Day 26: Shayna the Gerbil

Shayna loves most of her meds so much all I have to do is hold the syringe near her and she comes to it, I push some meds into her mouth, she sits back up, swallows, then leans in to put the syringe in her mouth to get more.  I made the mistake tonight of grabbing her meds while she was eating dinner (Aba was working the spoon).  She saw me and refused to take another bite of food (which happened to be a delicious Blacksburg special of Shlomo's sweet potatoes and the Kornbliths fried turkey pureed in the blender).

Our first day of labs and clinic was exciting as I was out scraping the ice off the car at 6:30 this morning just before I yanked a sleeping baby out of bed to stuff her in a cold car.  She was not to happy to start with but settled in for the ride.  We got there early enough that we were 2nd for draws this morning which got most of our labs back for our clinic appointment (usually doesn't happen) so I got to see them (and even get a copy).  All her liver numbers were still on the way down so I get to decrease her Prednisone (taken as "jello shots" because of the way it tastes with jello like too much vodka had been put in the jello shot).  Later we also got word that her FK/Prograf levels were at 13.7 and with the liver numbers down the goal is now 12 so we're at 1mg morning and night (down from 1.5mg in the morning).  Also, if the liver numbers continue down on Thursday, we'll go to once a week visits.  (If they don't, she'll need a blood transfusion because her little body can't handle 2 draws a week.)

We had some excitement after our 2nd Kornblith visit as cobblestone streets get very slick when it's freezing out and snow is covering the road.  Nick and I had to help Nahum's car uphill away from Judy's house by pushing.  After Nahum slid/crashed into the curb a block from our house while trying to park (only cracked the bumper) we backed into the alley where we have a garage to park in and got stuck again.  With one foot on a light post, since the ground provided no traction, I got to push Nahum's car again to get it into the alley.  We were so thankful we didn't slide into another car on those cobblestone roads and have a garage (albeit behind the house across the street) to park in as there was no way Nahum's gripless tires could have gotten us into a spot remotely near our house.  Snow tires here we come.

All in all it was a good day with Shayna laughing more and more.  She is such a fun baby.  She's back to the baby we brought home from the hospital that only complains for food, sleep or a diaper change and is happy the rest of the time (expect for jello shots).  She's getting so much stronger with each day that I bet she'll be crawling by the end of January.