Respiratory Syncytial Virus Fun

At the end of our Disneyland trip Ella got pretty sick. The whole way home she slept and looked miserable. I kept her on medicine to keep her fever down, but by Tuesday she wasn't better. Brian took her into the doctor on Tuesday afternoon because I was dead to the world with my pregnancy anemia. From there our doctor sent her to be admitted to the hospital.

Usually what happens with our kids is they get sick and after a couple of days we start wondering if we should take them to the doctor. With Heber and Jack I would usually take them in early on, but then they would just tell me to ride it out and they will get better. They also usually prescribe a nasty anti-biotic that might not even do anything for them if they are fighting a virus. With Eve and Ella I have waited longer because it is difficult to get babysitters and I don't want them picking up a sickness at the dr's office. And from my past experiences they usually just send me home anyway.

Well guess what, that doesn't happen all of the time. Ella's oxygen was low and her breathing was rapid as well as her heart rate. Her poor body was just fighting to get oxygen. All of my kids get very lethargic when they have a fever and I stopped giving her medicine so she was 'fresh' when we got to the hospital. The nurses said they hadn't seen a baby so sick in awhile. So sad! She didn't fight them at all. They put an IV in her and drew her blood all without a fight! She did cry when they were stuffing tubes down her nose to suck out the gunk.

At the end of the first night after Brian reluctantly left, the nurse told me, "I've gotta be honest with you, she's worrying me." What?! You work at a hospital with sick kids all of the time and her being a little sick is worrying her?! It freaked me out and I began to realize how sick she was. For over 24 hours she was getting a huge oxygen dose to keep her oxygen levels up to normal. She was also very dehydrated and her lungs were not working well.

The next morning she got her fight back and she has been fighting ever since. Whenever she sees a nurse or doctor in a yellow disposable coat and a mask she starts crying and squirming. Poor girl! I seriously feel like we are torturing her! It is so sad.

Yesterday I held her most of the day and she wouldn't have it otherwise. Today she is sleeping on the bed and I am catching up on computer things. ....hense another blog post. :)
My mom, dad, and Laura have been watching Heber, Jack, and Eve. Taniel came to be with the kids today and Brian and I have been trading off nights at the hospital. I am hopeful she will be able to go home tomorrow, but it might be another day. She is such a sweetheart and our kids miss her at home. Last night when I was home I showed the kids pictures of Ella and Eve was sad that Ella looked so miserable. I do think they are enjoying the change of pace with fun babysitters though.

Our ward has been amazing. Everyone wants to help. I can't believe how much they have done for us in the two years we have lived here. There are so many amazingly wonderful people in our area. We are so blessed.