We are on the upswing! While Aaron and I do not really feel as though we are on an upswing, we will agree that her abdomen has improved greatly this week. We had a negative stool sample come back today. Her swelling has decreased. So, as far as the abdominal surgery and recovery is concerned, there is definite improvement.

The new battlefront appears to be her sinuses which have kept her from sleeping. Her lack of sleep has resulted in her being so exhausted that she is having restless sleep when she falls asleep. She thrashes around non-stop and relives the pain and trauma of the past 10 days. She talks about her bandages hurting although they are gone and she screams that she is thirsty. But then when she is fully awake, she denies any pain and says nothing about water. I imagine as the months go on, she is going to have more nightmares and psychological healing to do over this entire experience and it breaks my heart to even think about it. We are awaiting an ear, nose, throat specialist to see if we can give her something besides Benadryl for her sinuses. She doesn’t need dried out. She needs decongested and drainage.

Her temps continue to rise and fall.  A blood test taken on Tuesday evening was cultured and had growth today. So now we await further culturing to know what exactly it is and which antibiotics will get rid of it.

In the meantime, her WBC count dropped from 2.1 yesterday to 1.8 today. We are seeing 2% neutrophils (down from 3%) and monocytes reappeared today. I am really beginning to understand that the fight against AA is indeed a marathon. We rounded a curve and have another hill ahead…..

My prayer for the lioness is for sleep. Deep, restful sleep.