And all you can do is just throw your hands up in the air and try to laugh at the momentary insanity of it all. That, and blog about it. Haha...
So why am I posting at 4 something in the morning? I will tell you. "No, there is too much - let me sum up:" (name that movie!)
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Last Tuesday: Elena gets sick
Last Wednesday: Take Elena to the doctor and find out it's just an ear infection - hooray! Big relief to us with Lily in the house during RSV season. Doctor tells us to bring Lily in if she even starts to half-cough.
Last Saturday-ish: Elena's ear infection symptoms have morphed into cold symptoms...
Last Sunday: I wake up with that little tickle in the back of my throat... uh oh....
Last Sunday evening: The check engine light in our car turns on.
Monday: Elena definitely has some nasty version of a cold and I'm officially sick. We wash our hands like every five seconds and I try to teach Elena to cover her mouth when she coughs in the hopes of keeping Lily well. Make appointment to get the car fixed on Tuesday morning.
Monday night: The night of death with Lily. That girl found her lungs. Something wasn't quite right with her, but we couldn't figure it out. Neither Lily or I slept much.
Tuesday morning: Miss car appointment because of the night of death.
Tuesday afternoon: Elena decides that she really likes having a baby sister in the house and wants to touch her and play with Lily all the time. Very cute, but problematic as Elena is one sick, drippy mess. :)
Tuesday night: I try to leave to pick Eric up from campus and the car won't start.
Wednesday morning: Lily starts to cough. Eric is sick now, too. That makes four of us. Eric tries to get car to start, so he can get to class. No luck. Find a babysitter to stay with the girls, so we can tow the car to the shop.
Wednesday afternoon: Find another babysitter to stay with Elena, while we take Lily to the doctor, since our truck doesn't have enough seats for all four of us. Doctor says Lily seems alright, but tells us to watch for RSV symptoms.
Thursday: Lily is getting sicker. Elena throws up. We find out that we have a MASSIVE nasty virus on our computer and all of our really important files might be gone.... Elena throws up again - all her dinner, all over her bed. Yuck. Don't sleep much because Lily is sick.
Friday morning: Lily is not doing well. We decide to go back into the doctor. Lily tests positive for RSV. The doctor says she will most likely need to be hospitalized. RSV gets worse for about five days - so we need to watch her carefully. We're given a prescription for respiratory therapy at the hospital and told to come in for check-ups with the doctor each day until Lily is out of the woods. We go home to start waiting and watching...
Saturday morning: Lily seems to be doing worse first thing in the morning. Find out that the on-call doctor doesn't come in til 11am. Wait. We go in for our doctors appointment - Lily seems to be a little better than in the morning. However, the doctor still says that there is still a really good possibility that Lily will need to be admitted to the hospital.
Saturday afternoon: Lily is doing worse. We head to the hospital for another respiratory treatment. Her oxygenation levels are down quite a bit from only a few hours before. Sad day to see my baby so sick and in pain :( [They stick a catheter up her nose and down her throat to suction out mucous.] I decide that even though I'm not physically doing that much, "being vigilant" and constantly watching and waiting for Lily to get worse is really, really draining. I hate seeing my little, helpless baby sick.
Saturday night: Put Elena to bed early after she didn't get a nap. Decide that one of us should be up watching Lily all night, so we will take shifts sleeping. Lily is having a hard time - breath counts are around 82 per minute (should be less than 60). Call hospital for advice. Wait. Lily throws up - a lot. Vomiting freaks me out. Call hospital for advice. Wait.
Which brings me to now -
4:00 on Sunday morning... Lily finally goes to sleep. She seems to be doing a little better after the vomiting. I haven't slept yet. My shift ends at 5:00 am. 4 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours = not awesome. Sitting here typing this pointless post to try and stay awake and make the time pass faster. Wondering how I'm going to function tomorrow....
RSV,
I hate you. Leave my baby alone.
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Now that I've moaned a little, let me share some of the many blessings we have received this week. We are never alone and not forgotten - the Lord is merciful.
-We found a terrific new car repair shop that fixed our car for very cheap. It turned out that our problem wasn't really that bad.
-Elena's ear infection cleared up with antibiotics in no time. And she is on the up swing from her cold.
-We have wonderful doctors and treatments available to us and good health care close by. Thank heavens!
-Even though the circumstances haven't been good, Eric and I have gotten to spend more time together since he's stayed home sick for the last few days.
-We were able to find babysitter's when we needed them. We're surrounded by great people.
-This week, I've seen Elena totally turn a corner - she loves to spend time with "Baby Lily" and touch her and hold her and play with her and try to help her. A big difference. Lily was crying really hard in the car one day and Elena started trying to comfort her. "Don't cry Baby Lily. It's ok." "Baby Lily, we're almost home! It's ok." :) Melts my heart.
-We have the most awesome ward! They are taking such good care of us. Word of our troubles got around instantly and we've had meals brought in and people calling to see how we're doing. The gospel in action. It's very humbling to see it all.
and lastly,
-Lily is a fighter. She is making it through this - one day at a time.
Your prayers in her behalf would be much appreciated!
8 comments:
Hang in there, soon you will all be well and have a nice long nap! Our prayers are with your family.
Shaylee
oh, this post made me so sad. poor lily. poor briana and eric. :( having a sick baby (especially that young) is so hard. it must be way scary just waiting for her to get worse. we are praying for baby lily and will continue to do so. oh, and tom just said he can come be your nurse if you want. :) really, is there anything we can do to help? i'm glad your ward members are so kind and that elena is loving baby lily. that story about her in the car was so sweet. love you guys!
it is so hard to be so far away and be able to do nothing...you are all in our thoughts and prayers continually... do call if you need me you know i'll drop all to be there...we love you mom and dad
Oh Briana, that is so terrible! Its hard enough to see any of your kids sick, but even worse when its your little baby, huh? And when you're sick too...ugghh! We'll be praying for you guys!
ughh--so sorry about it all. you'll be in my prayers--i hope things start to look up soon!
yuck yuck yuck! I'm SO sorry. RSV is so scary. I hate when my kids are sick, especially when they are so tiny and can't tell you whats wrong or what hurts. I hope things are going better for you guys now.
Babies are STRESSFUL!!! When Clara was born everyone had colds and I didn't let anyone get near her for about three weeks. I know it seems crazy, but sick babies scare me. So sorry for all you have been going through. My neighbor made me laugh the other day. I asked her how she was doing and she said, "Well, you know, Life is a four letter word sometimes."
I am so sorry we haven't been around to help. I don't know what we could have done. But I wish I'd done something. We love you guys so much. I'm glad the worst is over.
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