It's been a busy couple of days. Alexis did make it through the school day Friday. I'm so glad but I was so worried about her all day. I really hate being away from her. There have been too many times when she is in pain and too shy to tell the person she is with. I feel like I need to be there 24 hours a day. No one knows my little girl better than me. I can tell if she is under any kind of stress just by looking into her eyes - even if she's trying to hide it. I just have to accept that I can't always be there though, and I need to trust the other people in our life to watch after her for me.
This weekend Alexis had a softball tournament. Her team had one game Friday night, 2 games on Saturday and one more game this morning. Alexis has been able to play. In between games yesterday her ankle and leg started bothering her. One of our very prepared friends had tylenol on them (I know, something I should probably never leave the house without). It helped Lex a lot. Our friends also had the idea of trying icy hot on her leg, so we did. By the time her second game started she was well enough to play again. I always tell her not to hesitate to sit out if she needs to though.
A little while ago we were all relaxing, watching tv. Alexis was waiting for her IV to finish so she could get to sleep. As we laid around on the couch watching one of the girl's shows, Lex said out of no where "I really love softball". I love that she is so passionate about something. Long tournament weekends like this can get a little overwhelming for me when you have a toddler and a baby, so hearing those words makes it all worth it.
After Lex got her PICC line put in she got a fear of being hit by the ball in her arm, understandably. Needless to say, she fell into a bit of a slump when it came to hitting. Yesterday she had a couple of great hits. Then again today. She needed that. She needed to see that there is nothing to be scared of. She needed to build her confidence back up. I am so proud of her, although I would be proud of her even if she didn't get a single hit this weekend.
Some of you may wonder why in the world we would let her play softball with a PICC line in her arm, or how it could possibly be safe. Well, I feel like softball is more therapeutic to her than anything else. It brings her to a happy place and I can't take that away from her. I always make sure her PICC line is very secure. It has it's original dressing to hold it in place, then I wrap it up with an ace bandage and lastly I put her cover over that. I am not worried about the PICC line going anywhere. My biggest concern is with her sweating, which would cause the dressing to start peeling, which ultimately would lead to it needing to be changed. The way we are taking care of that is by making sure she isn't sweating too much and airing it out when she isn't playing. Alexis already gets the dressing changed once a week. They don't want it to be more often than that because every time that dressing gets taken off she is at a higher risk of it getting infected. So call me crazy if you want to but what we are doing seems to be working - and her doctor is fully aware of everything.
Other than being exhausted from having such a long weekend, Alexis is feeling okay tonight. Right now she is laying on the couch with Kaelynn watching the end of A League of Their Own - as if she didn't get enough softball this weekend! This week she has testing in school and she is really worried about how she's going to do. I just hope she can make it through the mornings at school. Tomorrow afternoon she has an appointment with her infectious disease doctor. She hasn't seem him since the day she got the IV put in (2 weeks ago) so hopefully he says everything is going as planned. Please keep your prayers coming a little longer!
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