back to the hospital i go...

So I arrived @ the hospital at around 7:55 this AM....Ridge was sleeping. Shortly after, I gave him some medicine and then he got to eat. I've changed two poopy diapers that are still fairly normal looking but have shifted to a less than yellow color....and both have had a teeny speck of red in them. The doctor said not to worry about that yet since it could be from something else- I won't gross anyone out. But we are to keep an eye on it. Ridge has mainly been fairly cheerful; I've seen several smiles today. His vitals look good. He IS getting blood today b/c his hemoglobin fell just below 8, and anything below an 8 warrants blood. But this is the first time he's had a transfusion in a week.

We got a new GI doc today; all of them have been great, and I can tell I'm going to like this one. All of the nurses on the 8th floor have been amazing so far. We've had pretty good nurses the entire 4 weeks. SHOOT, I just erased an entire paragraph. Basically I said that it makes a huge difference when we have a great nurse. Most of our nurses have been excellent on every floor. You expect ICU to have great nurses, and it did. We've been on two different floors, and have had excellent nurses on both of them almost always. I think the difference in a great nurse and an okay one is familiarity with your child's condition-- we have had 2 or 3 in the past, not now, who didn't really think Ridge was sick, and kind of ignored him for the most part until his condition was urgent...which is understandable I guess, but hard to swallow as a parent. Most of our nurses on the 8th floor have done their research or asked us about Ridge enough to know that his condition doesn't make him LOOK too sick, but that he can get REALLY bad REALLY fast. All of the gals we've had so far have really honestly been exceptional on 8th floor. I know some of our nurses from floor 8, PICU, and maybe floor 10 read this-- so here's a shout out to all of them, b/c we love them! Thank you for taking care of us. You are doing a great job! I'm sure if you're reading this, you're one of our favorites!!! Thanks for following the blog! All of our nurses this week have honestly been amazing, and made our time a blessing....we hope we've been a blessing as well (although I know at least one of them saw me at a high stress moment at least once this week! apologies to her!)

Anyway, we are waiting and praying. Part of me is so sick of all of this. But I know I have to wait it out. My prayer is that God will heal Ridge completely. FOREVER. However, I do know that it seems like with time, this disease lets up a little....so the load may lighten as we travel the road...we shall see.

I'm trying to get the songs to play on shuffle on the blog so you don't hear the same one every time you check it-- I'm not sure how to do that...suggestions? I hope you are listening, though, b/c these are the songs that are ministering to us through this journey....and as you find yourself in hard times, big or small, I hope these songs will minister to your life as well.

Love and blessings to all of you! Thanks for everything!

alisha, and the cary guys