COLD

Dallin is practicing for the Polar Bear club. I have a feeling he just might do it. Boys will be boys. That's why women are the smarter spices.

Photo Shoot

Dallin and Eliza where in a photo shoot during the summer. We just got a CD of the pictures. It was a back yard sprinkler party. They were taken by Nicole Hill.

Dallin's really jealous

Since Eliza has been to the hospital all the attention has been on her. Friends have brought balloons and toys. Also while at the hospital in the Peds ICU they have a toy chest, every time Eliza's got poked with a needle for an IV she got to go pick out a toy. Needless to say Eliza came home with an easy bake oven, two new barbies, Polly pocket cat walk, a giant fairy coloring book, My littlest pet shops, stuffed animal, and a my little pony. Well Dallin was pretty upset that Eliza got to have Christmas all over again. I could tell yesterday Dallin was having a hard time and it was confirmed when Eliza came to me in tears because all her new toys were gone. After getting to the bottom of it and talking to Dallin he showed me where all the toys were. He had hidden them under his bed.

Home again

On Friday morning Eliza had a doctors appointment at 9:00am. She was looking much better. A lot of her swelling had gone done, however she still had a high fever. Also her skin was peeling around her face, and hips. I am so thankful that when we left the hospital the pediatrician told us we had to see a doctor before Friday and that he talked to me about our family doctor.He urged us to go to a pediatrician.And told me about the doctor that his kids went to and asked if I would like him to call and see if this doctor would see us.Of course I took him up on the offer. When the doctor saw Eliza and realized she had, had a high fever for a little over a week he asked us to be on the safe side a go right over to the pediatric cardiologist. At the cardiologist he ran two test on Eliza's heart. The first, an EKG and second, a Eco gram(ultra sound). When the results came back we realized Eliza's coronary arteries were swollen and dilated. She has a disease called Kawasaki's disease. If caught within 10-14 days it can most likely be treated without long term heart damage. The risks from the disease is aneurysms and heart damage. So from there we were admitted back into the hospital. At 2:00 Eliza was given IBU to bring down her fever.By 3:30 they started her on IVIG, the medicine to treat Kawasaki's disease.She got the medicine through her IV over the next 12 hours and hasn't had a fever since.
The following morning her cardiologist came in to talk to us and asked how it was that we were able to get into Dr.Seemann, The pediatrician, I told him the story of how Dr. Stokalof made a call for us. Dr. Mathison, the cardiologist, said,"Well you worked into the system very nicely.It was a good catch on his part."
I know that we were very blessed.I'm so tankful for all the prayers on Eliza's behalf. Also on behalf of the doctors. We are very grateful that everything has worked out like it has.
Over the next month Eliza will be taking aspirin to thin out her blood this should prevent any aneurysm. Then we will go in to see if there was any long term heart damage. We will just keep our fingers crossed and say a lot of prayers. Thanks to everyone who kept Eliza in there prayers. It worked!!!! If you want to read what Kawasaki's disease is you can go to the link below.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/heart/kawasaki.html

Dallin really cares

So since Eliza has been sick and not able to play Dallin is finally figuring out that he really does like Eliza.When he went to visit her in the hospital a nurse came running into the room to let us know that Dallin could not be in there at that point Eliza was on isolation.Dallin of course started o cry because he thought his sister was going to die.
On Tuesday at lunch Dallin told me he was feeling something he had never felt before. He felt bad(sympathy) for his sister.
Last night when we got home Steve carried her to the couch and Dallin sat right up next to her and put his arm around her. Any little whine she made Dallin would ask,"Eliza what is it?" Then fix it. A little later on when she got hungry Dallin insisted on making it for her. Steve and I were not even allowed to help.
Today I sent the two of them up to the shower. Eliza's feet are still pretty swollen and has a hard time walking so I watched as Dallin tried to carry Eliza up the stairs. Dallin ended up pushing and lifting from behind which made the stair climb that much harder , however Eliza loved the attention and Dallin was awful proud of himself for helping.
Of course over the course of me writing this I have had to break up one argument over who got the bigger bread stick at lunch which neither of the ate and another over who gets to have there story read first which is what I now have to go and do.
One more funny thing. The first thing Eliza told Dallin when she got in the car was, "Dallin the doctor told me that I have to stay in bed until Sunday.That means that I can't play laser tag with you yet. Are you going to be ok?"

Eliza is Home

If you look at the picture of Eliza asleep on the couch with Lucy you can see that her face is not swollen.That was taken on Sunday.Monday morning it wasn't quite this bad but rapidly swelling. I took her to the walk in clinic first he took one look and said,"I think it is some sort of cellulitis.You need to take her to the ER." We got there and were admitted in the next few hours.

Once she got up to the Peds unit they outlined the rash on her face to see if it would spread or decrease.It didn't take to long for it to swell even more however the redness would go down when her fever came down.

Have you ever seen a kid turn down a sucker?It was not fun watching them get the IV in however she is one tough kid no big tears.Just a little bit of whining. It was the next morning when they came in at 5am to get blood and lost the vain in the IV. So then 3 different people attempted to find a vain.Finally they called in a nurse from peds ICU she came by with a ultra sound and found one. Needless to say she was not happy and I got the brunt of that.I was not being called Mom anymore we were on a first name basis. I was even thrown out for all of a few seconds, but then called back in, with her wondering if I even loved her anymore??

Finally she is asleep I can honestly say I maybe got all of 6 hours of sleep the 3 days we were there. It seemed like if she did fall asleep another nurse was in to give her something or to run labs or something.The second day in the hospital around 2 o'clock Dallin's school called to let us know that Dallin was running a temp of 103 and had bumps all over his throat. I called his pediatrician they said bring him right over.Steve had to but him in a hold while they gave him a shot in each bum cheek and sent him home with some very strong antibiotics. Thank goodness we caught it in time.

Here she is when we found out we finally got to come home. While still very swollen they had bumped her full on enough antibodies to let her go home an fight it off. I am also happy that this morning the swelling in her legs and hands is way down. She is walking on her own and is now sitting at the table able to hold a crayon.Back to being self sufficient. Which makes mom happy.