Sick, sick little girl

I realized that it has been 2 1/2 weeks since I posted last.......on Madi's birthday to be exact.  These last couple of weeks have been busy dealing with sick little girlies, Madi in particular.

After Madi's birthday, Taylor came down with strep.  I spent the next week trying to keep Madi healthy for her birthday party the following weekend and was crazy busy trying to finish up all the decorations for the party.  She made it to the day of her party and then you could see the sickness starting to come.  I wasn't quite sure what was in store for us yet but you could just tell that she didn't feel good.  She didn't have that sparkle in her eyes and it was like pulling teeth to get her to smile.  She rallied through her party, took a nap .......and when she woke up, that was when the "fun" of the last week began.

That night, she started getting the "barking" cough, which was followed by a 103* fever during the middle of the night.  We called the pediatrician on call in the morning and he quickly sent us to the E.R.  With Madi's history of getting sick so quickly and it turning into pneumonia, he was rather worried about her.

After we arrived at the hospital, we quickly found out that she has pneumonia, yet again.  At least this time it was just a one night stay, instead of the 7 day stay like last time.  This all occurred on Sunday and Monday, by the way.

Tuesday, she was in pretty good spirits.  It was almost 60* that day, so we took a short walk outside to get her some fresh air.  That evening, though, is when things went south again.

For the next 18 hours, she was in excruciating pain!  Intestinal pain.  The sounds that came out of her literally broke my heart in two.  It was like someone was torturing her!  She would throw herself back to be followed quickly by curling over in a ball.  She didn't really sleep that night because the pain kept her up.  The next morning, after she cried continuously for 3 hours straight, we called the pediatrician's office.  Off we went to the E.R., yet again.  They were concerned that maybe she had twisted or obstructed bowels.

After 3 X-rays, we learned that her bowels are fine.  She was having an extreme reaction to the antibiotics she was on.  Augmentin is the name.  It's known for causing intestinal duress, but with her sensitive intestines and reflux, it sent her over the edge.

At the hospital, we also learned the results of the nasal secretion test that they had done on Sunday.  The culprit of the pneumonia was RSV!  The first thing we thought was "What?!?!  We were having the Synergist shots done for her so that she wouldn't get that!"  Well, I guess the Synergist vaccination only reduces your chance of getting RSV by 50%.  The big thing is that it reduces the severity of it.  They told us that because of her history and how her body is made up, if we had not been giving her those shots, she probably would have ended up in the PICU with a ventilator!  That is insanely scary!!!  So, for all of you out there, if your doctor ever suggests the Synergist shots for your kiddo, get them!  They are totally worth it!!!

Thursday we were back at the doctor's office because Madi's fever came back during the night.  The fever is since gone but we just have one sick little girlie!!  On Thursday, she had already lost 1 pound from the previous week.

Today......8 days later......is the first day that she has really eaten and kept it down.  For the past week, she would drink a couple of ounces of formula, maybe she would keep it down, maybe she wouldn't.  We did a couple of days of just pedialyte.

I am hoping that she is going to start to get better.  It has tore my heart out just having her lay in my arms and moan.  The frustrating thing about it all is she won't sleep.  She is so restless and doesn't feel good to the point that she literally isn't sleeping.  And that's the one thing that will help her get better.  Between Mark and I, we have spent hours and hours and hours rocking her and doing all the "tricks" to get her to sleep.

Please pray that she starts to get over this.  We are struggling over here.  I am at my wit's end.  I can only rock, sway, "shush" so much.  It is starting to eat at me.

As soon as I have some time, I promise to get the pictures of her birthday party up.  I haven't even transferred the pictures from my camera to the computer yet.