#13 The Elevator

       The elevator. It's my refuge. I'd ride it to the top, to the bottom, and back again. I'd go down to the other wing and step in that one. No one on that end knew me. It didn't matter to me if it was full or empty. I couldn't hear any beeping machines or the hiss of oxygen. I couldn't hear children crying or parents weeping. Sometimes if I was by myself I'd have me a little out-loud chat with Jesus. It  usually went like this: "I know you can heal her. Just do it already!" The end. 

Leaving the elevator was emotionally exhausting... every time I'd return to the floor, it was a reminder of what our reality had become. The morning after they found the pneumonia, I returned to find my baby girl wasn't in her bed in the Critical Care Unit. I literally felt my heart stop beating. I couldn't breathe. The sounds of the room swirled around my head.

A hand on my shoulder.

"Are you looking for Stacey?" I could only nod because my throat was in a vice grip of panic.

Because her pneumonia was so bad and they didn't know the source, they had to put her in isolation. She'd been moved. Tears of relief!
We were now in our own room, but the door had to stay closed and anyone who entered or left, had to scrub, gown up and use gloves and a mask. We also had to scrub up right outside her door before we left. It made 

My Auntie and a favorite nurse

even going to the bathroom a project! It was quiet, but it was lonely. 

I requested a rocking chair and decided to make the best of our 7 day stay, knowing we would then go home and resume life as we knew it....

Or so we thought.

#12 Raging whaaat?

Posts with a # at the beginning are part of our story. They are from when Stacey was little. All the other posts are current day or have a year or age noted. If you're new here and want to start at the beginning, just find #1 and at the end is a link to the next part so you can read in order.

Enjoy! Thanks for being here! :)

     Her Pediatrician broke the news: "It's pneumonia. Come look at the xray with me." We walk down the hall to a small room with desks lining the wall and a light-box in the back. I'd never read an x-ray before so I had no idea what I was looking at. "Raging pneumonia" he said. "Raging? What do you mean, raging?"

      "Well, it's in both lungs. They are completely full of fluid. We don't know how we missed it, but this seems to be the problem." I'm confused. "But she hasn't coughed, had a fever or anything, her only symptom was last night when her o2 dropped." He showed me the first x-ray from a few days ago and the difference was astonishing! Even this "answer" was bringing more questions.

      I just wanted to scoop her up and take her home, give her some medication and forget all this ever happened!

      He must have seen these thoughts flicker in my eyes... "We need to treat her here. She's very sick. We have a lot of work to do. Babies her age don't cough very effectively (she hadn't coughed once at this point) She'll be on a 7-10 day course of IV antibiotics.

      An end is in sight! We have a plan, we may not have all the answers, but we have enough to give us a plan and date to go home!

#11 Routine of some sort

Posts with a # at the beginning are part of our story. They are from when Stacey was little. All the other posts are current day or have a year or age noted. If you're new here and want to start at the beginning, just find #1 and at the end is a link to the next part so you can read in order.

Enjoy! Thanks for being here! :)

     We were in a routine now. They would routinely draw blood at 7, 12, 4 and 10. Her veins are filling with scar tissue and the sticks are getting harder to do. Sometimes it takes a few tries. She fusses a little and although it makes me sad, it's encouraging. She's fighting. We just don't know what. The lab results keep changing, but not giving answers.

      Then, her blood gas dropped. This tells how her blood is oxygenated. It should be around 20, her's dropped suddenly to 11. A retest confirmed. They have to do an arterial stick - meaning they do a blood draw from an artery. This requires local numbing first since it's way more painful than a regular draw. She actually cried. She sounded hoarse and week, but it was a cry, not just a whimper.

      Based on the arterial stick, they decide to order another chest xray. They'd done a series the day we arrived, and it was clear but she was quickly requiring more oxygen and her respiration's (speed of breaths) were climbing.

      After another night of dozing between consults, changing diapers, soothing and feeding her (half nursing, half pumped breast-milk from a bottle), we woke to what some would say is horrible news for a 3 month old, but for us, it was an answer....

Continue story here:
http://highfivesforstacey.blogspot.com/2013/08/12-raging-whaaat.html