Ellie had to go to the hospital this afternoon. The bad news is that it was a completely unexpected visit to the ER. The good news is that it ended up only lasting about three hours, and Ellie is now at home with us.
Yesterday, Ellie went in for her regularly scheduled visit. Check up, counts and chemo. Everything went great, and I even bragged about how her congestion was finally gone!
This morning when she woke up, she was moody and had a constant runny nose. Our niece's birthday party was this morning which, despite Ellie's condition, we attended. My first clue that she really wasn't feeling well was when she complained about being tired and wanting to take a nap at 11am. Then she felt warm, but that seemed to subside after a short time. We stayed at the party for a bit, with Ellie becoming more and more miserable.
 |
| Licking icing off of her cookie during the party. |
To be honest, I was not in a good mood either. A mother's intuition is very strong. I knew that something wasn't right with Ellie, and could not shake that feeling all morning. Finally, I decided to take her home for a nap. As I prepared to put her down for her nap, I changed her diaper and she felt warm again. So, I took her temperature.
101.2
I immediately knew this was not good. Anything over 100.4 is an immediate call to her doctor. Well, as it turns out, a temperature of 101.2 is an immediate trip to the hospital ER. After talking with her doctor, we packed a bag and headed for the hospital, anticipating an overnight stay. They ran her blood counts (which were so high!) and other series of tests. The culprit: rhino virus. Basically, a simple cold. Thank you Jesus! That, we can deal with. Since the tests confirmed rhino virus AND her counts were so high, she was given an antibiotic we were sent home after just three hours.
 |
| Trying so hard to fall asleep in daddy's lap. |
 |
| And, she's out. |
 |
| Home again, home again. Jiggety-jig. |
Her fever will likely continue to spike over the next few days. If it goes too high though, then we will have to make a return trip to the hospital.
Thankfully, she will be ok. But, this was a reminder about how fragile she is. I knew that this phase was going to be hard on her. For the past 10 days Ellie has been sequestered at home, except for hospital visits. However, we are still leaving the house and bringing germs home to her. Even if none of us get sick, Ellie can still get sick. Talking with Mike just this moment, and thinking over the past week, there were a couple of days where Nora had an itchy nose and he sneezed. Neither of them were "sick", but likely still passed something along to Ellie. Any seemingly little thing can turn into a big problem for Ellie.
So...what do we do now? Well, definitely for the remainder of this treatment period, we will be much more intentional with germs and cleanliness in our home, and what we expose Ellie to. Unfortunately, Eva and Nora start school in a week and a half. I am sure that will come with it's own struggles regarding germ exposure.
If you can, please cover our entire family in prayer now. Pray that Ellie's immune system remains strong during this heavy course of treatment. Pray that we do not expose her to any sick germs along the way.
As always, please pray for Ellie's complete and permanent healing, and for no short term or long term side effects from the medication.
Pray for a strengthened bond for our family. With our Heavenly Father and with one another.
No comments:
Post a Comment