Well, it has been a very interesting holiday season. Hana is finally off for two weeks, which is very nice, and well deserved break. However, with the two girls in tow I can't get a whole lot done. I love being with them though.
We started off the month pretty good, but by Dec. 11 we had problems. Emma was fussy all that night, and by 5am I had about had it. I had been up every hour either feeding or rocking Emma to sleep, as soon as I would put her down she would wake up again. Morgan could see my frustration about 5:30am so he took over before I lost it. (I feel guilty getting upset with her now). He fed her a bottle, and a few minutes later he was wearing everything she had just eaten. She threw up, not just spit up, the whole bottle, twice! Morgan also noticed that she felt very warm. We took her temp and it was 102.2! That caused us to worry. He called the doctors office at 7am to see if we could get her in. Morgan stayed with Emma while I took Abby to daycare and went to work. I don't have any time to take off, and I wasn't prepared for a sub, so me taking the day off was out of the question. Morgan took Emma to the doctor about 9:30am. The doctor ordered labs and a urine sample thinking she had a bladder infection. It was noon by the time Morgan was done with the blood work so he got lunch and came to the school to eat with me. Emma didn't look too good, and she couldn't eat a whole lot for fear of her throwing it up again. Morgan ended up taking her to work with him for a few hours and then came home about 4pm. 
Meanwhile, I picked up Abby from daycare and went home so Abby could get ready to go see Santa at Fry's Market Place. I decided to stay home with Emma since she still was not feeling well and Morgan took Abby to Fry's. 
While he was at Fry's Emma's doctor called and requested that we take Emma to the ER for further labs. She said her blood work came back and some of the numbers were very high. She said the normal white blood cell count for someone is 12,000 and Emma's was 18,000 which indicated an infection. I called Morgan immediately and told him to come home so we could take Emma to the ER. I called a sub for the next day regardless of the fact that I had no time to take off from work. We took Abby to Morgan's parent's house to stay until we got done, or stay the night if necessary. We then took Emma to Banner Gateway's ER. We waited for a little while, but soon got back to see a doctor. They did blood work and a chest x-ray for her (which she was very unhappy about). They also started her on an IV because she was dehydrated. The results came back and her wbc count was 34,000! The doctor said they were going to do a spinal tap to rule out meningitis. At this point we were very concerned. They did the spinal tap and it came back cloudy which does indicate meningitis.
Emma was then admitted to the hospital, and we were told she could be there 3-5 days. We got to Emma's room about 2am with no overnight stuff. So after Emma finally went to sleep (which didn't take long, she was exhausted) we headed home to pack up a few things and went right back to the hospital to stay the night. She was immediately put on IV antibiotics to treat this as a bacterial meningitis. The doctor wasn't for sure if it was bacterial, but they would treat it as such until confirmed that it wasn't bacterial. However, the cultures wouldn't tell us anything for at least 24-48 hours. After 2 days in the hospital, the cultures showed no growth, but they were going to keep checking them every day.
They also said that Emma would need to stay in the hospital for 7-10 days from the day she was admitted. I couldn't take the time off needed to stay with her and neither could Morgan. So we enlisted the help of relatives and ward members. I called my visiting teachers and relief society president that Sunday and asked if they could send a sign up sheet around for anyone who could come in and sit with Emma during the day while I was working. So many women signed up to come sit with Emma and to bring us dinner. We were so blessed from the response. Emma had someone there almost every day.
After just one day in the hospital, Emma looked and felt so much better. By day 3 you wouldn't even know that she was sick. All the nurses wanted to take her home with them because she was just soooo cute :)
Morgan and I alternated most of the nights so one night I would stay home with Abby and Morgan would stay at the hospital with Emma, then we would switch. I stayed most of the nights with Emma. The hospital staff was incredible and the facilities were wonderful. They had a large playroom that Abbygale fell in love with. The meals were excellent and luckily one was provided for a parent, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was quite nice. Emma went through so many Enfamil 2oz bottles that the nurses finally brought her an 8oz bottle to pour the little bottles into. She gained almost a whole pound while in the hospital.
She had to have her IV relocated from her right arm to her left, and from her left arm to her left ankle. By the time they got it to her ankle she didn't really need to be hooked up to the IV all the time, so when they had to put in her meds the vein had collapsed so they ended up taking that one out. That was on Friday, Dec. 19 (day8). So by that time they decided to just give her the meds through a shot once a day. That really wasn't so bad. By day 10, Sunday Dec. 21, we were very ready to go home. She had to have a hearing test before being discharged to make sure there was no damage done to her hearing, and she passed that with flying colors. The doctors said she most likely had a viral meningitis instead of bacterial. No cultures ever came back positive. We were very blessed to have such wonderful support during this horrific 10 days. Morgan and I were very pleased with the experience, but hope to never have to go through anything like that again. We know the Lord blessed us greatly with a wonderful, supportive group of family and ward members/friends. We are eternally thankful for all the help they gave us. We can only hope that we can somehow repay them someday.
Christmas came and went like a whirlwind. Abby got way too much stuff. We will need to downscale it next year. Her birthday is coming up at the end of January, so she's gonna be set until next Christmas. Abby will be entering the primary next week as a Sunbeam. She is very excited, but wants mommy to come in with
Emma was then admitted to the hospital, and we were told she could be there 3-5 days. We got to Emma's room about 2am with no overnight stuff. So after Emma finally went to sleep (which didn't take long, she was exhausted) we headed home to pack up a few things and went right back to the hospital to stay the night. She was immediately put on IV antibiotics to treat this as a bacterial meningitis. The doctor wasn't for sure if it was bacterial, but they would treat it as such until confirmed that it wasn't bacterial. However, the cultures wouldn't tell us anything for at least 24-48 hours. After 2 days in the hospital, the cultures showed no growth, but they were going to keep checking them every day.
They also said that Emma would need to stay in the hospital for 7-10 days from the day she was admitted. I couldn't take the time off needed to stay with her and neither could Morgan. So we enlisted the help of relatives and ward members. I called my visiting teachers and relief society president that Sunday and asked if they could send a sign up sheet around for anyone who could come in and sit with Emma during the day while I was working. So many women signed up to come sit with Emma and to bring us dinner. We were so blessed from the response. Emma had someone there almost every day.After just one day in the hospital, Emma looked and felt so much better. By day 3 you wouldn't even know that she was sick. All the nurses wanted to take her home with them because she was just soooo cute :)
Morgan and I alternated most of the nights so one night I would stay home with Abby and Morgan would stay at the hospital with Emma, then we would switch. I stayed most of the nights with Emma. The hospital staff was incredible and the facilities were wonderful. They had a large playroom that Abbygale fell in love with. The meals were excellent and luckily one was provided for a parent, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was quite nice. Emma went through so many Enfamil 2oz bottles that the nurses finally brought her an 8oz bottle to pour the little bottles into. She gained almost a whole pound while in the hospital.
She had to have her IV relocated from her right arm to her left, and from her left arm to her left ankle. By the time they got it to her ankle she didn't really need to be hooked up to the IV all the time, so when they had to put in her meds the vein had collapsed so they ended up taking that one out. That was on Friday, Dec. 19 (day8). So by that time they decided to just give her the meds through a shot once a day. That really wasn't so bad. By day 10, Sunday Dec. 21, we were very ready to go home. She had to have a hearing test before being discharged to make sure there was no damage done to her hearing, and she passed that with flying colors. The doctors said she most likely had a viral meningitis instead of bacterial. No cultures ever came back positive. We were very blessed to have such wonderful support during this horrific 10 days. Morgan and I were very pleased with the experience, but hope to never have to go through anything like that again. We know the Lord blessed us greatly with a wonderful, supportive group of family and ward members/friends. We are eternally thankful for all the help they gave us. We can only hope that we can somehow repay them someday.
Christmas came and went like a whirlwind. Abby got way too much stuff. We will need to downscale it next year. Her birthday is coming up at the end of January, so she's gonna be set until next Christmas. Abby will be entering the primary next week as a Sunbeam. She is very excited, but wants mommy to come in with her. :) Of course you can't say no to that. Hopefully she will transition well.
Well, until 
next time....
