Update

Whew! What a week. I'm sure if you are reading this, you have some idea what's been going on this week, but here's a recap.

Sunday night-Ella began running a fever. I wrote it off as a common teething symptom.

Monday-Ella continued to run a pretty high fever which I was able to control with Motrin every 6 hours. Aaron was going on a week of needing his breathing treatment and was having a hard time sleeping due to wheezing, coughing and congestion in his chest, so I went ahead and scheduled an appointment for both kids on Tuesday morning. Ella's fever rose to 103.7 that night and she started coughing.

Tuesday morning-I took both kids to our pediatrician at 9:30. She increased Aaron's breathing treatment to a higher dosage and put him on an antibiotic. She checked Ella's ears, throat, nose and chest and all sounded/looked normal. She could hear a rattle in her chest, but nothing really that would cause such high fever. She sent Ella across the street to the lab for some outpatient tests (Flu/Swine Flu/RSV, etc) and Thomas came to bring Aaron home for lunch. I stayed with Ella as they drew her blood (It took 3 pokes and moving the needle around in her arm to find a vein-very hard for a mommy to watch). Then they took a sample from her nose to check for RSV. Finally, with a very exhausted baby and a very hungry mommy that skipped breakfast, Ella and I got home around 1pm. I laid her down in her bed and she immediately fell asleep.
With both kids taking a nap, I weighed my options. 1) unload the dishwasher and start a much needed load of laundry OR 2)Crash on the couch with a Lean Pocket and try to take a nap. I chose option 2! My phone rang at around 2:00 from the Dr. saying that Ella's white blood count came back at 30,000, which was significantly higher than the normal count of 12,000. She had tested negative for all the other tests. Basically, since she was running such a high fever and her white count was so high, we knew there was an infection-just didn't know where! She told me to go ahead and bring Ella to the hospital so they could run a few more tests and do a chest xray.
SO, I left Aaron sleeping in his bed with my mom downstairs, packed a few things in Ella's diaper bag and headed to the hospital.
The hardest part of this whole thing was that afternoon. I had to sit in her hospital room and listen to her scream for an hour while they worked on her a few doors away. They couldn't get the IV in, so the ended up having to put it in her forehead. When they got her back, I just held her and loved on her.

Wednesday-Blood count was down to 24,000, still kept fever controlled with medicine, very fussy and restless. She nursed and ate veggies for lunch, but then refused me or any other food after that all day and all night. Still coughing and congested, they put her on a breathing treatment every 4 hours.

Thursday-Blood count was back up to 26,000 and we had to give her Motrin/Tylenol every 3 hours to control the fever from spiking up. Still fussy and still didn't nurse/eat all day (I'm pumping to keep my supply going). At 5:00 she was running high fever and whimpering, but did a complete turn around by 7:00 she was happy, laughing and fever free. Dr. called off scheduled spinal tap. Her doctor said she had been praying all day for Ella and I can tell she truly believes in the power of prayer. How awesome is it to have a Christian pediatrican? WONDERFUL. She said if Ella goes 24 hours without needing Motrin/Tylenol for fever, then we can go home!

Today-Ella slept well until about 4am then had a fever spike. She tossed and cried softly for a couple hours then fell back to sleep. This morning she was happy for about an hour and even took a few bites of rice cereal. Her white count was WAY down to 15,000 Still won't nurse. So it's been 48 hours since her last feeding. Dr. ordered a spinal tap for this afternoon. She won't be on call this weekend and wants to rule out anything else with the spinal tap.

What can you do for us? Pray for these things:

1) She gets an appetite and begins nursing.
2) That this fever FLEES and stays away.
3) Spinal tap results come back normal.
4) White count continues to fall to the normal 12,000.
5) Cough subsides and congestion in her chest loosens.
6) REST for all of us. Resting in a hospital is...well...resting in the hospital!
7) Complete continued healing for Aaron. He's happy and active, but still needing his breathing treatment for cough/congestion in his chest.


~This morning as I was getting ready, I was praying and just asking God why we can't just find out WHAT is causing this? That's what bothers me the most is just not knowing! But as soon as I began asking Him that, I felt Him speak to my heart and say that there isn't a "name" on her situation because HE is the Name above all names and that since we are not recieving any "names" or diagnosis then we aren't going to find what that "name" is! How awesome is that? The doctor can't even find out what is causing this, because we don't receive sickness in Jesus Name. By HIS stripes, she is healed and whole.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks so much for your faith-filled prayers for us. Thomas and I are great. We have gotten to spend alot of time together in the room, just talking and being with each other.

Be blessed.