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Monday, January 25, 2010

I'm still alive!

No, I didn't abandon writing to my blog!

I will give you a quick update on what's going on and where I've been.

We made an unexpected trip to the emergency room Saturday afternoon - Keira and I (or is it Keira and me?). Anywho, they did their thing, diagnosed her with a urinary tract infection that had possibly moved up into her bowels, treated her with IV antibiotics, and transferred her to Children's Hospital since they don't have a pediatric ward. That in itself bites because that original hospital is 5 minutes from my house, Children's is an hour or so away. But the good news is that it is an awesome hospital ... as far as hospitals go.

The main reason for the transfer is that her white blood cell count was 23,000 (5-10,000 is normal). So she definitely had some infection going on.

Once here, they eventually discovered that she has a ruptured appendix. I say eventually because we've been here since late Saturday night and just today they have made this diagnosis. They were treating her for a UTI/severe intestinal flu, but since she's showing no improvement, they've done some more testing and discovered the appendix had perforated.

Since her appendix has already burst, surgery won't happen for another 2-4 weeks. They need to heal the infection first with antibiotics. We will be here for another 5 days or so, then she will be able to finish out her meds at home. At least that's the plan for now.

She gets a PIC line put in tomorrow morning which is what they will use to administer the meds.

Once she's completely healed, we'll come back, have the appendix removed and probably be able to go home the next day.

So that is the much condensed version of what's been happening here.

I've been on the phone a lot making arrangements for the boys and thankfully Doug has been able to take off of work for a few days.

As hard as this has all been ... being away from home, not sleeping in my own bed, not getting much sleep at all ... the hardest part has been watching my baby girl suffer in pain knowing that I can do nothing but hold her and help her through her contraction-like abdominal pains.

She's doing better tonight. She is actually sort of excited about staying here.
She gets to miss school.
She gets to watch lots of TV and movies.
She gets to have food delivered to her room (when she's allowed to eat anyway).
And she gets to play on the laptop that the hospital has provided for us (which is what I'm using right now to post this).

I am still making her do her homework - what I have from Thursday and Friday - and I will run home at some point to get more clothes, etc. for me and I'll get the rest of her school work. So it won't be all fun and games for her. :)

Please, if you don't mind, keep her (and me!) in your prayers. We would really appreciate it!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness dear, I will definately be praying!

Unknown said...

Thanks, Tiffany! I'm still praying for your little Riley also! Hope he's feeling better soon!

Anonymous said...

PICC line is going to make a huge difference! Seriously the meds will hit her faster than they do through a traditional IV and she'll feel much better! Praying!