Monday, January 31, 2011

SaraGrace Update

Sweet baby girl had a quiet day today. She was in a lot of pain so they had to pump the pain meds, which made her sleepy. Later in the day, they changed them to one that makes her less sleepy and she perked up quite a bit. I was able to get her up walking tonight. She was quite resistant to the idea but once she was up, she was willing to walk down the hall a bit. She was very proud of herself and so was I.

Her biggest issue tonight was the return of the nasty cough she had last week. She had a bad coughing episode tonight and was crying pitifully. I vividly remember how much it hurt to cough, sneeze or laugh after my appendectomy and I honestly cannot even imagine how bad it must have hurt her to be coughing so hard tonight. Ugh.

I asked about cough medicine but they won't give her any because they want her lungs to be clear. Makes sense but certainly no fun for SaraGrace.

Jeff brought the three oldest girls up to visit tonight and to bring more supplies since we will most likely be staying for five days. He made it through a day at home with all the kids. Yay...he's da man.

We are on the cardiac floor and I am not supposed to have my cell phone on. So if you call, I will probably not answer, but if possible, I will go to a designated area to call you back. I cannot tell you how much all of your emails have encouraged us! Thank you so much for praying! And thank you for emailing and letting us know you are praying! We are doing very well and I'm sure it's because of all the prayer.

SaraGrace's cardiologist came in this morning just shaking his head. He is so nice and felt very bad for SaraGrace. He pointed out that two of the three times SaraGrace or Kate have been admitted here it has been for non-heart related issues. ha. What can we say? We are that family.

They have told us that SaraGrace will need 10 days of IV antibiotics. I think I told you that already. Sorry...my sleep-deprived brain is working very s-l-o-w-l-y.
{I say that as if it is an abnormal thing.}
Anyway...they are going to put in a Picc line tomorrow (aka central line) so that they can train me to administer the meds at home. They say that they will keep her here for the first 5 days and then if she is doing well enough, we can take her home for the last 5 days of meds.

I have always wanted to be a nurse, so I am kinda stoked about learning to flush lines and administer her meds. I know. I am so very weird.

And please do not worry about us. Although sleeping in the hospital is not my favorite thing on earth, if I get enough sleep, I can deal with the hospital thing fairly well {unless we get a roommate and then you might see me lose it completely}. God gave us the ability to do the hospital thing and it's really okay. I'm just so thankful for modern medicine--even when they do stupid things like test a child for constipation when she clearly has an appendicitis...and tell us her white count isn't high enough to be appendicitis and sends us to the bathroom to 'poop.'...and then the child strains so hard for 10 minutes that it's probably where her appendix ruptured...but I'm not bitter, just sharin' my testimony. haha
Ahhh..yes...I'm letting it go. People make mistakes. Just had to complain a bit. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Because, you know, I just hate it when people don't listen to me when I'm right.
Bahahahahahahaha.

Our prayer requests are:
For Jeff--that he would not be driven slowly mad and would be able to work out some babysitting so he can go into the office for some of the time this week. We are getting hit by the big winter storm that is hitting half the country, so I think Wed. will be a stay at home day for everyone in the city. Again...much potential for Jeff to be driven slowly mad.

For SaraGrace--that God would heal her cough so that she is not coughing at all...and no complications from the ruptured appendix.

For me--that I would get enough sleep at night and that we would not get a roommate.
{because I would really not like for ya'll to see how infantile I really can be about sharing a room with a stranger}
Waking up with IV's in both hands.

Jillian brought SaraGrace's homework tonight and helped her with it. She is a natural teacher.

Took over feeding the jello too.

SaraGrace tried to hold the pencil but it was impossible for her to write, so she told Jillian the answers and Jillian wrote them for her. So cute.

Mom and Dad comforting her during her coughing episode
{photo courtesy of Molly}

Sisters are the BEST!!! Thank you, God, for sisters!