It has been exactly a year since Ellie got sick and was life-flighted to Primary Children's Hospital. Wow, what a year. It's been a long one. It's been a year since we were introduced to Ellie's cardiologist, Dr. Pinto, who we met with again today. One year since we learned that Ellie's heart condition was much more complicated than we initially thought and it also seemed like we kept getting bad news to no end.
Today was a different story. We went to see Dr. Pinto for a regular echocardiogram and check up. Ellie has been tolerating the echos better the past couple of times and today her pulmonary pressures were slightly elevated, probably due to her recent cold that she is trying to get over. It was still good news though! Dr. Pinto allowed us to take Ellie off of her oxygen during the day and she will only have to wear it when she sleeps at night. Unless you have been to our house and tripped over the 50 foot-long cord, tried to carry Ellie with a tail a mile long along with a tank of oxygen that feels like it weighs 20 pounds, found Ellie awake in her crib with the cord wrapped around her neck, seen and heard the frustration on Ellie's face when the cord gets hung up on something and pulls on her face, you might not understand how big of a deal this is. Ellie has been on constant oxygen since the day she was born. We have not experienced this kind of freedom with her! Now it will be tough to track her down as we just can't follow the end of the cord around the house. With the winter months coming, hopefully she can stay healthy enough to keep the oxygen off. With the nasal cannula gone, Ellie's face looks naked and she is like a different person. It's like a person who normally wears glasses then gets contacts.
Ellie has become really active once she finally learned to crawl at about 12 months. Now she is experiencing the stairs and standing on her own. With all of this activity comes the bumps and bruises. Currently Ellie has a black eye from falling and hitting the bathroom stool and yesterday she fell down the stairs. Eating is still a struggle some days but Ellie continues to grow.
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