I Was a Scaredy Squirrel!

Merry Christmas! (Even though on a technicality, that was "yesterday" I am posting a little after midnight).

There has been lots of Holiday Bloggy Love out there! In case you missed me (and I kind of hope you did), I was off line for a few days. I would like to say it was because I was so wrapped up in the holiday cheer and I was baking and decorating and shopping- but that was not the case....and I warn you now, this is where I actually get serious-

I spent the last 4 days at Vanderbilt's Children's Hospital in Nashville with my daughter!
It was the craziest thing. ( Even in my own head, it is hard to wrap my brain around it- so I am going to give the extremely short version...who am I kidding, right?)

She just wasn't herself- very tired, very pale, no appetite, a little nausea (and to boot- it was "that time"). And when I say pale, I mean like her lips were the same color as her face. So we took her into the children's clinic here at home. They in turn, sent us to the ER at Gateway (our local hospital) because her hemocrit  (can't get spell check to fix it) levels were low. They explained that for a woman they expect between 15-18. When it is "that time" 12-15. When it gets to 8 there is a big worry, need transfusion. Hers was a 4.6! So they were afraid she was going to go into shock!

Her bp was out of whack, and her heart was racing. So they put her on fluids and heart monitor while they do labs on her blood. Obviously anemic, but something more serious going on.

They come into the ER room and say, "We have called the ambulance to transfer her to Vanderbilt." I was in total shock! They said she needed a transfusion and needed to be under the care of a peds gyno (which we do not have here).

So I ride in the ambulance with her, Dad followed behind. It was soooo scary! We get into the Er and it took 5 hours and 2 units of blood, then they admitted us to the PICU (the pediatric intensive care unit) ! At this point,  I am in a zone. That is the only way I know to explain it. My body went on auto-pilot to keep her calm and listen to the Drs but I just could not get over the fact that everything was so serious and I didn't know- does that make sense? Like when you tell one of your children to go on to school because they will be fine, and then they come home by 10am because they have the flu or a stomach virus.....kind of like that, but only a billion times worse!

So she ends up with another unit of blood and they keep taking blood to make sure she was accepting it and checking for bleeding disorders and she never got to sleep for more than an hour or so at a time.  She as on IV estrogen and they had to check her constantly to make sure that was working okay. There was an ultrasound to see if it was a gyno issue- no results there. The final answer was "Anemia can lead to heavy bleeding and heavy bleeding can lead to being anemic, we just aren't sure where she fell into the loop"/ So we have to follow up. They are keeping her on the estrogen pills and we have to follow up.

We made it home by 7pm on Christmas Eve- in time for Santa to get the news that she was back home in her bed for the night.

It was the scariest 4 days of my life!!! I want to just wrap her in bubble wrap and keep everything away from her to make sure she is okay. The boys were worried sick! They came into see her one night  and were immediately silenced by the sight of her hooked to so many machines. They were also amazed when they looked around- and you are not going to believe this- well, you will, because I have pictures.
But they wheel her in the room in the PICU and as I am talking to the Dr, I look up. Here is  a shot of the wallpaper in the room:

(I waited until she was asleep and we were alone to take the pictures) These squirrels went all the way around the room.)

 

 

 

 

And behind her bed was a masterpiece of a painting:

There were a few others, but my cell phone batt went out.

I told her there were squirrely little angels looking out for us!
Of all the rooms in that gigantic hospital!?!?!?!?

I have my fam back together (the Mr did a wonderful job of holding things down while I was gone with her) and that is the best gift I could have gotten this year!
I hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas as well, and the best wishes for a happy and healthy new year!