I know it's been forever!!!!

It had been forever since I posted but I thought that Ella's trip to the hospital deserved some writing. So, on Friday night I had to take Ella to the ER. She was having some trouble breathing and it was getting worse. She had an episode similar to this about a month and a half ago and I took her to urgent care and they did a chest xray and ruled out pneumonia and said as long as it got better and not worse it was probably nothing major to worry about. We went to her regular doctor the next day and they said it was probably caused by a virus that was causing brachial constriction. So, when she started having the same issue again on Friday I was concerned, but not overly worried. But when she went to bed at 7 and then woke up at 8 and it seemed worse, I started getting concerned. I took her to the ER at about 8:30pm and we were seen right away. As soon as the doctor came in and saw her he ordered a nebulizer treatment for her and we got transferred to a different room. In our new room they came and put an IV in her little arm and took blood, gave her some magnesium and steroids and let us be for a while. She then got another round of nebulizer treatment and was feeling better, besides all the "pokes".

Doing her nebulizer treatment in the ER

They decided that she needed to be admitted to the hospital and be monitored for 24 hours :( I then called Marc and he was on his way, in a cab! All Ella wanted Daddy to bring was a balloon, so Marc stopped at the grocery store and found her a butterfly balloon, a race car, and a box of Reese Pieces. Once Daddy came with the presents she was feeling a little better.

Happier after daddy brought her a balloon

As soon as they told me we had to stay, my heart just sank. I couldn't picture how it was going to be to stay in a hospital with a two year old. It was so painful to watch her get poked and prodded by all the nurses and doctors. I shed a few tears to say the least.

We didn't get sent up to the hospital room until about 2am! I was exhausted and had been up since about 5:30am, Ella was also exhausted (obviously). Marc stayed with us until we were all settled in and then headed home, as we had his sister and her boyfriend staying with us. Ella ended up sleeping for about 4 hours and I think I maybe got about an hour. Saturday morning we waited until the attending doctor arrived at about 8am, for him to tell us the next move. He came in and listened to her breathing and decided that we better stay for another 24 hours. He also wanted to hook her back up to her IV and do nebulizer treatments every three hours and steroids every 6 hours. That news broke me, I couldn't imagine spending a whole day and another night there. I called Marc and told him the news and he came back over as soon as he could. I was able to get home and shower and relax for a bit then headed back. Ella was so brave the whole time and such a good girl. We got up a few times and walked around our unit with her IV pole and everything! We managed to make it through the day with lots of cartoons and treats. Marc stayed with us through the evening and then headed home again to spend some time with his sister and get some good sleep. Ella and I managed to get to bed about 10pm. She decided that she wanted to sleep in the pull out bed (that was supposed to be my bed), so I let her sleep there, I figured as long as she slept I didn't care. So, that left me sleeping in the child size bed/crib! Ella slept for almost 10 hours and I got at least 4 or 5, so not that bad. We patiently awaited the doctors arrival the next morning. He came at about 8am again and gave us the ok to head home. The diagnosis is still not 100%. It could have been an asthma attack or some kind of allergic reaction. She was breathing fine when they let us go home an the doctor gave us a prescription for an inhaler to use until we saw our regular doctor. We went to the regular doctor yesterday and she gave us a prescription for Singular, which Ella will take daily and they took blood to do some initial allergy testing.

It was the most emotionally exhausting thing I have every been though! I can't even imagine how parents do it when their kids have to be in the hospital long term. My heart goes out to all families with kids in the hospital. Thank you to everyone for all the kind words and thoughts. Ella is back to her regular self, attitude and all!

Hooked up to her IV and watching cartoons