My Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

Monday night I put Lily to bed at 8:00 like usual and she fell asleep with no problems. At 11:00 she woke up crying and saying she had to go to the bathroom. Sara brought her upstairs and the minute I heard her I knew something was wrong. She had a hard time talking and her breathing was really labored and she kept making these gasping and high pitched sounds when she tried to breathe. The only thing that went through my mind was "Do I just get in my car and drive to the hospital? or do I call 911?" She was crying so I knew she was getting air so I asked my sister in law to watch my other kids and I drove to the hospital. Every time she got quiet in the car I got so scared and grabbed at her foot to make her cry again...I knew that she had to be getting air if she was making noise so I just needed her to make noise. We got to the hospital and they got her right in and gave her a nebulizer treatment and a dose of steroid. Turns out she had croup. I had heard about croup and thought I would recognize it if I heard it, but I definitely didn't and it was so scary to hear Lily struggling so much to breathe. They kept her for observation for 4 hours to see if the stridor (the high pitched noise) would come back. My amazing mother in law came to the ER after her shift ended at the hospital and sat with me all night long until 5 AM Tuesday morning when they finally released Lily.

Wednesday I drove to NJ with Sara and Lily because Sara had another test at CHOP. Just before the moving truck arrived at our house in June, Sara got another UTI.  Two months off her medication and she got another one. That meant she had to do a test called a VCUG. We were trying to avoid it because they have to insert a catheter and Sara has a HORRIBLE time with needles (we're talking total panic and several people required to hold her down to draw blood or insert an IV). A catheter is pretty invasive...especially to a 7-year old. I asked if there was anything we could do and they said they don't normally do it for this test, but they could do conscious sedation. I told them we definitely wanted to do that.

The drug they use is called Versed and I had been warned by several people that kids coming off of versed can get really mean and people told me that if Sara had ever heard a swear word it was certain to come out. I'm happy to report that they were able to give Sara the medicine orally so she didn't need any needles and the test went SO well. She was just a happy little girl. I don't really have any funny medicated child stories other then that she kept talking about the pretty colors on the walls and when it was time for us to go upstairs to see the doctor she was stumbling like a drunken sailor so they gave me a wheel chair to wheel her around in. The test came back normal which is good news...it means she could go off medication again and there's nothing to treat...it also means we don't know why she's been getting infections. So we're back to just watching and hoping she doesn't get another one.  I am now touting versed as a miracle drug.  This was by far our BEST HOSPITAL TRIP EVER!

 I'll tell you...my girls are going to be the death of me.

I of course didn't take any pictures of the hospital trips, but we did get to see our good friends for a couple hours in Jersey and we went to the reservoir.

Lily wanted a picture with the bear

Still plotting to kidnap these 2 friends

I also realized I hadn't gotten a picture with my great friend Holly so I had to before I left.