Clowning around in Dallas

The 6th of this month meant it has been 9 months since Rylynn's transplant.  She continues to do great and we were praying for nothing, but good news when we went in for her big check-up.  So this past week we headed to Dallas for a long day.  We were able to spend a little quality time with a few of her nurses on the night we drove in.  Ry was really happy to see them and even after they left she spend an hour pretending to call them all on the phone. 
I was absoultely dreading Tuesday because we weren't scheduled until third case in the cath lab and that meant we would not be heading back until 2:15.  That's a long time for an anxious little girl to be without food or water, but once again she amazed me and did just wonderful.  We checked in at 7:30 and began with labs, echo, and EKG.  I was glad it didn't take long, but we were done by 10:00 with too many hours to burn.  So luckily we were able to meet our sweet friend Chelsea in the playroom. It was a life-saver.  We played for a couple of hours then headed to check into pre-op.  Luckily everything was on time and we were saying good bye and handing her over right at 2:15.
By 4:00 we were able to meet her in recovery and Dr. Z gave us good news.  Her pressures measured the same as last time and they were pleased with that.  Our transplant team says her echo shows great heart function and later called to say her biopsy results were 1R.  We were so pleased by all of this.  Unexpectedly, we were even able to cut her steriod dose in half.  They hope to wean it by her annual cath/biopsy.  This makes Gilly and I so nervous, but excited as well.  We will have labs and an appointment over the next three months, but things are really getting spaced out. 

Ry clowning around before going to Cath Lab

Back in our hotel room.  "working"

 Over the past few months, the hospital has featured Ry's picture on a couple of billboards in North Dallas.  It was exciting to see her picture up and we hoped that her message might help the hospital and promote organ donation.  The billboards had recently been taken down, but when we got to the hospital on Tuesday morning, we were told that a new one went up right near the hospital.  So after our long day, we made a slight detour to see it.  Unfortunately, the sun was behind it and we couldn't get a great picture, there is one other picture that a friend had sent of one of the original two. 



Posing in front of Ry's billboard on Harry Hines

Ry's smiling face