She's Home and Recovering

Early Wednesday morning last week our little darling started with a severe case of diarrhea and a high fever.  Thursday morning we took her to the doctor because we knew she was pretty sick.  We were sent straight to the hospital with Isabel.  She got to go through all of the fun things that they do at hospitals.  The IV and the catheter were the main things that she disliked.  But for the most part she didn't care where she was as long as mom was holding her.  She hadn't been eating or drinking for over a day and was severely dehydrated (despite Linden and I trying to force feed her liquids with a medicine dropper and EVERYTHING else we tried).  For those of you with medical backgrounds her bicarb was a 10.

Twenty-seven hours after arriving at the hospital we were able to go home.  Isabel was doing better, but still not perfect.  She didn't eat or drink anything hardly at all on Thursday.  Friday morning she downed the blueberry muffin and chocolate milk they brought for her to eat so we got to go home.  Saturday we were pretty worried that we were going to have to go back to the hospital because Isabel was refusing to eat and drink again and we just couldn't get enough liquids in her with the pedialite through the medicine dropper and the pedialite popsicles, etc.  Then Aunt Misti showed up with pedialite jigglers, Isabel downed them.

We are still pushing liquids, etc. and doing our best to keep her hydrated.  We had a follow-up appt. with the doctor today and they finally had some results from the stool culture and said that Isabel needed antibiotics to treat her severe diarrhea since she still had it and they knew what was causing it.  Hopefully now she can start to really recover and we won't have to worry about dehydration as much in a few days.

Here is our little darling on Friday morning, sitting on the chair/bed that I got to sleep on.  She had just finished her breakfast and was the happiest that we had seen her in over two days.  She has chocolate milk and blueberry muffin all over her face and hospital gown.

I was trying to get a better shot of her little arm, all wrapped up in a board with the IV covered so it wasn't tempting for her to want to play with.  She didn't even really notice it at all on Thursday, she was so sick.  Friday was a different story.  She is actually trying to sit up using just one arm, due to the IV.

Here is the crib that she got to sleep in.  Thursday evening Linden was admiring all of the bells and whistles that the crib had and mentioned that maybe we should get a fancy crib for her at home also.  Later that evening, when Maria and Josh were visiting I told Josh that Linden mentioned maybe we should get one for home.  Josh then said, "That crib would cost more than your house!"  SO TRUE!!  I laughed so hard.  (For those of you that don't know we rent a trailer home from 1973, and my guess is that it would probably cost a few thousand.)  Thanks, Josh.  I really needed that laugh.

Linden came by with the boys to visit for a little bit.  Anton was so concerned about Isabel having to stay at the hospital and not sleep at home.  He didn't want her to be there, but at home with him. It was great to see such love and concern in him for his baby sister. 

I am truly grateful for medical technology and knowledge.  If we had been living in South America or Africa, our little Isabel probably wouldn't be with us still.  It is so hard for me to see my little ones so sick.  I am also grateful for priesthood blessings and the miracles that come with them.  Here in a few more days I am sure that Isabel will be dancing again.  In the meantime we will keep feeding her pedialite jigglers, pedialite popsicles, and pedialite through a medicine dropper when she won't take it any other way.