Happy October, Everyone!! Two quick updates.  

First things first - the serious stuff.
We have struggled whether this blog is the appropriate place to share the next story.  Like, maybe if we don’t talk about it, it might go away.  At the end of the day, we don’t want this blog to miss an entry just because something is hard for US to relive.  So, this is the readers digest version (from Sarah’s perspective):

A few days after her last discharge, in the middle of the night, Avery was hit with another fever.  This has become somewhat of a routine, the only difference being we were 3 minutes away from the hospital.  

Daniel & I were on auto pilot. Cool as cucumbers. The triage/check in process was seamless.  I went to the cafeteria to load up on sugar and caffeine (hospital necessities). And when I got back Daniel told me it only took ONE nurse to access her PORT, auto pilot turned off.  I scanned the room as nurses and doctors started to pile in.

I’ll spare our audience the details, but we almost lost Avery that night.  Instead, she spent 4 days in the ICU and 3 days on the normal floor.  Days later, it occurred to us that if this had happened in Florida, we wouldn’t have gotten Avery to the hospital in time.

The following week, Avery was back on her feet and ready to celebrate her 3rd birthday!  Since Avery is queen of the swings, we had a BBQ with 15-20 at a park called “The Land of Make Believe”.  My childhood friend & her family came up from Kentucky, but the bulk of the guests were fellow sJIA families who relocated to Cincinnati for their kid’s treatment.  Daniel slaved away making his famous BBQ, and the Revive Foundation provided decorations and extra hands from start to finish.  This was the first time since COVID Avery has been able to run and play with other kids.

We’ve had a quiet couple of weeks, and hope this trend continues!
Again, thank you guys for following along with Avery’s story.