I Love The Popwells!

As you see there is a new picture of Ollie courtesy of Vicki Popwell Photography! Her work is magnificent! Ollie was actually in a terrible mood that day and cried and cried. With the assistance of Ninny, some beautiful photographs were captured. Thank you Popwells for the wonderful work you do! I look forward to receiving my new prints as well as Ollie's 6 month pictures!

Two Weeks in Hospital Equals:

NOTHING! I am so upset! I received the phone call this morning to confirmed that the 2 weeks of IV antibiotics was a dud! The pseudomonas is still there. How in the heck is this happening?! Up until now I was so confident that we were getting somewhere. That we were beating CF. Boy was I wrong. It is so frustrating that with everything we have done and continue to do, this stupid little bacteria will not go away. UGHHHH! O will continue with inhaled antibiotics on and off for the next 6 months. She will also be adding yet another medicine to her long list of daily pills. Hopefully this will do the trick. Did I just say hopefully? I am so out of hope. There is no more light at the end of the tunnel. All I see is black. Please pray for Ollie. I can't even find strength in that anymore.

So Happy to Be Home

Just a word from the experienced-Do not take your home for granted! My family made it back safely from Birmingham today. We have spent the last 2 weeks cooped up in a little hospital room. Ollie has been receiving antibiotics through an IV to kill the bacteria that WAS residing in her lungs. No longer! I say this with great faith that the treatment was successful. We should know in a week if the pseudomonas is gone. Even if it has left the building for now, we must pray that is has left for good! It could come back at any point forcing O to take inhaled antibiotics to rid it once again. Our hope is to steer clear of that vicious cycle for a long time. The following video is of our precious, sweet, angel baby in her tub the first night back home. She has been an extremely happy baby today. Just the sight of her fan, bed, bouncy seat and extended family has had this kid jumping for joy all day! Thank you again for all the prayers and support. We hope to see you all very soon (like at the foot ballgame tomorrow night).

*Just a warning: This kid is VERY happy!

You might need to adjust your volume to avoid a headache!

In 24 Hours....

We're going to:

Make like a tree and leave!
Make like a banana and split!

Today is our last full day here. We all woke up in a little better of a mood today cause come tomorrow we are out! Yay! Free at last! Ollie really doesn't know any different but I'm sure she misses her always visiting family and friends. She misses being outside. Swinging. Bouncing in her jumpy seat. Her bed. Her home. She just doesn't realize it yet. I hope we don't have a lot of trouble getting her back in her old routine. We have all been cooped up in a small room together and she is always right under our noses. Maybe she will not be traumatized being alone. Our stay her at Children's has not been terrible but I miss my life. The time has kinda flown by and I am thankful for that. I'll just be thrilled to wash clothes, clean my house and enjoy the Fall (my FAVORITE season of all). I will also enjoy kissing the right side of my baby's head. It has been covered in tape for 2 weeks. Thank you all for your prayers and support throughout our stay. Please keep Ollie in your thoughts as she continues to fight off this mean bacteria. Pray it is gone and stays gone!!! See you all soon!

In 24 hours we're going to make like a family that has been locked up in a small hospital room for 2 weeks and GET THE HECK OUT OF HERE!!!!

Update & Ollie "Fix"

It seems my parents and my sister are having a very hard time being away from Ollie. They have all expressed their desire for an "Ollie Fix". Apparently my mom & dad visit the blog at night to see little O and my sister watches videos on repeat throughout the day. I have been a bit of a slacker on posting but there is not a whole lot to get excited about around here. An update on our current situation is: 1. We will be discharged on Thursday. I don't know what time but I am hoping for the AM. I have been very pleasant and have not complained but come Thursday the staff here on the 5th floor might just get a true "dose" of Lynsey if they don't get us out ASAP. 2. Ollie is still taking antibiotics through an IV. Luckily her picc line has stayed in place and has worked very well for these past 2 weeks. (The tape that holds that line in place better not pull out her hair-if so that true "dose" might come into play!) 3. We will not know if this treatment was successful for at least 2 weeks. Ollie's normal doctor's appointment with her CF doc is a week from Friday (yes, we have to come back that soon). At the appt. they will get a culture and see if the pseudomonas shows up. We should know the results by the following Friday. If the test comes back negative for a stretch of 6 months, the treatment will be considered a success. If it comes back positive within that time, they feel that the bacteria will have colonized and be impossible to kill. All we could do is suppress it with inhaled antibiotics-FOREVER. However, we do what we have to and we will cross that bridge when we get there. (Keep in mind that O is not sick-bacteria, that healthy people cough out, sticks to the lungs of Cfers.) 4. We will be sent home with an arsenal of new drugs. Ollie will be back on inhaled Tobi (she is getting this drug now through IV) twice a day. She will also begin pulmazyme. This helps to break things up in the lungs. If you do the math, O takes 20 pills a day, 4 breathing treatments (2 in the morning and 2 at night) and chest PT's twice daily. Yeah, sorry about your cold. Here is Ollie expressing her aggravation for hospital stays. Mom, Dad & Sammi-ENJOY!

What Ollie is Up To....

This kid has been amazing me with the new stuff she does everyday. She is a wild one and moves all around her crib. We've nicknamed her Boogie cause she is always moving and shaking. The nurses have even started calling her Boogie. It's so cute! The following video is what Ollie has been practicing lately. It's so crazy that she is already trying to crawl and getting pretty good at it. She can't even sit up unassisted and really doesn't care to. Yikes! I'm never gonna catch little Boogie!

Just a Little Funny...

This will brighten your day!

Last night when we finally got settled down (meaning finally getting O to sleep, our lovely cots all dolled up, and ready to catch some Zs), I decided to watch a little TV. It was close to 11 and Paranormal State was on. For those of you who are weird and don't enjoy Ghost stories (I love em), this show is all about scary stuff. Last night was about an exorcism. I was all into the show and decided to sit up and take a quick peek at O to make sure she was good. Well, to my surprise, the little booger was on her belly with her little head held up watching TV! She is a sneaky little girl. When I called her name and said she wasn't allowed to watch scary shows she began laughing and put her little face down in the covers. She cracks me up. I swear the child can understand everything I say. John and I laughed for 20 minutes, and she laughed right along with us. I told you the world ain't ready for this little monster! ;)

X-ray, Smex-ray

Ollie had an X-ray this morning. Her Doc wanted to see if anything had changed since her visit on Friday before last (this was the initial x-ray that made him decide O needed more meds). According to him, they still appeared to be pretty much the same. He did say that it looked like her lungs were clearing up a bit. He also said that her chest sounds to be moving more air. He thinks that there were some mucus plugs that appear to be breaking up. This is good news. Hopefully now that things are clearing up, the antibiotics can get to the source of the bacteria. He has added a few things to our already busy daily rituals. Ollie will now be receiving an inhalant called pulmozyme once a day. This will be given to her right before her chest Pt's (pat pats). Pulmozyme helps to liquefy the mucus in her airways helping the patient to cough it up. Although Ollie cannot quite cough things up, it will help to keep the lungs clearer so that other inhaled antibiotics can get to any bacteria (this was the problem and why we are here now). She is receiving Tobi through an IV and will also be receiving Tobi for 28 days through and inhalant once we get home. Also, judging by the great job her respiratory therapist have been doing, John and I need to hit O a little harder during the pat pats. It is so hard to "beat" a baby, but I now realize how important it is to do these properly in order to keep her as healthy as we can. (I'm not blaming myself or John for this and I could be completely wrong-it's just an observation) We did find out that we will definitely be here for the entire 2 weeks. Hey, as long as it is helping O, I'm down. Lucky for us, we have great friends and family to lend a helping hand. The worse part so far has been when they needed a blood sample from Ollie. They need these to get her antibiotic levels just right. It is very important because these meds could have serious side effects if they are not at the right level. Well, they have been at the wrong level twice so far and O has been stuck 3 times and they plan to stick her again tomorrow. I've said it a few times and I'll say it again-She is a trooper. When the needle was inserted in her little hand, she cried for a total of 2 seconds and then preceded to watch the nurse draw the blood. What a tough little cookie. Beware Andalusia, we've got a little Lynsey on our hands and I'm not sure our little town can handle two! Oh well!

One Picture Says it All...

Yep! That about sums it up!

Great Strides & Ollie's Army

This past Saturday a Great Strides Walk for Cystic Fibrosis was held in Crestview, Florida. My family, friends and I have been preparing for this event since Ollie was first diagnosed. As a parent, you want whats best for your child. Whats best for my Ollie is a cure and in participating in Great Strides, we are supporting the CF Foundation's efforts of not only searching for a cure, but for funding research for many new drugs that will help treat CF. I hit the ground running and formed a team, known as Ollie's Army-Fighting to End Cystic Fibrosis. We have been raising funds and raising awareness for the past 4 months. Our efforts paid off. By the time of the walk, Ollie's Army raised over $14,000. This was made possible by many GREAT family and friends along with alot of hard work. We organized a poker run on Gantt Lake to start the fundraising. The event, which was held in August, raised over $12,000 for Ollie's Army with $8,000 of that going to the CF foundation. We also sent letters online and through the mail to everyone we could think of, explaining our efforts. I am so proud of Ollie's Army. For the walk on Saturday, around 40 people came out and walked for Ollie. Some of our family took care of Ollie in Birmingham, allowing John and I to participate. I am so glad we could be there. We walked 3 miles total around Crestview High Schools football field. It was hot, but all of our Army walked the whole 3 miles. We did it for Ollie and for everyone that has CF. The total for all the teams on Saturday was over $25,000. What a difference that money will make in O's life as well as several others. To everyone that has supported Ollie's Army by either giving money, walking or both-Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are all angels in my eyes!!

The Women of Ollie's Army (and some little guys)

all showing O our love with the "I Love you" hand signal.


Sweet Everly

Cute Little Ocean (check out those shirts)

Caroline

Andrea & Amy


Meg, Ashley & Sarah

Neil, Reese, Deann & BethAnn

Gentrie, Laura, John & Hal

Aunt Essie & Uncle Mitch

Terri & The Mamas, Angie & Lindsey pushing their lil ones

Elizabeth, Megan & more walking it out

Gentrie, Me & Laura
Oldtime Buds. These 2 girls are awesome! Love yall!

Megan, Sarah, Meg & Ashley

Grover Jay

Ollie's cousin Drew-Ain't she adorable?!

Julie & Christian (Pushing Sawyer)

Megan & Lesley (Aunt Essie)

Justin, John & Mitch

Laura & Suzanne

All walking for one reason:

We Love you O!!!

It's Gonna be Worth It

I can tell! I have a feeling that this hospitalization is going to be so worth it. For some reason I am at peace with this. Ollie will come out on top! Pseudomonas is getting gone! Although we are uncomfortable in this little room, we are together. Our little angel is getting the best treatment possible and spoiled too. All her nurses LOVE her, but why wouldn't they. She smiles even when getting pat pats from a stranger and hooked to an IV. What a sweet baby we have. The doc said today that he thinks that this 2 week dose of antibiotics will hopefully be a success and the bacteria could possibly be killed and stay gone for a while. That would be AWESOME!!! Below is the lastest picture of O. She is sporting a headband and cute flower clip. This little headband covers up her "Frankinstien" ( picc line) and looks adorable at the same time. Maybe I should walk around looking for more kids with picc lines and offer them a band as well.

Anyway, speaking of headbands, I have taken the advise of my friends who suggested Etsy. I now have an Etsy store which can be visited by clicking on my sidebar Etsy ad. The store is Sassy Du Bows...I know, cute, right? Take a look, spread the word buy a bow! Your purchase will help me splurge on myself while hanging out in the Ham.

Love to all!!!

Day 3.....

Today makes day 3 of Ollie's IV hospitalization. She is a little stir crazy so we try to take her out strolling as often as possible. John and I made it back from our walk in Crestview around 4:30 this afternoon. We were so happy to see our baby and she was extremely happy to see us as well. She is my little sweetheart/slobber queen.

The Great Strides walk for CF went very well and I'll post more about it in a later post. I just wanted to take some time to add some pics of this little cutie that around 40 people came out and walked for. We are so blessed to have such a huge support system!

Ollie's main doctor is gone until Monday so we don't really have any news. Her weekend doctor put orders in that mitts be put over her hands because during his short little check up with her he thought she was pulling at her IV. Little does he know that when O is fussy, she plays with her right ear (her IV port is above her right ear). Those mitts came off before the nurse could even exit the room. I'll let him know tomorrow that Lynsey's orders are NO mitts and last time I checked I was her mama!!! She was fussy at the time he was here, but who can blame her...people are poking and messing with her 24/7. She is sleeping now but that will not last long. Her next antibiotic IV is scheduled for 8:00 PM (about 3 minutes away). Hopefully she can sleep through it. Anyway, here are some pictures of O in her massive and very cozy bed. Wish I could fit up there with her! You can see her little IV port on the side of her head. It flops around like a little pigtail and doesn't seem to bother her in the least.

We decorated her bed to look like it does at home.

(Her pink polka dot sheets wouldn't fit the mattress)

Might Be A While

Ollie's main Doctor made a visit a few hours ago and through out the conversation he kept saying 2 weeks. YUCK! The problem seems to be lack of medical services that come into the home each day to help administer the drugs. In Andalusia there is not a service of this nature for babies. I want whats best for O and I know that the Doc is doing what he feels he needs to do, it just stinks! I just think that there will be several times in her life when she will be hospitalized due to sickness, but as of now she is fine. Please understand that pseudomonas is very serious and it is important to try and knock it out with these antibiotics, but Ollie is not sick from it, it's just present. Anyway, we will stay and try to take advantage of having absolutely nothing to do besides hang out and play with O.

As for little Ollie, she is a trooper. Her picc line (IV) is in place and we are waiting for the first round of antibiotics. Just to fill everyone in-A picc line is a small, small catheder type thing inserted into a vein and then fed through the vein all the way to her chest. This means no burning at the place of entrance and the drugs can get to the main veins in her body to ensure they fight the infection/bacteria. It sounds and looks worse than it is.....it is in the side of her head. She doesn't even know it's there. Looks like those cute little headbands will come in handy to cover it up.

I've had some people ask for room # and address for where we are and I finally found it-

Children's Hospital
1600 7th Avenue South, Tower 5, Room 545
Birmingham, AL. 35233

Thank you for all the prayers!!!

Well, we're here....

John, Ollie and I made it safely to Children's Hospital this morning. We checked in around 10:00AM and were escorted to our room shortly after. Ollie was examined by a doctor (not her regular doc-we'll see him tomorrow) and he said she looked great and her chest sounded good too. We've been bombarded with questions and all that "check in" stuff and are now just hanging out. Ollie will be getting her IV sometime in the next 30 minutes. I am dreading this!! The good news is that once they get it in, it should last for the entire 2 weeks. Therefore she will only be getting stuck for the IV once. The bad part is that they have to do bloodwork for the first few days in order to get her dosage just right. This mean drawing blood from her tiny arms. They promised to try and do this as little as possible. More good news is that she will only receive the antibiotics 3 times a day for just 2 hours each time. Thank goodness she will not be hooked up 24/7, allowing us to take her on adventures around the hospital during the time in between treatments. The best news is that once they get her dosage correct and she is doing OK, we can go home! Yay! They informed us that we would be able to administer her drugs in the comfort of our home, checking in with her doc in Andalusia for blood work. We are trying not get too excited cause we could still be here for 7 days (maybe longer) but we could also be here for as little as 3-4. Only time will tell. I will post later today after the IV is in and let you know how little O is doing.