Great News!

Riley had 4 different doctor appointments today and they all gave us great news! We saw her general surgeon first to talk about the swelling in her left arm and she said that it is not nearly as serious an issue as we thought and that we can treat it simply with massage and special pressure garments (instead of an aspirin regiment or a procedure) and that as Riley grows the scaring from all the IV's and such will become less and less an issue. Then we saw her gastroendonologist who we had been going back and forth with about if Riley needs a surgical procedure to help with her reflux issues but he said that he is so pleased with her growth and health right now that he is happy to put off the surgery and we might not need it at all if she continues to do so well. Next we met with Riley's nutritionist and found out that Riley has improved greatly with her weight gain and is now nicely within a healthy range and we are able to put her on a more complex (lower cost!) formula. But the best news of the day was from her pulmonologist. He was very pleased with her growth and respiratory health and said that Riley is now strong enough for us to try out a valve for her trach that will allow her to speak! Since Riley was immediately intubated at birth and then her trach was put in when she was only 1 month old, we have actually never heard her make a sound before so we are ecstatic at the thought that we might soon be able to hear her cry, babble, and eventually talk! We are amazed at God's faithfulness and the fact that Riley continues to reach milestones we once thought of as unreachable.