Such a Trooper

Poor Eli has been so sick this past week. It all started last Sunday when we had some friends over for dinner and he started vomiting and developed a fever. I thought it would resolve in a day like all the other stomach viruses we had been seeing in clinic but his fever just worsened the next day along with lots of runny nose and coughing. Eli has had his share of colds but this one was SO much worse.

I really thought by Tuesday that he had the seasonal flu. I decided to take him to the doctor on Tuesday morning (in the blizzard!) to make sure everything looked ok. His ears, throat, and lungs all checked out clean so we returned home to wait the viral bug out. Wednesday, things worsened and by Thursday it was clear he had developed some respiratory distress. By this time his viral culture had returned and we knew we were dealing with human metapneumo virus (sp?) which Marc told me is a virus similar to RSV. Marc took him back to the doctor later Thursday afternoon and with his oxygen levels staying consistently at 85% it was decided it would be best to have him in the hospital. His chest x-ray shows that he has a pneumonia consistent with the particular virus he has and unfortunately not one that can get better with antibiotics.

I stayed with him Thursday night and most of today while Marc stayed home with Hailey. He is pretty miserable with all these tubes attached and he is just not feeling himself. Although he had some good moments today, I know that he is not ready to go home yet. He is requiring 1.5 liters of supplemental oxygen through a nasal cannula for his oxygen level to stay at 92-94%. Hopefully, tomorrow we will make some progress weaning that down because the small progress he made today was lost and he is now back to where he started the morning at.

He was excited about these new toys sent from family. I brought them out early this evening when he was feeling a little better and he did play some with his new puzzle and Elmo phone.
Marc brought Eli some new clothes to put on today and I thought his "I'm the Boss" shirt was more than appropriate given the circumstances. Today, I have let Eli watch TV nearly all day long including his Elmo video four times and I was super excited he wanted cookies for lunch since he was finally willing to eat something. Today what Eli says goes! :)

So that brings us to tonight. Eli is sleeping sound now that his fever has broken. I temporarily have his IV pump and telemetry happy enough that they are not beeping at me. It is time again to pump for the umpteenth time. Hailey is home asleep under Nana's care. And Marc is fulfilling a moonlighting shift in a nearby ER he committed to a while ago when he wishes he were here with us. All day I have continually been reminding myself that none of this is out of God's control and care. He is so good even in times of stress and we have plenty to be thankful for.

Two things in particular that I have thought about today. First, I have been so thankful for my nursing education. This seems odd to me because any other time it has just been something I do because it is my job. It certainly cost a pretty penny and I may not use it full-time for much longer, but I have been so thankful this week for knowing what is going on with Eli. I feel like I have been able to be his advocate many times over the past few days and for that I am thankful. Second, I have been thinking about all the parents who have children with chronic diseases that live my past 48 hours for months and years. I have a new level of empathy for those moms and dads. It is heartbreaking watching your children hurt when there is little you can do to fix their hurt.

So, for tonight, you can pray for a good night of sleep for Eli, Mommy, Daddy, Hailey, and Nana. Enough said. :) Tomorrow, you can pray that Eli will be able to maintain his oxygen saturation on room air without the aid of oxygen so that we can disconnect him from these tubes and go home!

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Matthew 6:26

Busy with Three

This past weekend Marc and I babysat for some friends who were busy packing to head to Mali, Africa this week. They have a little girl who is five months older than Hailey. This family will be going with us to Africa next year for the fellowship and we consider them some of our dearest friends! We are going to miss them over the next six weeks.

Overall, I think Marc and I handled three pretty well, but I should probably fess up and say that all three of them were never awake at the same time. :) I enjoyed taking some pictures of Gracie while Eli and Hailey were napping. She is such a happy and easy going baby.

Gracie has some WILD hair these days. :)

We spent the rest of Saturday running some errands and then went out for some Mexican food. Eli was being quite difficult at dinner. He was really trying Marc's patience when he grabbed his glass of water and dumped it on the table. Yikes! There were two families with older children (all boys) sitting at the table behind us and one mom told the other mom that that ("that" being my Eli most certainly acting his terrible two age) was the reason she decided she didn't want to try for a girl. Ha! Thanks ma'am for the encouragement while we were mopping up our table and enjoying our water soaked chips. Well, you take the good with the bad I guess. :)

He doesn't look ornery now, does he???

Hailey decided she was better off staying put in her carrier and she thankfully stayed dry there. :)

Well, if you are like us and many others in the country, you are SNOWED in. Enjoy the snow day and stay warm!!!

Spring in January!

Today I had a fun and relaxing Friday with the kids. Even though Eli is cutting four teeth right now and has been pretty irritable all week, he had a GREAT day today. Hailey is finally sleeping through the night (11-12 hrs.!) and even napping pretty well during the day. So, all in all, we are hanging in there. :)

Eli looked pretty goofy most of the morning since he insisted on wearing his swimming trunks (over his fleece PJs) along with his winter hat. A few times during a diaper change I tried to lose the swim trunks but he quickly found them and requested me to put them back on. Ha!

Marc was off after lunch today so we took the kids to the park after Eli's nap. It was 72 degrees here today!!! It was beautiful and the weather man said that today was the warmest day on record for January 28th. It is hard to believe that cold and snowy days will be here again next week We will certainly make sure and enjoy the nice weather while we have it, Marc decided to run with Eli to the park in the jogging stroller so I took Hailey in the car to meet them there. We had such a great time. Eli loves this park and it is so great that it is walking distance from our house.

I was so surprised that Eli went right up to this random dog to pet him! I know he likes dogs but I thought he would be a little more scared. I think we will have to work with him on not approaching strange dogs. Yikes! Fortunately, this one was friendly. :)

Well, both kids are sound asleep so I should probably take advantage and get to bed myself! Sometimes, I feel like "me" time is hard to find anymore and when I do find some time, sleep usually sounds a lot better. :)

Call Back Weekend

This past weekend was call back for our residency. This is a weekend in January every year where the residency's favorite applicants are invited back for a second look. We asked my parents to come help out with the kids for the weekend so Marc and I could attend most of the events on Saturday. We met lots of great people who were visiting and enjoyed listening to all the great things said about this place. It is nice to be nearing the end of residency and still feel like we have been in the best possible place for us over the past three years. We have loved it here and have made some great memories (and a few babies! Ha!) along the way. :) I think Marc has really appreciated the quality of training he has received and we are looking forward to staying one more year for the international medicine fellowship.

It was so great getting to spend some time away with Marc this weekend. Sometimes it is easy to not get away when you have two young children. Especially, when Hailey isn't old enough yet for me to leave her AND Eli with a babysitter. My parents do a great job with the kids and we are so thankful for their help. I somehow never manage to get many pictures with them and the kids when they come into town so I need to work on that one. Marc and I got dressed up on Saturday night for dinner and had a great time visiting with everyone. Not to mention enjoying our last year of hearing the faculty band! It is great to see doctors with interests outside of medicine.:)

So, now we are back in the swing of another busy week. I found this ice cream on Sunday at the grocery store and it was the perfect way to end a long Monday. Even Eli had to get his share (he ate seconds of his baked tilapia for dinner so I thought he deserved a sweet treat!). These are our favorite kind of girl scout cookies and they were delicious mixed in ice cream.

We are looking forward to dinner this week with a family who just returned from Zimbabwe, Africa doing what we will be doing next year. It is crazy to think that this time next year we will be in Africa! We are very excited about this and will certainly have more to share in the coming months. Have a great week!