Recovery Time!

Tamsie is all nice and grouchy and in full-out recovery mode! This girl has some serious opinions on EVERYTHING from what she wants to do to whether or not she wants to eat to whether or not the TV should be on! Here are the highlights from today so far:

* Overnight her urine output SERIOUSLY improved, and now she's doing great and functioning well! Thanking the Lord for this!!

* Swelling is also down considerably today! Still puffy, but much less so.

* However, her heart rate has been higher than they'd like to see, likely because she has been running a low-grade fever. Right now she's at 99, which is lower than earlier, and right now heart rates are right where they should be! Praying that keeps up!

* She has yet to complain of pain!!!!! Of course we're pumping her full of meds... but I'll count that as a victory!

* She hung out in bed most of the morning, but kept being more and more vocal about wanting to get out of bed. Now the doctor told us long ago that the thing we would most need to do on Day 2 would be to get her up and moving around and playing, particularly engaging those core muscles. She also told us that was the one thing that we would LEAST want to do. Now I was picturing T throwing tantrums and such at the mere mention of it. I never dreamed it would look like it did: she was just lying around, hooked up to all sorts of things and looking weak and listless and saying she felt sad. It was pretty hard to imagine forcing the girl to do anything but lay in bed. But once she kept insisting, we called the nurse, who let us pull her around in a wagon. Yesterday the doctor strictly warned us about thinking of wagon rides as "getting her out," since it's so passive and is pretty much like staying in bed. But we also didn't want to overwork her to the point where she would fight us about this going forward. So a wagon ride it was! She loved it. We rode around upstairs and downstairs, and she saw a clown who gave her a flower and some stickers.

Eventually, we decided she needed to come back and sleep if she needed to, so that she would have energy to walk and play later - since she obviously wasn't feeling it then. She fought us tooth and nail on getting back in bed, saying she just wanted to stay in the wagon. We told her she could either sit up by herself in the wagon (instead of lying back) OR go to bed. She fussed and said, "I JUST WANT TO WALK." So walk she did!! She did great! She kind of waddled like a penguin, but SHE WALKED without fussing and did not want to come back to the room! She was so proud of herself, and we were so proud of her!!

Now we're just hanging out, waiting on lunch to come. I'm anxious for the doctor to get here and give us a new report, but this is all I have for now. We hope you're having a terrific Tuesday morning. Keep those prayers coming if you think of it, and also please keep Mrs. Kathy McMasters in your prayers. I grew up next door to her and her family, and she has always been like family to me. She's going today for a biopsy to check out some suspicious stuff after four months of being free of pancreatic cancer. Pray hard for them, and also pray for our friends the Wades. Today Amy is donating a kidney to her son Walker... so that should give you lots to pray about! :) Much love to y'all!

P.S. - I will post pics sometime (probably). I just haven't had a chance to deal with it. Until then, I'm posting on Instagram and Facebook periodically!

P.P.S. - Evie has really been doing great, but she has been missing her sister and Chris and me. She has cried some for us today. She may come visit later!