The best I can remember at least, but Thursday night is quite the blur, okay all of Thursday.
A few details from Thursday, that I might want to remember:
It was so insanely scary to see her lips turn blue and to see her chest suck in so deeply, it seemed it must be impossible to go that deep.
I am so grateful for Emily, glad she was home and I was able to just send the kids through the back door immediately. She has dealt with a lot of their own medical emergencies that she really can give great advice.
While in the E.R. they tried to give Clara an IV line but missed in the first hand and the second then finally after some major digging hit a vein in the elbow. Poor thing has my veins.
Just after they loaded Clara on the helicopter and were about to take off David called from Primaries! Poor guy had been somewhat in the dark because I had called and left a message on his work phone as I was walking into the hospital, but didn't realize that my ring volume was turned off and in the rush and stress of all the events I wasn't thinking to check the phone and honestly didn't really have much opportunity until we were waiting for life flight and even then... So when we did finally communicate he asked where I wanted him to meet me and the doctors said just tell him to go straight there. And since he works right by the Redwood/I-215 interchange he was so close that he beat the helicopter by an half and hour.
That made it so much easier letting Clara go with out me, major relief knowing he was there.
The minute I got to the room, after totally missing registration...whoops...Clara immediately wanted me which makes me feel good.
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| She's crying cause I stopped to take a picture. |
Mom Woolley was there about 15-20 minutes after I got there having come from Utah County. Needless to say we all drove a little faster than we should have, I compare my driving to a bat out of hell...especially on my first trip to the hospital. She stayed for an hour or two and also had great advice, since she has way too much experience in this from when David was a young child.
The rest of the day was spent trying to keep her calm so that the stridor and retractions would be lessened. So David and I took turns just loving her and rocking her, but she hated the face mask and was a constant tangle with all the wires and tubes she had connected to her. A number of times a doctor or nurse would comment on how much better she was sounding, compared to when she had arrived. They would say that you could hear her from clear down the hall way, the stridor had been so bad.
From 7-8, AM and PM, they kick all the parents out for shift changes, so at that point David headed home to put the kids in bed and get sleep as well. I couldn't bear the thought of leaving Clara.
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| When I returned from being kicked out this is how I found her...with her mask off...you had to keep a constant eye on her. |
As I mentioned, we took her off the Heliox at 10:30pm for about an hour, but the stridor was still there enough when she was resting that the doctors made her go back on. Which made for an interesting night wearing this too big face mask with a big bag connected to it.
Sally was our night nurse and she was amazing! She really tried to help advocate for us in trying different breathing methods so that Clara might be able to rest more easily. We felt that the face mask was the cause of her agitation and was hindering not helping the situation. Sadly nothing really worked out but it was still great to hear her through the curtains asking questions and fighting for us!
She was also really great about helping us figure out a way for Clara to sleep on her stomach since that is what she is used to.
The night became a blur of the nurse patting Clara's bum and shaking the crib to get her to sleep, to me holding her. Then back to patting the bum, I even sat in a tall chair for close to an hour just patting so she'd stay asleep,then back to holding her. Dr.Pepper came into the mix somewhere in there since they couldn't let me fall asleep while holding her. Around 4:00 Sally kicked me out into the waiting room to get some rest and she took over. I came back in 45 minutes later and she was asleep! Sally threatened me though that if Clara woke up the minute I walked in there she was going to kick me out the rest of the night. I didn't blame her! Thankfully she was so exhausted that she slept till the 7:00am kick out. Which means I was able to somewhat sleep too.
While they did switches I went and got some breakfast and started texting and emailing David things I needed him to bring. Kind of woke him up...whoops.
They decided to do another trial without the Heliox at 8:00ish and we had success! Hind sight, trying it at night isn't the best, since that's when it gets worse naturally. It was so great to not have to fight the mask anymore!
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| Yay, no face mask! So much easier to sleep! |
David dropped the kids off at Wendy's for the day. Thank you Wendy! Then when he got here I went and took a shower and even blew dried my hair.
When I got back I asked if we could unhook the IV's so that I could just untangle them, but they decided we should try just giving her clear fluids to see how she would do. So yay, two less things to tangle! Only three more to go and they were all vitals stuff so they had to stay till the end. She did great with the juice and we even did some ice cream and jello!
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| Festive! They said we could take this with her...but I forgot, good thing I took a picture. |
By this point Clara had finally become comfortable enough with her surroundings and was so exhausted that she was reach for the crib to be put down for a nap. So David and I went out to the waiting room where I crashed for a nap while he played on the iPad.
So at this point we were waiting to be put in an actual room on the floor for observation, when one became available, and for the last dose of steroids. They have to keep you after the steroids, for an X amount of time, to make sure the worst is really over. So we were consigned to one more night.
We ate some lunch and came back to check on her and we found out that the last dose of steroids was actually scheduled a lot sooner then they had originally thought. Which meant we were going to probably make it home that night! Yippee!
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| She likes sitting in a chair like a big kid. |
She was acting so much more like herself, even though she was still very tired, and you could tell she was just ready to get out of there. So we tried to keep her entertained while we waited and she took a couple more short snoozes, which kept ending up in blowouts on her 'lovies', sorry TMI, but thank heavens I had three of her favorite blankets. She even got to eat some solids, a newton bar, which she loved! Then at about 4:00pm we started the checkout process! Which was actually quite slick and simple. The worst part was tearing off all the tape.
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| Don't cry! We're taking things off not poking anymore! This is Deana, our daytime nurse. |
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| Taking out the IV's |
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| Last of the stickies! |
Then as I was getting her dressed the IV location that they had added on her hand (they are much better at it in the PICU than the ER) had totally sopped through the cotton ball and of course I didn't realize it till after I got it on her clothes. Good thing we were going home, cause I sure had a lot of stains to work on.
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| Clothes!! |
So by 4:30 we were on the road towards home!!
The final status of what was all going on with her was 1.
Croup (Parainfluenza 2 positive) 2.
Bilateral acute otitis media. Basically the croup was a reaction of the parainfluenza and then a double ear infection.
I headed straight home while David went and picked up the kids from Wendy, who, bless her, was going to send us home with dinner! Which was super delicious, by the way, thanks Wendy!
Home, it is so great. Clara was still clingy and tired when we got home, so we gave her some milk then put her down. Right after dinner I also went to bed and crashed. Bless David for taking care of the kids and getting them ready for bed. Right after they went to bed Clara woke up and so did I, so David had her work on drinking more of her milk and it was fun to watch her try and walk again! I say try cause she is still a little weak and so tired that she was a little drunken in her efforts. She went to bed shortly after and hopefully will sleep good. I'm still up because I wanted to get this down before I forgot too much and it is definitely a lot later then I had intended.
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Saturday: She slept till 10:30! So did I! You know when you wake up and your body feels like it's full of lead? Yeah, that's how I felt.
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| She likes to drink the last of her milk like a little wooly lamb... |
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| Doing a little better on the walking! |
Wendy took the older two to an Easter party on the Paul side, which was so nice of her to do, especially since they wouldn't have done anything other wise. Thanks Grandma Paul for letting them come!
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They had quite the stash!
Anna and Brent have both done really well throughout this ordeal, the most we've dealt with is grumpiness from being out of schedule and tired, but that is expected! What great kids I have! |
That gave us a break to just focus on Clara. She is still pretty clingy and the schedule is obviously thrown off, but she has gotten better as the day has gone on. One of our great neighbors brought us dinner tonight, which again was delicious, and Clara really enjoyed being in her highchair feeding herself. We'll take her into the pediatricians early next week for a check up then hopefully we are done!
Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, service etc. Thankfully this wasn't as serious as it could have been and we are so grateful that she has done so well. She still isn't fully well, but we hope in the next few days she will be able to kick it totally! We love you all!!
