On Wednesday, January 1st, we had the scare of our lives. We decided last minute to take the girls to dinner at Texas Roadhouse for New Years. All throughout our meal, Ivy was grunting and acting very uncomfortable but not actually crying. I held her the whole time and figured she was just working though a tummy ache. After eating, we loaded everyone in the van and went across the street to get groceries at Wal-Mart. On our way there, we again noticed that she was breathing funny and kind of gasping. Both Clint and I commented on how funny she sounded and we were both worried. When we pulled in at the store, Clint lifted her out of her chair and she immediately vomited EVERYWHERE. Lots and lots of vomit. Once she finished, she was very ashy and pale looking. We stayed in the parking lot with her for a bit to see if she was ok, and although she didn't look happy or anything, we decided to get our grocery shopping done. I carried her the whole time and she continued to have irregular breaths and just didn't seem content. I called my mom and explained what was going on with her, and asked if she thought I should take her to urgent care to have her checked out. She suggested we come by her house so she could look at her, or maybe call our doctor. I agreed and about two minutes after hanging up with her, Ivy quit breathing. Her little eyes rolled back in her head, she went blue and completely limp in my arms. I immediately started running out toward the van and shouted at Clint to leave the shopping cart, grab the girls and run. She was only out for maybe 10 seconds, but when she came-to, she was very white. Very limp. Very quiet. It was horrifyingly scary. We threw the girls in the van and I held her on my lap while Clint drove around the corner to the hospital. He drove with one hand while giving her a blessing with the other hand. I was trying not to freak out because the other girls were scared and not sure what was going on, but I remember holding her close and just telling her over and over again to "stay awake Ivy, stay awake Ivy". Clint dropped us off at the front door of the hospital and when I ran in a doctor came right up and took her from me. She threw up again and seemed to perk up a bit after, but was still very ashy looking. They put her on oxygen right away and began prepping her for all sorts of tests. She had blood work drawn (or tried anyway), a CT scan and chest x-ray, and an I.V put in. They were never able to get any blood from her and it was so awful having to watch her get poked so many times. After a while we were transported to Cardon's Hospital where we got settled into the PICU. We saw lots of doctors, talked to lots of specialists, she had lots of tests and lab work done. Poor gal was exhausted. When we checked in, she was 9.4 lbs (4 1/2 months old). So they were very worried about her weight. I've never really worried because all of my girls have been tiny. Her lab work showed that her sodium levels were low and her potassium levels were high, so they gave her lots of fluids and continued to watch her levels. Both sodium and potassium continued to be off for a few days, and when they evened out, her liver was off. They could never make sense of those things so wouldn't let us go until they checked every possibility. I'm glad they were so thorough. They determined that Ivy was malnourished when we brought her in. Her little tummy was puckered and they say she was dehydrated. Her stool had never been thick enough to look like anything other than watery mustard, but I feel like that is fairly typical of babies. Her doctors seem to think that she quit breathing because her body wasn't strong enough to keep going--she had a little congestion going on and maybe that contributed to it? We aren't totally sure. I feel so awful knowing that she was slowly starving. I asked them why she was content and didn't cry much, and why when I offered her more food she wouldn't eat. After having me pump to see how much milk I was getting, they said that she was having to work too hard for too little of milk. So she basically was just used to being hungry. I felt like the worst mom on the planet hearing that. Part of me wonders if she was tongue tied while nursing or something, because I swear I was overflowing with milk half the time. It doesn't make total sense to me. After she would eat, she would have lots of spit up and pee, so she was obviously getting milk. I still don't know if I buy it, but ya know. Once her labs started coming back cleaner, they moved us out of PICU and into a regular room. After meeting with the Urologist and Gastro doc, they both ordered lots of tests. We still haven't heard anything about her stool test, so I assume nothing was wrong there. Her ultrasound showed two ureter tubes leading from her right kidney to her bladder, so they thought she might have urine reflux. To learn if she did, they did a VCGU (I think that's what it was??) where they insert a catheter and pump some sort of liquid in to see the path of where it goes. She hated this. They had to strap her head, arms and legs down on this little board and rotate the board all around. It took FOREVER. She cried. I felt so bad! Once that was over, the doc came and let us know that she did not have reflux, but that the extra tube was causing her kidney to swell and become infected. I freaked out for a second, but apparently it's not too uncommon. The urologist was totally annoyed by the fact that the extra tube was not caught on our sonograms during pregnancy. Anyway. There are so many blessings that I have seen from this experience. SO many. First, it happened on the first of the year! NOT the 31st of 2013. This is seriously such a blessing, since we don't have to pay our deductible twice. Second, my dad and Clint's dad came to the first hospital we were at and helped Clint give her a blessing. In the blessing, my dad was specific about our learning something important through this experience. After the blessing, he told us that he felt very strongly that this was supposed to happen so that we could learn something new. We never would have found out about her extra tube and kidney problem if this hadn't happened. Crazy! Third, I got to spend an entire week with my baby. Doing nothing but holding her. How often does a fourth kid get that kind of attention? I soaked up every second of it and although I was missing my family at home, I kind of hated to leave our little one-on-one bubble. I love my little Ivy so much.
At Gilbert Hospital
PICU at Cardon's
Out of the PICU and keeping busy by taking walks. The nurses LOVED Ivy and we were so well taken care of. Despite my stink from not showering.
Sporting her outfit from the nurses! This little chick tried so hard to be happy despite being so tired and despite getting poked all day and night. She was a trooper and I could not love her more! I am so grateful for modern medicine and the wonderful nurses and doctors who helped her. I am so grateful for the health of my family. Our regular room was located on the pediatric wing of cancer patients. It was so eye-opening to me, and so devastating to see so many little kiddos who live their whole lives in the hospital. It made me so eager to want to help and serve more. There were a few kids who just cried non-stop and didn't have family there with them. I wanted so badly to snuggle them up and love on them. One day, when my kiddos are all in school and I'm able to volunteer more time, I am totally going to do just that.
