALLY like to know what the infection was, but as long as its G*O*N*E*, I can honestly say I really don't care. I am not holding my breath, there seems to be so many 'new' illnesses and germs these days, it gets too scary for me to think about.

THANKYOU all so very much for the emails and cards ~ I cannot adequately express my gratitude to everyone for caring so much. Hopefully I can return the favor some day to each and every one of you

Surgery #2

Today started out just like the past 2 weeks...waiting for the Dr to make his early morning rounds so I could see for myself if Tressa's leg looks any better. He came in at around 8am, and it looked sooooooo much worse than yesterday. yuk. He said surgery again today, but since she was throwing up this morning, we had to wait a bit for that to stop. Her meds seem to make her stomach upset every few days. She was finished with her surgery by 4 pm, and this time Dr took out everything that was infected, or looked infected, or was close to the infection, all the way down to her muscle. I have very HIGH hopes that this will be it! We will be RID of this nasty beast of whatever it is, as it is still unknown. If she starts to heal and all goes well, she could be ready for her last surgery in as early as a week! He will take a skin graft from her upper thigh and use that to cover over the missing area of her calf. All will be well. THANKYOU so much for all your thoughts and well wishes~ we appreciate them so very much

Pinch me please~


and wake me up from this nightmare. I have been avoiding posting about Tressa because every day the Dr comes in, the news is worse than the day before. There is no new healing. He has no answers. There is NO where elce for us to go. He says one to two more MONTHS in hospital. I would be lying if I said I wasnt devistated. I feel so mad and helpless all at the same time.... all I can seem to do on a regular basis is cry. They took a new culture of it yesterday, but since it was saturday....they probably wont even sent it out to the lab until Monday...and since tomorrow is a holiday, most likely not until Tuesday...then 72 hours after that before they will send any results.
Thankyou for all of your emails~ it is really depressing for me to write the same bad news over and over again, so I hope you will just drop by here for any updates, and if you have a few seconds, send some healing thoughts to my girl

Update on Tressa.........
Day 7 in hospital, and to make along story short, they have no idea what is up with our girl, which is very frustrating to say the least. The infected areas the surgeon cut out last Friday aren't exactly getting any 'worse', but not any better either. 3 new areas of infection have sprouted up around the old one, and Dr says the tissue, which is getting black and dying, acts like there is a foreign body beneath them..so they need to be taken out in another surgery, but right now, he is most befuddled that she has yet even start to heal from the last surgery. She is on the Vancomycin and Clendomycin still, and Primaxin for the aconita bacter .......everything is so confusing. We have had some good news tho, I guess...because the wound is not starting to heal, she has been tested for several cancers, vascular diseases, lupus, and diabetes, ALL of which have come back negative~ so she DOESN'T have any of those! Today pathology sent samples out to be tested for some strange fungus, and also tuberculosis. Dr says it will most likely be at least another 2 weeks in hospital. She is being a very good patient, only getting up to go the the bathroom and take her shower. I got her a new movie, National Treasure 2, that she has been so excited to see, so am taking that and the dvd player out of the truck and all the children, so we can all sit around a little 12" screen tomorrow and try and watch it together! AND!!!! I am SO proud of her, one of her friends from school visited and showed her how to crochet.....and she actually remembered how to do it! WOO HOO! This girl NEVER sits and works on anything for more than about 30 seconds, so to sit and watch her zooming along crocheting for hours at a time, it incredible! THANKYOU all so much for your well wishes!!