The Hospital Story

* I want to acknowledge how grateful we are that Helen Claire is normally a well baby. We realize there are people who have very sick children and deal with hospital stays on a regular basis. The following post is just to help us remember this time in Helen Claire's life and in no way is meant to sound ungrateful for the health of our child.*

I just thought weeks 34 and 35 were bad. Weeks 37 and 38 terrified me. I have debated about whether or not I should post everything about the hospital stay, but since this blog is my scrapbook for Helen Claire, and this is a part of her first year of life, I decided to do it. If you don't have a lot of time on your hands, you probably will want to skip this post :) I said earlier that I have been in somewhat of a timewarp since we got back to Birmingham. It's true... my days are all running together, especially when I try to think back and remember the hospital days. I"ll do my best to not lose you on the dates, but my brain is a little rusty. Helen Claire and I went for what was supposed to be a quick weekend trip to Pansey/Dothan. We were going to see Vickie's first wedding dress fitting. We left on Friday, February 17th. That Saturday, Helen Claire was happy. She played with me and mother, then we left to go to the fitting. When we were in town, we noticed she had a little fever and didn't really feel well, but she seemed ok other than that. It did not seem like a big deal. Saturday night, we went over to Jonathan's parents' house, and she played with her cousins and seemed fine. After that, we even went back to Granny and Pa's so she could see Aunt Laurie and Ricky for a little bit. She was laughing and having a good time. Late into Saturday night, she woke up feverish and had to be held to sleep because she was congested and couldn't get settled. Sunday morning, she was her usual self. Here is a picture for proof... She and Pa played windchimes Sunday morning and she seemed a little not herself, but that was all.

All of that to say, I thought she was probably fighting off a little virus from daycare... I thought it was no big deal. Then, around lunchtime on Sunday, we noticed when she napped that her chest was sinking in and she was breathing rapidly, almost like she was having to really try to get every breath. Aunt Laurie held her and noticed that Helen Claire wasn't breathing for about a second, every other breath or so. It was very scary. Granny and I took her to Dothan Pediatrics. Thankfully, they have Sunday afternoon hours for sick, walk-in visits only. I remember saying to the lady at the front desk that she was 8 months old and was having trouble breathing. The rest is a blur until we got back to the treatment room. We did not sit down; we did not fill out anything; no insurance card... nothing. We were rushed back to the treatment room, where they checked her oxygen and it was at 84 or 86%... it should have been at least 92%, so they swabbed for RSV and the flu. No flu, but she was positivie for RSV. Dr. Brown, who by the way, was wonderful throughout everything, said she needed to be admitted to the hospital overnight for oxygen and breathing treatments. If you live in the Dothan area and do not have a pediatrician, I would recommend him 1000 times over. Anyway, back to the story. We had to be admitted in the ER, because regular admitting is not open on Sunday. It was less traumatic, since we had pre-admission paperwork from the Pediatrian, but still... the ER is NOT the place you want your sick baby to be for any length of time. We got that done, went up to room 356, and got in our hospital gown... She was still pretty happy and even played with Aunt Laurie in her hospital crib... What we thought was going to be a one night deal turned into a 9 day stay. Jonathan was not able to be with us, because he was in Birmingham with the flu. It would have been pointless for him to come home because HC could not risk getting the flu, and he would not have been allowed on the pediatric wing of the hospital. When we got there, Helen Claire started regular breathing treatments and IV fluids for the RSV. We thought everything would clear up... not so much. By Monday, she was not much better. On Tuesday, she could hardly open her eyes or lift her head. Plus, the mucus was so bad it was causing her eyes to matter over, so much so they were stuck closed for almost three hours. We had to cover them with warm rags, then she started on antibiotic eye drops for that. Pitiful doesn't even come close to how she looked and felt... I don't cry much in these kinds of situations. I cope by sucking it up, doing the next best thing, keeping on. BUT, I wanted to cry- I just knew it wouldn't do her any good and would probably only scare her more. At some point on Tuesday or Wednesday, Dr. Brown decided that something else was causing the fever since it was not coming down. They swabbed for flu again (which is a very uncomfortable procedure) and ordered chest X-rays. Helen Claire had pneumonia. She started on an antibiotic for that, and we thought everything would be fine in a couple of days. Actually, we thought we would be out by Friday, but her fever continued to spike. They tested again for flu, they tested for a UTI, we had another chest X-ray. Thankfully, she was getting better based on the X-rays, and she had no new infections. They added a stronger antibiotic, and she slowly started getting better. The fever had really been keeping her down, but by Saturday night/early Sunday morning, she was finally fever free. After that, we were waiting on her to come off oxygen. They tried a couple of times Sunday, but her levels would dip too far down, and they would have to turn the oxygen back on. Sunday night, we had kind of a crisis. After a full week with the same IV, Helen Claire needed a new one. I had tried all week to be really careful, because I did not want her to be stuck again. Getting the first IV was an ordeal for her. She had to be stuck 4 times because her veins blow. When the nurse undressed the first IV, and told me she needed to re-stick HC, I was about to lose it. She was one of the best nurses we had while we were there, and she promised me she would not let them try more than twice, so I sent Helen Claire with her. I did not go in the room this time (when I went in the Sunday she was admitted, it was hard on us both. I think Helen Claire felt like I was "letting" them do all of this to her). After two sticks, no luck. Praise the Lord we knew someone in Anesthesia, and he called in a favor. Thank you so much, Mr. Dennis!!! They were able to get the IV started and we were back on all the medicines. Monday, Jonathan was able to come to Dothan and be with us, and Tuesday Helen Claire worked hard to get off oxygen, and we were finally out of there Tuesday night... We stayed at Mother's until Helen Claire was cleared to come back to Birmingham. She was loved on so much...

This is our first night home, after she got all clean in a much needed bath

Aunt Vickie's class sent her a "Get Well" care package...

She blew bubbles with Aunt Laurie and Mimi...

and we were glad to be home.

You know what's weird, it's harder writing this all out and thinking that this really did all happen to my baby. Somehow, when it was actually happening, we just got through it. I had my mother, Granny, Pa, Aunt Laurie, Mrs. Donna, my sister, Mr. Ricky- God protected us by letting us be home and He sustained us. We would have been on our own had we been in Birmingham, and while I would have preffered to be at Children's Hospital, at least we had help at home since Jonathan was sick. The doctors in Dothan did consult a pediatric pulmonologist at Children's, and they were sending reports to our regular pediatrician. Dr. Brown was exceptional, and we couldn't have asked for better care. I cannot thank everyone enough for all of the help! My mom, Granny, Pa, Aunt Laurie, Ricky, Jonathan's mom and sister... they brought us clothes (remember we only had two days worth packed), food, COFFEE. They sat with us and kept us company. They let me sleep. By the way, if you are ever in the hospital and need the nurses to leave you alone so you can rest, I highly recommend Helen Parish- Granny does not play! She stayed with me one afternoon, and she would send those people on their way and tell them to come back when we were not asleep- that woman has no fear-- you go Granny!!!

Here are some pictures from our week... now that you know she is better, I feel ok sharing these.

This was our first night in the hospital... she still looks kind of ok to me here.

Baby needed to get some medicine too.

Everybody should have a Papa just like this one... he stood and patted at that bed pretty much the whole time he was in the room... every time he was in the room, and he could calm her down better than any of us.

This was a present from daddy- a cute fluffy dog. The picture of her with it is on a bad day, and it is just too sad to post.

Vickie and Chad sent balloons, and she liked looking up at them.

Right after this picture, Granny and I washed her hair- and Granny gets with it on hair washing!

Helen Claire had the camera and took this from her crib- at least she got to practice some photography skills... not bad for an 8 month old!

This is a picture of Jonathan playing "Rocket Ship" with Helen Claire when we got to Mom's house. They made up for lost time :)

Helen Claire is getting better. It is still very scary, and we watch her every breath to make sure she is breathing normally. She lost another pound while in the hopsital. When we took her to the follow up visit, she weighed 16 pounds, 11 ounces, but that was with all her clothes and a diaper on. I looked back, and she weighed 16 pounds, 9 ounces when she was 5 months old. She looks very skinny to me, but we are working on building up her appetite again. She has a regular, 9 month visit scheduled for this Thursday, so hopefully, we will get to discuss everything and talk about options for keeping her well. Thanks everyone for all of the prayers, phone calls, Facebook messages... I'm trying to return all of them this week. We love you!