Ronald McDonald House and Dr. Hammesfahr

Ronald McDonald House

In the previous post, I mentioned that we are staying at the Ronald McDonald House. It is so nice here! We can stay here for $10 a night. Nearly every evening someone provides a meal. Last night it was a church. There is a huge kitchen and dining room. In the kitchen there is food that is free for anyone. So even when no one provides a cooked meal, there is PLENTY of food to eat. The room is very nice as well. We have fancy sleep number beds. There aren't TVs in the rooms but there are TV rooms and they have dvd's that you can check out. Some of the TV rooms have computers with internet access as well. There is a fenced in yard area and a playground for kids. Each family is required to do a little chore every day. Our chore is to clean the outside furniture. The whole invironment here is really nice. It is such a blessing to us! It has made me want to begin volunteering at the local Ronald McDonald House.

Dr. Hammesfahr

Today we met with Dr. Hammesfahr. He talked with us about Sierra, her diagnosis, and all the treatments and therapies we have done with her so far. We told him about hyperbarics, stem cells, etc. He was very impressed and said, "Wow, you have done a good job! You have done everything right!" It was so encouraging to hear that coming from a doctor! It was one of those moments where I felt like maybe I am not such a bad mom afterall. :-)

Dr. H is going to start Sierra on the vasodialtors. We went and bought a natural one from a health food store today and turned in the prescription for the nitroglycerin. He told us to start her on Ibuprophen three times a day today and tomorrow. He said that sometimes when the vasodialtors are giving they have the opposite effect at first (closing the blood vessels instead of opening them) because the body is reacting to them. He said that giving the Ibuprophen with keep that from happening.

The bad thing is that he said that Sierra will probably have to be on these meds for quite a few years before we can take her off. The good thing is that it doesn't sound like a whole lot. He said a tube of nitroglycerin may last us a year.

He wants to do an MRI, CT, and STECT.

We appreciate your continued prayers for Sierra. We have heard that what Dr. H does works well in conjunction with the stem cells, that is why we brought her so soon after stem cell treatments. We want to maximaze the effectiveness of both of them.