Progress is Slow

It is Friday and we are still in the hospital. Ellie's progress has been slow, yet we are thankful she is making some small steps back to being healthy. Status: 1. Wakefulness - Ellie had not opened her eyes much in the last week and a half, but in the last couple days she has had some more wakeful periods. Emily and I connect with Ellie by touch and through her eyes, so we were really missing that connection with her. It has been good for us and her to communicate again. 2. Breathing - Ellie is still wheezy and crackly. She has been receiving several breathing treatments to help open up her lungs and dislodge the fluid trapped in there. She has added another machine to her collection, a cough assist machine. During this illness Ellie has not been coughing productively and that has contributed to the severity of her illness. The cough machine bursts air into her lungs and then pulls it out in order to simulate a typical cough. 3. Diagnosis - The Doctors are calling this illness Bronchiolitis, which is a virus. They don't think that it is pneumonia or RSV. They did also find pseudomonas in her trachea which is a bacteria that isn't terrible in and of itself but combined with everything else she is dealing with it becomes a factor in her overall health. Right now it is a waiting game. Thank you for your prayers and support. We are really looking forward to Ellie being healthy again and returning to normal. --Adam