Thankful

I love this time of year.  I love that everyone seems to really think about all the wonderful blessings that God has given us.  And when I stop to dwell on this it is almost overwhelming how much he loves us and how much he blesses us.  The last two weeks have made me especially thankful for my babies and their health.  Yes my kids struggle with little things like allergies and Brody's stomach problems, but they are so very healthy.  They rarely catch things that are going around and I am so thankful that they are happy, energetic and well.    As I mentioned in my previous post we found out Meg had pneumonia almost two weeks ago.  She had been running a fever off and on for a few days, not eating, and very tired and lethargic. 

So after a lot of this

And this I finally took her in to see Mrs. Amanda.  By the time she made it in the room Meg had a trash can in front of her and she wasn't looking so hot.  She thought she might have pneumonia and so she sent us for a chest x-ray.  With the crazy cough she had for almost 2 months I wasn't surprised when Amanda called me about 5 minutes after we left the hospital to confirm that she did indeed have pneumonia.  We immediately started her antibiotics and by that weekend she was feeling better.  Then earlier the next week she seemed to just not really be back to acting like herself.  She still had the cough and was just not eating and not very perky.  Amanda said that the cough could linger for a while.  We spent lots of time at home and I sure enjoyed all the time cuddling with my sweet girl!  She had returned to school on Monday and her teacher said she had been doing good.  Wednesday night we went to church and then Bryson left to go to deer camp.  At 3:45 she woke up screaming.  Sometimes she does this when she's had a bad dream but I could tell when I went in her room that this was different.  Normally I just cover her back up with her blankets and she goes back to sleep.  She just kept crying.  I told her I would get her something to drink (which she always loves) and she wouldn't drink it.  She was holding her ear and screaming about how bad it hurt.  I thought it was so strange and so I turned on a light and looked in her ear to make sure something hadn't bit her or something wasn't in it.  She willingly took motrin (which she never does) and continued to lay there and hold her ear and cry/scream.  When she was really still she would calm down but the minute she moved she would start to scream again.  Finally about 45 minutes went by and she went back to sleep.  But within 5 minutes she started crying each time she moved even an inch.  Then she sat up and said she was sick to her tummy and had to go potty.  While she was on the toilet screaming and crying she said the pain was in the side of her neck.  She couldn't even hold her head up straight.  By this point I was getting very alarmed.  She has had a ton of ear infections and nothing ever bothered her like this and she had Motrin and it did nothing to alleviate her pain.  I had already been on the phone with Bryson and Dr. Rob and after seeing her pain continue I decided to take her to the Emergency Room.  I called Gran B who rushed over at 5:00 in the morning and I wrapped Meg up and put her in the front seat of the car and flew as fast as I could to the ER.  This was by far the most pain I have ever seen her in and because it was in her head and neck it really shook me up. 

 

When we arrived at the ER we were the only people there.  No patients in rooms and no one in the waiting room.  It did frustrate me how slow they were.  They were treating it like an Urgent Care Center rather than an ER.  The doctor did get back to examine her pretty quickly and I was surprised when he said nothing was wrong with her ear.  He had originally decided to send her home but after seeing the excruciating pain she was in he decided that worse case scenario was that it could be meningitis.  He said normally you would have additional symptoms besides just pain but since she had been on antibiotics for pneumonia that the medicine could be masking the symptoms.  He said the only way to test for meningitis is through a spinal tap.  I sat for 30 minutes to try and decide what to do and hoped and prayed that the pain would just stop.  But it didn't. It kept getting worse.  I can't even describe how awful it was.  After talking to our other friend Dr. Dan I decided to proceed with all the testing.  They first did an X-Ray that confirmed that the pneumonia was gone (phew!).  Then they started an IV and drew lots of blood.  Poor Meg was not happy when they drew her blood.  She thought drawing blood was the blood pressure machine like they have at CVS.  What a disappointment.  Then they did a Cat Scan to make sure there was no mass in her head and it came back clear.  Finally it was Spinal Tap time.  They put her to "sleep" for this but yet her eyes were completely open.  This is when I lost it.  I had to sign all of the paperwork before they started and from having a spinal myself I knew all the risks.  It was scary to watch my baby having that done. 

Sweet thing!

Then we waited an hour for the results.  We had the sweetest nurses during this time and for that I was very thankful.  When she woke back up I could tell she felt a little better.  The doctor came in and confirmed it wasn't meningitis and there really was no explanation for it.  My explanation is that God answered my prayers.  I think I do not give Him enough credit for the wonderful things he does for me.  Big and small.  I was praying as hard as I ever have for him to make my babies pain stop and other friends were doing the same thing.  And he did.  He took it away.  I'm the type of person that I want an answer for everything.  An explanation for things.  This time I could've cared less.  Bryson has asked me a number of times what I think it was and I just continue to say that I don't know and I don't care.  I'm just glad she is better and after all the tests that were run I that she is fine!

After a lot of resting that day she perked up enough to go pick out her Build a Bear that I had promised her at the hospital if she would cooperate with all the tests.  It was such a sweet time with the kids and I went to bed so thankful that she was better.  And although she still hasn't gotten back to 100% she is pretty darn close! 

 

Happy Thanksgiving.  Count your blessings!