Abby is continuing to grow and thrive in amazing ways! She turned three on October 28th and we celebrated with a fun COTA Birthday Party fundraiser as well as with a small party at home. At 3 years old, Abigail has transitioned out of early intervention therapies and is now in the intermediate unit. We are currently still meeting all of our new therapists. Abby will be receiving weekly therapies of Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Physical Therapy, and a Special Instructor or Teacher. All of these therapists come to the home to work on each of these areas with her.

 

 

 

 

 Abby is also becoming so much stronger in her walking and loves to walk with just one-hand assistance now! She is also eating at the table for every meal with us- not eating a lot but her desire to eat is definitely improving. Her vocabulary is starting to pick up and she constantly has something to say…even though half the time, I have no idea what she is saying!

 

 

 

 

 One of the other great moments this fall was getting to visit a pumpkin patch AND go trick-or-treating! Abigail has never celebrated a Halloween outside of the hospital. October has always been a very hospital heavy month for our sweet girl and every October 31st, we were in the hospital. But not this year!! Abby was Moana for Halloween and though she was apprehensive about the whole collecting candy thing, she absolutely loved seeing all the people!

 

 

 

 

Medical Update:

 

 Abby continues to blow us away with how well she is doing medically. She had a little setback the beginning of October where she was hospitalized for 5 days with Adenovirus…that was pretty rough. But even through that, her liver numbers remained rock solid! 

 Our biggest issue lately has been with managing her potassium levels as we increase her anti-rejection medication to keep protecting her new liver. We just recently started her on a medication specifically to help decrease the potassium in her body and so far, it is working great. Her kidney numbers have continued to remain slightly elevated, but overall, trending down and very stable. And of course, her liver has been doing amazing! We continue to pray that her liver continues to do really well and thank God every day for the gift of organ donation!

 

 

One area that has been a struggle for about the past 3 weeks, are severe tantrums and screaming. As Abby is now three and her brain is finally able to begin processing things it couldn’t before due to the high levels of MMA, we are beginning to see some huge behavioral issues. We believe some of it is due to the fact that she has a hard time communicating and can’t verbally let us know everything she needs or wants, but also a brain that’s on overdrive right now and is trying to catch up on the past 3 years of her little life. It can be extremely draining as a parent and heartbreaking to watch as she goes through these times. However, we know that this is just a season and one that will hopefully be behind us soon!

 

 

Overall, Abby is doing incredibly well! We could not be more thankful and grateful for how well things have been going post-liver transplant. There have definitely been some challenges and things we didn’t expect, but the peace we have in knowing that Abby has an amazing quality of life now makes going through these temporary hardships worth it!

 

 I wish I could handwrite a thank you to everyone that has blessed us financially through COTA. Because of Abby’s great health insurance and the lack of complications thus far, we have not needed to touch much of the funds- which is a huge blessing. Those funds are good for Abby’s lifetime and will be available to her for whenever a medical expense arises. Thank you to everyone that has come out to the fundraisers and for the constant love and support you’ve given us as we continue on the this liver transplant journey!