Kylie Turns Three!!

So that fateful day (Thursday) was also Kylie's third birthday...my poor child. :) We had spent the morning while Em was still asleep telling Kylie that it was her birthday and now she was three and when people ask her how old she is, she has to say, "Three!" Then we made pig pancakes and had breakfast on the red "It's your special day" plate. It was turning out to be a great family day until I took Em to the dr...and you know the rest of that story.

SO, now that Kylie got to go spend the rest of the day at Auntie K and Uncle J's place...I thought maybe she wouldn't notice, but I guess she did. She started telling Auntie K, "Auntie K, today is my birthday!" apparently just about once an hour. :)

This is the cousins eating what K calls 'dirty chips' because they get your hands messy.

At some point, Auntie K asked if she could take K for ice cream to celebrate and we told her to please do it! So she told K they were going to Frugos to get ice cream for her bday party and K in classic fashion said, "I love frugos!!" (she has been there once). Then she proceeded to tell Auntie K, "Don't forget my candles. I am three. You need three candles. I like pink."

When they got there, K asked, "Where is my princess cake? You have to stick the candles in the princess cake!" So Auntie K flipped a cup over and stuck them in there! Creative, I must say! :)

She told her cousin, "J you can help me blow my candles out. I am three."

So that is my daughter's third birthday. What great memories!! I am sooooo glad she could spend it with family and have a good time. The funny thing is that this is one of those things that, at the time, feels like a disaster and makes you sad cause you are missing something special for your kid but the bottom line is that I have lived long enough to know that the reality is that this will make a very fun story to tell and will become one of those fond memories of a time when everything went all wrong and yet turned out just right. Thanks for making her day special Auntie K!

Well there is no new news on Em but I am headed in and we will keep you updated as we go. Thank you for your prayers! We need them!

How am I holding up? I'm not. God is holding me up. We serve a great God and He carries us through these times. I am at the end of me, once again, and what do I find there? My loving Father. I am not scared to reach the end of me anymore. I know that at the end of me is my God...and that is a great place to land!! God Bless!!

Oh the Drama!!

Wow! I know most of you are only somewhat in on the drama of the last few days so I thought I needed to update before I head back to the hospital. This is the jist of it...Emily's isolation room...

That crib has sides that go all the way up to the roof looking thing and so she looks like she is all caged up when she is in there. No, her arm is not broken. She is just two years old. Her IV is in that hand and she keeps trying to take it out so they keep adding layers she can't get through.

So, let's start at the very beginning. After the ER visit, Emily did not really get any better and she was quite lethargic (sleeping on us instead of doing anything) so on Thursday morning I took her in to her regular pediatrician to get her opinion. By then Emily was only satting at 80%. Normal blood saturation is 100% but they take anything in the high 90s. I don't want to get into all that but 80% is bad. So she gave Em two breathing treatments (albuterol in a face mask for ten to fifteen minutes) and an oral steroid. Her sats came up to 90% but within twenty minutes she had fallen back down. Her dr then put her on oxygen and gave her one more treatment and a steroid shot. We tried to take her off the oxygen and her sats would just drop again. The best way to explain this is that she is breathing, she is just breathing inefficiently and is not getting enough oxygen to keep her body going. She also has double ear infections.

So we were transported to LL in an ambulance because she could not be off the oxygen. When we arrived, they did all the same stuff her pediatrician had done and then started more treatments. They also hooked her up to an IV to get fluids started into her since she hadn't eaten in several days and had stopped drinking as well. Her oxygen was set at 2L, a level she had when she was in the NICU and only at that level could she maintain mid-90s on her sats. They took blood and and xray and did lots of tests. She does not have pneumonia but she has some viral infection and some bacterial infection (manifested in the ear infection). Since she had an unknown viral infection, we were placed into an isolation room last night. That means no one comes in or out without wearing masks and gowns...except me and Micah...cause we are already exposed. They have not done any tests to determine which virus it is because it will not change their treatment of her.

SO, the virus just has to run its course and she is on oxygen to keep her saturations up while she kicks this. She is getting breathing treatments every four hours of albuterol to help her chest loosen up. She is on antibiotics for the bacterial infection. She is still not eating and throws up when we do get something down her. BUT she seems to be responding to the treatments they are giving her as she is perking up a little and even gave M a smile when he came in this morning.

Honestly, we do not really know the severity of the illness, only its symptoms. Emily will be in the hospital over the weekend and until she no longer needs oxygen to keep her sats up. Kylie has been spending most of her time with Auntie K and her cousins and now Nana and Poppy are out here to help her out.

Oh, and that's the best part. I came home to get some rest and so I grabbed K and brought her home for a nap. An hour later, she woke up screaming and told me her ear hurt. Her pediatrician works half days on Fridays so I was off to urgent care this afternoon. She only has an ear infection too, but I did finally start to cry in that waiting room. I am not going to get into how I am doing in this post cause I want to get back to the hospital, but suffice it to say, I'm doing my best not to think at all so I won't cry. God has a plan in all this and it is for our best and I believe that with all my heart. So I will keep putting one step in front of the other, trusting and believing. Glad to have so much help!!!

update

Emily was admitted to the hospital this afternoon and B is spending the night with her. Emily has had difficulty breathing the last few days (40-60 breaths a minute). Her oxygen levels in her blood have been sitting around 80% so she is currently hooked up to a nasal canula to feed oxygen to her. Doctors aren't quite sure what is wrong with her, other than she has a bad ear infection in her right ear and moderate ear infection in her left ear. Her respiratory infection has stayed in her throat and nose. It has NOT moved to her lungs, so for now the doctors have ruled Pneumonia out.

The anitbiotics that Emily was on were not working, so the ER doctors are changing it up.

We don't know how long Emily will stay at the hospital.

I am currently at home with K and will take her to aunt K's house tomorrow so I can go back in and be with B.

Please pray for quick healing and restoration to Emily. Pray especially that this ear infection doesn't cause any hearing damage.

Pray for Emily

B has spent the whole morning in doctor's office with Emily. Emily has not been able to breathe well, since Sunday, even while being treated with antibiotics and inhaler. She is only getting about 80% oxygen with each breath and her pediatrician said she needs to be admitted to the hospital for further treatment.

Because she is unable to breath properly, we are waiting for an ambulance to transport her to hospital.

Please pray God will touch her lungs, throat, nose, ears and everything else being affected right now. The great Physician we serve is greater than this illness and can heal little Emily Grace.

Update

In true Emily fashion, she managed to get an upper respiratory infection an inner ear infection in both ears, along with pushing her two bottom molars in. Nothing like swinging for a trivecta! Emily is on anti-biotics and antihistimines now. She went down for another early nap and will probably be out for 4 hours again since B and her didn't get home until 0130 last night.

Emily gave us a few smiles this morning and was more willing to walk around, although she tired quickly and thus the early nap.

Pray for an early recovery.

Thank you also for all who prayed last night, the doctor said her tonsils were inflamed/swollen and there is more on this, but I will let B write about it.

Off to the ER

As I write this, B is taking Emily into the ER. Emily started running a slight fever last night, but it went down right away, after giving her Tylenol. She did not sleep good all night, namely because she (as well as K) has been non stop running nose and nasal drainage since we got back to this accursed area we live in (have I or B mentioned how bad my allergies have gotten since moving to So-Cal? Well, apparently I have passed on my genes to both my daughters). To give you an idea of how bad it is for me: I take a prescription anti-hihistimine, two different nasal sprays (morning and night), and one allergy shot every week. I still get sinus headaches and sneeze all day long. I use a neti-pot in the morning and night-when it gets really bad. I have never experienced allergies like this in any place I have lived in.

Emily and K coughed all night (more on this a little later), trying to clear the drainage, thus keeping them both up. This morning, Emily was just lethargic all day, taking a 4 hour nap from 930 to 1330, then getting back to her old self for about 2 hours, then back to lethargic. Between B and myself, we probably held Emily on our laps for about a total of 2 hours. If anyone knows the current Emily, that is way out of the ordinary.

Anyways, we put her down for an early night and she woke up around 8, coughing, running a temp of 101.7, whimpering, crying and literally shaking. We believe she is pushing her two bottom (2 yr) molars so this may be the issue. I remember K being terrible. We are hoping and praying that this is it, along with her allergies.

As I was loading her into her carseat so B could take Emily to the ER, Emily threw up all over herself and the carseat. The food we got into her today was blueberries, grapes, yogurt and Naked Juice (the purple one). You can imagine the mess she created. Needless to say, the carseat covers are now in the wash and the 18 month old pajamas she was wearing, are now in the trash.

B and I are not parents who take our children to the doctor for sniffles, however, Emily has forced us to change this mentality. Because of her issues, everything is a little more serious with her. Things that might concern us with K, scare us with Emily. As I mentioned earlier, K and Emily coughed all night. The difference between the two, however, is that Emily actually quits breathing when she gets drainage, chokes, wakes up in a panicked state, and has to sit up to breathe. B and I saw this twice last night.

It is extremely nerve racking when you watch your daughter stop breathing. When Emily did this last night, it would terrify her and she would just start crying in the most pitiful cry. It breaks your heart to hear it, because her voice is soft and sounds so sad. As a parent, you want to do everything in your power to help her, but you can only do so much.

We will update more on Emily's condition tomorrow. For now, your prayers are coveted.