Hailey Update

I know I've been MIA for awhile, but things have definitely been hectic at the Minor house. I'm glad to be back and feel hopeful that things are about to settle down.

Hailey has been in the hospital three times over the last month with complications from crohns. We determined she was failing with oral meds, had an abscess and needed her daily crohns medicine changed. All items on agenda are complete and we came home (hopefully for good) last Thursday. She did come home with a PICC line and I am administering antibiotics by IV every 8 hours over the next two weeks in an effort to completely clear up the infection.

She is currently being weaned from her steroids, still takes an iron supplement twice a day and prevacid at night. Going forward her crohns medicine will be an infusion (http://www.remicade.com/) that will in time be administered every 8 weeks.

She has come a long way and has had to grow up fast. A major milestone for her was pill swallowing. She went into her crohns diagnoses having to chew her pills (7 a day) in peanut butter, but not anymore. She has also been taught some relaxation techniques to use if feeling scared, worried, anxious, etc. She can tell you anything you need to know about the following because she has witnessed them all first hand: IV, blood draw, nasogastric (NG) tube, colonoscopy, endoscopy, CT scan, MRI, sonogram, PICC line and last but not least NPO (so unfair to a child taking steroids). In case you didn't know, this is a child that needed valium for teeth cleaning at the dentist. I feel certain our next visit to the dentist will be a piece of cake.

Her illness really came to a head the beginning of December 2009 and she is just now (only over the last few days) starting to feel better. I am so proud of her. Even though she has missed (at a quick count) approximately 30 days of school this year, she has maintained an A/B average in all classes and for the most part her glass is always half full.

I'd like to introduce to you "feeling much better Hailey" (taken this morning before school)...