Daddy's Fightin' Girl

Good morning baby. You gave us quite a scare the other night. Tuesday evening I came home from work and found out from Mommy that you had been throwing up a lot more than usual over the past two hours. You looked very weak and pale, but in the past whenever you have done this before, you always fought through, and returned to your normal little self the next morning. It was not until I had been home about 15 minutes when you had an enormous diarrhea diaper, that we worried you may become too dehydrated. Your poor little hands and feet were turning dark purple too, which we knew was a bad sign, so Mama said let’s go, and we packed up you and your brother and headed off to Texas Children’s.

When we got there I dropped off you and your mother at the ER entrance and took your brother to park the car. When I returned to the ER, I could not find you or mommy anywhere, so I called her to figure out where you both were waiting. A man asked me who I was looking for, and when I told him he took me right to you both. I walked into a shocking scene with 8-10 nurses, doctors, and other medical personnel crowded around you trying to place an IV and bagging you to help you breathe. You were scared and crying out, and Mommy was crying too. I could not help but cry with you both as I watched you in pain and frightened. It seemed as though your situation had escalated dramatically since I had dropped you off, and we did not know what to think. All we could do was pray through tears, and trust God to take care of you.

They took you straight to the OR after they were unable to place an IV, where they intubated you and then placed a central line in your leg. God was taking care of you the whole time, and he sent some friends to help comfort us and check in on you after surgery. Shanna, Elaine, and Jenni from church came, and so did Grammy and Mema. It was so nice of them to come see you so late in the evening. They love you so much baby.

I slept by your side most of the night, while Mama took care of Liam at home. You did fine through the night and all of your vitals remained stable. Mama came back early the next morning to check on you and so did Honey. Around lunch time Mr. Scott from church came to visit you and he prayed over you with me by your bedside. There are so many people praying for you, and they all love you very much. Even after all you have been through, you are still such a fighter and you amaze me with how strong you are.

We are still waiting to get the results on several blood tests that will hopefully reveal why you got sick. Until then, according to the doctors we cannot extubate you. Last night you were doing fine, and the nighttime doctor said that she would push to have you extubated sometime today pending how you did through the night. Unfortunately, you woke this morning swollen and wheezing. The daytime doctor said that if the breathing treatment works today, and the wheezing goes away, then we might be able to extubate you this evening. We are hopeful, but we know that sometimes these things take longer than expected because they want to be cautious with you.

Now we just wait. Mama took your brother to Grammy’s house this morning so she could devote her attention to you today. He misses you, but this sick hospital is just no place for him. So for now, it is just you me and Mama, kind of like the old days.