February 28, 2019
It's the last day of February, so Julia's been in the hospital for 4 whole months. It's crazy how fast your life can change.
We really appreciate our family for essentially adopting Gabriel (you have to give him back someday, Charlene); and our friends who continue to put together really amazing things (websites, events, meal trains,) to support us (and of course everyone who continues to participate!); and both of our employers who have been willing to work with us through this really awful, unexpected circumstance since the beginning. And of course all of Julia's new Facebook friends who continue to read her posts every day. I'm honestly shocked the majority of you started following when she was given days to live... I don't know how you all have the emotional capacity to willingly involve yourself in (what appeared to be) such a sad story. But we're so glad you're here now! No one knows what the heck is going on inside Julia's little brain... but she really does seem to be improving. Maybe. Miraculously. ...Having support like this makes ALL the difference. So thank you.
ANYWAY! Julia's vitals are good today. They have her back on a half dose of Propranolol (blood pressure medicine) so her heart rate is looking better (140s). They'll see tonight if it starts dropping too low again. Other stats look good. BP 112/59. She threw up once this morning, but that was it. She's had a really sleepy day. Her levels continue to rise, and the doctors are still expecting her MRI to be next week.
I saw her do one of her whole upper-body shimmies. I found it alarming (as I do most things, apparently!) I asked the nurse if she was having a seizure... and the nurse laughed. Apparently that's not what a seizure looks like. She said that they see it somewhat regularly in patients with brain injuries - as they start to regain feeling they can do a funny jerk... shiver... thing. So that was nice to hear at least! That it might be a sign that some connections are starting to reform or she might be recovering some feeling.
Julia had a long time awake with me this evening =) She mouthed all the words I asked her to say (mama, dada, baby). Unfortunately most of the words she knows are food... and we don't want to upset her by asking her to say things like banana or cheese... so we're trying to be creative. For the first time I asked her some animal sounds and it looks like she tried her best =) She clearly mouthed things like 'moo' and 'meow'. And before she got sick, she had just started to count to 10. I counted with her today and she remembered 1-4 and 8-10 (she wasn't good at 5-7 before either).
So that was all super nice to see. Even though she's essentially been sleeping / sedated / whatever the heck she was doing for the last month ... mentally she seems like she picked up right where she left off - she remembers words, animal sounds, counting, her finger movements, who people are, etc.
Oh, she got a nice long FaceTime with Charlene and Gabriel -- that's become a nightly routine. Tonight Gabriel asked for mama and dada so I turned the phone away from her for a second and she started to cry! So she got it right back of course. She had just been laying there motionless with her eye open watching, but apparently she really enjoyed watching brother do 1 year old brother things. Like chase the cat and kiss the phone.
The video today is one Reed sent me in the middle of the night. This is her left hand -- that hasn't moved more than a twitch since her stroke in December! It is AWESOME! <3 <3 <3
YouTube link for Julia's non-Facebook friends: https://youtu.be/AVxzGyQ38GU
. . . ******************************** ************** Official Links ******* (These are here because of scammers) ********************************
Julia's *only* website: juliaadamscancerfund.org Julia's *only" Facebook page: facebook.com/JuliaAdamsCancerFund Julia's *only* GoFundMe: gofundme.com/juliasfightagainstcancer Julia's *only* official fundraisers: T-shirts - https://bit.ly/2MQc0lF | Jewelry: https://etsy.me/2E1mR8i Where I buy Julia's CBD Oil (CBD BioCare 3500mg bottle): www.naturallywellforlife.com || Coupon code: danaboyd
If you're new and want to know what's going on, my first post about Julia was on October 31st. You can find them all on my Facebook page or Julia's website <3
