For the last couple of weeks Natalya has had a little cough. I wasn't overly alarmed considering how bad our allergies have been lately. But Wednesday morning she woke up not feeling well. She seemed lethargic. I thought she just needed to get up and move around so we got ready for school. It wasn't until I picked her up a few hours later that I noticed that she was truly not well. For almost three hours she didn't move from the couch - totally out of character for her. During that time, her cough worsened, she began to fever, she lost color in her face, and her breathing became extremely shallow. She seemed as though she were panting - taking a little breath in between each syllable of every sentence she spoke. Finally her eyes rolled into the back of her head and I noticed her chest refracting as she tried to breathe. It looked so unnatural.
That's when I really began to panic. Her health deteriorated so quickly! I rushed her (along with out other children) to the doctor. He put the pulse oximeter on her (a medical device that measures the oxygen saturation of a patient's blood) and her saturation level was only 91. Normal is 98-100. The doctor said that anyone under 95 should be hospitalized. It took only a minute for him to write the orders and call the hospital. His initial reaction was that she was probably suffering from pneumonia.
It was hard not to get emotional. My sweet 5 year old was running around seemingly normal just a few hours earlier. She quickly turned into a pale-faced, frail little girl who was struggling to breathe and unwilling to walk or talk.
Once she was admitted to the hospital her saturation level bordered 90. Brian and my dad gave her a blessing and in it they blessed her that she would make a full recovery and be comforted during her treatment. I knew she would be ok.
They immediately performed a number of tests including RSV, influenza A and B (which also covered the swine flu), chest X-rays, blood labs, etc. Everything came back negative - except that in her blood work her white blood cell count was high (meaning infection) and she was dehydrated. Though the chest X-ray came back "unremarkable" according to the radiologist, the doctor maintained that she was most likely suffering from pneumonia. He said that since she was dehydrated, her lung alveoli were so constricted that the pneumonia probably did not show up in her X-ray.
Regardless of whatever this mystery illness turned out to be, they treated her for everything. She was on steroids to open her airways, two different antibiotics to fight the infection, breathing treatments with a respiratory therapist every two hours, and an IV with fluids.
Natalya's condition would improve significantly one hour then she would regress the next. During the night was the most difficult - her pulse ox dropped to a steady 86 until they put her on oxygen that brought her back up to 90.
When she was doing well, they encouraged her to get up and move around. Above she's pictured on a tricycle! She loved being able to unhook herself from all the monitors and ride around the PICU. They would follow her "exercise" with a breathing treatment and pound on her back to help knock some of the junk out of her lungs.
This is her room. She loved staying in room number 555 (because she's 5 years old).
A cart came around with arts and crafts for the PICU children. Natalya was thrilled to paint a flower pot picture frame. Being able to color, paint, or watch movies helped her to forget how uncomfortable she felt at times.
What really made her happy was when Pammie, Natalya's kindergarten buddy, came to visit and bring her some classwork. She perked right up when she awoke to little Pammie sitting on the edge of her bed. And Pammie brought her some My Little Pony fruit snacks, Little People, and a picture she drew of the two of them. What a little sweetie!
We took them on a short ride around the PICU. We had to go slow because Natalya's IV had to follow her everywhere.
Natalya started a sticker collection. When she was dehydrated, we promised her a new sticker every time we got her to drink something. That was the only way we could get a lethargic little kid to sit up and drink. Hey - it worked.
Natalya wanted to decorate her walls with her artwork.
She named her nebulizer mask that resembles a dinosaur, "Purple Heart."
Last night Natalya slept well. She didn't require oxygen at all and her pulse ox stayed around 91/92 all night long. Even though she's not totally well, she has improved so much that she doesn't require aid from the hospital anymore. The doctor discharged her this morning! Natalya was so excited. But she was most excited to just get her IV taken out. I brought her home this morning after being hospitalized since Wednesday afternoon.
I was impressed with how good she was for the doctors and nurses. We're continuing with her treatment at home (antibiotics, steroids, nebulizer treatments) and we'll follow up with the doctor again on Monday. Just having her home is causing her to improve already.
What a little trooper! I am so proud of you, Natalya!
I took this picture over my shoulder as I was driving. His face says everything.
When we got there, Branson wanted us to park on level 3 of the parking garage - because he's 3 years old. He thought that was so cool.
The ball was so hard for him to lift. But he wanted to do it all by himself. :)
He would take a minute to get situated. Sometimes he even put his fingers in the right holes (not that that mattered much - he pushed it down the alley anyway) but it was cute.
It sometimes took for-ev-er for the ball to get from point A to point B. But he waited so patienly. The anticipation was killer.
His squeals were ear-piercing! It seemed like half of the bowling arena would stop and smile at him - or join in the celebration with us of his meagar 1 or 2 pin victory.
A few people even asked if we wanted our picture taken together. I was so proud of our son. His personality was infectous. One can't help but be happy when around him.
