Lillian’s First Crawl

Lillian Grace and Ashley Denby Update: 5/11/2011

Me and my mom

Lillian Grace is 275 days (9 months, 2 days) old today; her adjusted age is 5 months, 9 days. She’s been home from the hospital for 4 and 1/2 months!

Lillian’s Official Stats as of Tuesday, 5/11:

• Height: 65.4 cm (.9 cm gain) 25.75 in
• Weight: 6804 gm (439 gm gain) 15 lb
• Head Circumference: 41.3 cm (1.3 cm gain) 16.26 in

My dad, my cat and me

Lillian had her 9 month check-up yesterday; Dr Rowland, her pediatrician, said she was “perfect”! (We agree with that assessment). Her development is right on track for her adjusted age. Her strength and muscle tone are excellent, and Dr Rowland thinks she’ll be sitting and crawling within the month. She’s eating cereal, fruits and vegetables twice a day and, as soon as she can sit on her own, will start to use a high chair and a sippy cup, and will get to try some meat.

Dad feeding me cereal and bananas

Ashley went to her surgeon, Dr Albo, for a follow-up today. Dr Albo removed the drain she’s worn since her last surgery and also removed the sutures from the site of the drain. Josh and Nancy will continue to change her dressings twice a day and she’ll go back to see Dr Albo in two weeks. Ashley is thrilled to be free of tubes and wires; she’s in a lot less pain, but still very limited in what she can pick up (i.e., she can’t pick up Lillian) and gets tired pretty quickly… but she feels a little better each day, and thinks the worst of the surgical part of her treatment is behind her. She sees Dr Darcourt, her oncologist, tomorrow, and they will decide on what non-surgical treatment is next.

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Josh and Lillian

Ashley and Lillian Grace Denby Update: 5/7/2011

Ashley went for her follow-up visit with her surgeon, Dr Albo, on Friday. The results of the biopsies of the 30 lymph nodes Dr Albo removed from under her left arm: no malignancies! This is the best possible outcome for someone with stage 3 cancer; survival and cancer recurrence odds are directly related to the number of cancerous lymph nodes found. Dr Albo left the drain in her wound at least until next Wednesday; he’ll evaluate it then — he may need to open it back up to do some cleaning, but it appears to be healing well.

Last Wednesday, Ashley’s plastic surgeon checked the wound on her back from her original surgery; while overall healing is going well, the skin graft failed (largely as a result of movement and pressure related to further testing and surgery), so he removed what was left, and will do another skin graft in a few weeks. While she has to change (with help, of course) the bandages and dressings on that wound three times a day, she no longer needs to keep it completely dry; this means she can take a more or less normal shower.

We don’t have any current measurements of Lillian, but she appears to be growing like a weed. She is sleeping very well at night (mostly) and is in constant motion when awake. She can skooch across the floor on her back and roll over and over; she is trying to crawl, but not quite there yet. She quite suddenly developed an interest in the three cats who inhabit her home: the cats aren’t very happy about this development. While Ashley still can’t pick her up or hold her, Lillian lights up whenever Mom walks into the room.

Thanks for your prayers and support.