Our Hospital Stay

For those of you who heard Emma was in the hospital, but didn't hear the whole story . . .

Last Friday Emma started to get sick. She was pretty exhausted, running a low fever and complaining of stomach pain. I thought she had the flu, so we just waited it out. But she never started vomiting or showing any other symptoms, and the fever and stomach pain just kept getting a little worse and a little worse. By Sunday we had ruled out the flu, but couldn't figure out what was causing the fevers and the stomach pain. Her fever was up to 103 degrees, and was only coming down to 101 with Tylenol. So, about 11:00 am I ran her into urgent care and they couldn't figure out what was wrong either, but decided she was dehydrated and told me it was a possible ruptured appendix. So, we sped to the emergency room (our first ever ER trip) where they rushed us into triage right away. Then, we sat there for 4 hours while they tried to decide what was wrong. By this point her fever was up to 104.5, and she is just laying in bed, not talking or playing or sleeping, just laying there and almost completely unable to walk on her own. Can I just say . . . . SOOOO SCARY!!

Finally they took a 2nd urine sample and determined that she had a urinary tract infection which had most likely spread to her bladder/kidneys/bloodstream. So they started her right away on an IV antibiotics. Since the fevers weren't responding well to tylenol and her white blood count was pretty high, they admitted us into pediatrics. We stayed until Tuesday morning when the fevers started to stay under 100, the white blood count was down by 1/2 and she was getting back her energy. Then they released us with a really strong antibiotic that she gets to take for a week.

Now she is back to her normal self (happy, talkative, busy, eating and drinking, etc!) What a relief that it was a fairly quick fix with no surgery required! Thank heavens for antibiotics! When the doctors were talking about her elevated white blood count, people were throwing around words like kidney failure, burst appendix, and even lukemia. You cannot imagine how thrilled we were to hear urinary tract infection.

Just a couple of notes . . .
1) Trying to nurse Noah while he was at home and I couldn't leave the hospital (Emma got nervous when I wasn't there with her) was not the most fun I've had in my life.
2) So grateful for my friends who showed so much support when I was falling apart (Jen even came and cleaned my house and cooked, and frosted my birthday cake while I was gone!)
3) Thank goodness for my Mother-in-law who rushed up from Fresno to take care of the kids while we were stuck in the hospital

And, on the funny side. Emma kept hearing people talking about her kidneys over and over, and finally she was starting to get really scared, and kept asking me "Like Archie?" (that's our cat's name), but I couldn't figure out why she was talking about Archie and what he had to do with anything. Finally I figured out that she thought she had a "kitty infection." She thought she had a cat inside of her and that's what was making her so sick. Poor kid. She was relieved to hear that a KIDNEY was part of her body, not an animal!

So anyway, we are happy to be home, and happy to have life back to normal, and most of all happy happy happy that Emma is ok now!!

Trip to Nana and Papa's House!

Last weekend we drove down to The Dalles to spend a few days with Nana and Papa! We had so much fun, and the drive really wasn't that bad. We left wondering why we don't make the trip more often (life just seems to get in the way). Anyway, we got some really great pictures . . . so prepare for the deluge!


The girls were old enough this year to take turns riding and leading Santee.

Here is Midnight star (Lady's foal who is about a year old now) giving Emma a kiss! I love this picture of my dad! It was so great to be there with him and see for myself how great he is doing since his surgery. He is back to his old self now!!




Hiking the mountain with Papa in search of the horses

Lindsay riding Socks by herself!



Emma riding Socks by herself!







Nathan riding Socks by himself!


Papa leading Lindsay and Emma at the same time. Emma is on Scout and Lindsay's on Socks.




Roasting marshmellows by the campfire. Finally we have a couple of pictures of Nana . . . I don't know how she managed to avoid the camera all weekend, but luckily we did get a few shots of her!











I can't believe I didn't get a single picture of Noah on the horses, but here he is playing on the floor at Nana's house.



Lindsay, Emma and Nathan playing with the puppies

There just really isn't any place like my parents house with all the animals and the mountains and the trampolines and, of course, Nana and Papa!