I'm Back!!!

Unwillingly, I have obviously been absent from blog land for quite some time...Unfortunately, it wasn't for a happy reason. Rylee, my picture of perfect health, was up at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital for a week. When going through the usual round of health questions over and over and over (I could keep going), my answer to each "Any history of ____?" was NO. At first, when she first got sick, we were told that it was just the flu. Me, being intuitive of my own daughter and questioning ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, did not believe that easy diagnosis. I swear, doctors never listen to mommy's. We know our kids! Anyway (stupid St. Peter's Hospital), after one very long 7 1/2 hour ER visit and two regular doctor's visits, in which the only test done was an ultrasound, we were sent up to Mary Bridge's ER. My thoughts were: Normal flu's don't usually involve 104.5 to 105 degree fevers for 6 days and severe leg pain in one particular spot. No cough, no sniffles, no sore throat, and besides the pains that go along with a high fever, no body aches. Granted, I have no P.H.D., but it sounded a little fishy to me. Can anyone tell that I'm a little bitter regarding the high-paid professionals that put my little girl in harms way so they could say they think it's the flu?

So, MB got her right in to the emergency room, shot her over to radiology, took a CAT scan and an X-ray, and scheduled her for an MRI. By this time, we could hardly get her fever to come down at all. My pale little 4 year old baby lay on the hospital bed, crying and cringing when anyone would even get close to her because her leg hurt so bad. They finally got her up for her sedated MRI, which by the way works F.A.S.T! I wish we could get some of that for bedtime... After an hour and almost a half, out she came still sedated, with the words from the pediatric doctor: Keep her sedated and get her up to the O.R. immediately, the surgeon's waiting for her. Oh my gosh...you can't even imagine the thoughts that were rushing through my head! I don't think that I've ever been so scared~ not even the time that I got caught at Mike's house when I was supposed to be at my friend's house, scared me as much as that moment in time. All I could think was "I wish my mom was here, I wish my mom was here, she'd know what to do." But she wasn't...so we were on our own.

As not to not write for days, I'll make a long story a little shorter. She went into surgery so the doc could drain as much fluid out of a pocket on her hip joint, and an abscess on the tip of her femur, as he could. Somehow, bacteria entered her body, infected her blood, and flowed around until it found a nice place to settle and infect, which happened to be her hip joint. This infection had stopped any blood supply going to that part of her body and caused it to begin degenerating... well that and the huge infection that had settled.

After she came out of surgery, we were finally admitted to her own room and settled in for the night. That is where we spent the next week. She went from just having an IV with tons of different medicines (including morphine) continually dripping into her, to having a PICC line inserted into her vein up through the top of her heart. Phew...it just kept getting better and better! She had so many traumatic things done to her in such a short time, that she is still recovering from the stress. I was basically hooked to her the entire time and could not get more than a couple of feet away from her at any given time. Talk about stressful and exhausting at the same time. Mike, the wonderfully giving person that he is, slept on the floor and let me have the chair. He made sure I was eating and drinking and tried so hard to get me to get some fresh air, but I just couldn't. I felt like my heart was breaking every time I stepped out of her room.

She had so many doctors and nurses that I couldn't keep them all straight. She even had a team of 6 doctors that came in every morning and did a debriefing. Those were separate from the specialists and on-calls and all of the rest. Poor Rylee didn't like any of them! She screamed anytime her door would open and someone would walk in. Horrible horrible experience for all involved. We finally got to come home with a wheelchair and a walker because she could not walk, and her PICC line with antibiotics we had to administer every night for 45 minutes. We had a home nurse coming 2 to 3 times per week and numerous doctor visits in between. I'm so scared to open my mailbox every day because the bills are starting to trickle in.

So good news now, she's on oral antibiotics for another 6 weeks, walking with a slight limp still, no PICC line anymore, and the latest MRI showed that her Acute Osteomyelitis is getting better. Yay!!! What a scary time. I'm so thankful to all of our friends and family that offered up prayers and were so generous to our needs. I'm also thankful to Kelly for keeping my other girls at home while we were gone, and so sorry that Alyssa was so sick. We have such great support... Both mine and Mike's employers were also very understanding and supportive, thankfully. I wanted to include a few pictures I was able to take with my phone (sorry some are blurry) and a video of Rylee when she finally had enough strength to start using the wheelchair. She was a pro from the start! Surprising when you've lost 10% of your body weight from not eating for a week and a half :)

The first ER visit at St. Pete's


Right after surgery at MB




Trying to find some humor from her many stuffed animals


All of her glow stick necklaces together~Feeling a little better!

First time getting out of bed!

And she made it with the help of her walker!

Taking a picture of herself while I was talking to the doctor

Ry and daddy in the play room putting together a puzzle

Look at that hair! The staff called her "Rockstar"

Her hair was so matted by the time we left, it took 3 1/2 hours to get the dreads out. It was like a baseball helmet!

Driving home, after stopping at the "wheelchair store" as Rylee put it, it felt like we had been gone a month instead of a week. As we came into Shelton, this is the beautiful scene that greeted us:

I'm so glad this is almost completely behind us. Maybe I can get caught up on some things now... including my blogging!