Seaworld

We've lived 10 minutes from SeaWorld for almost 4 years now, but we've not been once. This year the stars aligned. The kids were old enough that I feel comfortable taking them alone. And, most exciting of all, the price is right! SeaWorld is celebrating their 50th year, so they are offering free preschool passes to children 3-5 (2 and under are always free). So I snagged one for both older kids. Then this week, SeaWorld quietly announced something awesome.... B1G1 free passes this week only! So glad a friend shared that news. We think this is SeaWorld's attempt at getting people to talk AND be excited about the park after the movie and all the bad publicity (that I'm blissfully ignorant about). Whatever the reason, we got season passes for our WHOLE family for $65! That's extraordinary (normally we would have paid $230!)! This week was the week to cash in that B1G1 deal, so we ventured off to the park for the first time yesterday.

First stop... Shamu. We headed to the theater to watch the killer whales perform. There kids were a big mesmerized.

 

Look closer at the photo above. The Mommy Whale is in the air, her baby is under her. They named the baby Shamu. What's up with that name? Guess they just try to carry it on as long as possible, huh?

 

After the whales, we had some lunch and stopped to see the flamingos and other birds. Then it was off to watch the dolphins & beluga whales perform.

 

 

Nathan was out tour guide. I'm not convinced he knew where we were going. But he certainly had the "look" down ;)

 

See the swimmer riding on the nose of the beluga?

 

And the Ruthie, dancing and clapping while standing on her momma's lap?

 

Nathan, in awe of the show. There were dolphins, beluga whales, tropical birds, a clown and some amazing acrobatic dancers.

 

After the show, we headed over to the preschool play area. The kids had been itching to ride the "roller coaster". But the first stop was the carousel (cause the line was short!)

 

 

Ruth never wants to ride a carousel, but yesterday she was having a grand time! Too bad the same couldn't have been said about her big sister... Faith was upset in the picture, because she wanted a purple horse... but it was taken but the little girl behind her. Faith was upset a lot throughout the day.... she didn't want to watch the first show because she just complained about being hungry. And during the second show, she was pretty upset that SHE wasn't one of those aquatic dancers... Hopefully she eventually had SOME fun at the park that day ;)

 

Faith didn't complain once while in line for the kiddie roller coaster! I was worried she could scream and cry. But she loved it! Ruth is the one that screamed when we left her big brother and sister on the ride without her... ha

 

Our last stop was the dolphin cove, where the dolphins swim right in front of you. You're even allowed to touch them, if they get close enough. However, the railing was too high for all the kids to see over, so I had to take turns holding kids, watching the stroller and making sure the waiting kids didn't run away... so we didn't even attempt to touch a dolphin on this visit.

 

Both girls look similar enough, but that's Ruth above and Faith below.

 

The last stop, before leaving, was the shark & sting ray area. That was pretty neat, it was a big aquarium. We all enjoyed that, but by then my cell phone was totally dead, so I didn't get any photos (I didn't haul a real camera out to the park yesterday).

 

The good news is, we have season passes now! So we will be back a few more times this year. Not too many... being hot in the Texas heat, at a crowded park, with three preschoolers, while 6-9 months pregnant. Doesn't sound like something I'll be willing to do that often ;)  But we're so grateful we DO get to go this year!

Final Ruth Update

Ruth is home! She has been for 9 days. So I apologize for the late posting...

  

 

Last Sunday, the doctor informed us the plan for Ruth had not been what we were told, on Saturday. We'd been told she would move to the regular pediatric floor and be taken off the heart monitor and oxygen. She was taken off the heart monitor immediately, but they actually cut her oxygen to 1/4 a liter instead of the 1/2 she'd been on in the PIMC room. And the doctor planned to cut that to 1/8 on Sunday, then nothing on Monday and then go home (hopefully) Tuesday. But Ruth was doing so well, the doctor allowed us to try to cut of oxygen on Sunday. She did fantastic overnight - which was her true test! Her O2 dipped to 90 once, but it was usually 92-95! As long as it remained about 90, they were willing to discharge. So we finally went home Monday afternoon!

 

Discharging was a bit of an ordeal... There was still the question out there about whether she has asthma or not. The ER docs said no way. The team of pediatric docs had mixed feelings. But they all agreed no one was diagnosing her with asthma. But they still wanted to treat her as though she had it... so we had to do an asthma training and wait to get the nebulizer ordered. They wouldn't let us leave until they were certain the machine would be delivered to our home in time for her next treatment. So we waited, a lot. 2 hours after we'd expected to leave, we finally left. Yay!

 

 

This was the first time in 5 days that Ruth had been out of a bed. Not once did she ever try to get out of her hospital bed. There were many times she thought it was a trampoline... but she never tried to get out. Even the morning of her discharge, the nurse gave permission for her to get out - as long as I followed with the IV, and she stayed in the room (because rhinovirus is contagious). But Ruth had zero interest. She was perfectly content getting spoiled in her big bed, with Daddy's iPad all to herself ;)

 

We got home, and the first thing Ruth did was go to the play room and dress up. Her brother and sister were all too happy to help her, too. They were in heaven having their little sister home again!

 

 

Ruth continued breathing treatments at home for a week. Her pediatrician agreed that Ruth does NOT have asthma. He had us wean her off the medications over the week. He warned us that if she gets worse, or get sick in a month, then we'll restart the meds. But so far, she's great! And she loves the freedom of NOT having nebulizer treatments 2-6 times a day. And I love NOT having to give nebulizer treatments at 1am and 5am :D

 

I never updated about the med clinic doctor. He was kind enough to charge us $200+ for his lack of medical knowledge. And he was nice enough to call me on Friday, while Ruth was in the hospital, to follow up. I'll give him credit for taking time to do that - although I understand that is standard for the clinic. The doctor asked me how Ruth was done now that she's out of the hospital. I informed him that they ADMITTED her with double pneumonia, mycoplasma pneumonia, a double ear infection and rhinovirus after they examined her, did bloodwork, a nasal swab and an x-ray. I really wanted to stress that they actually LOOKED at her, unlike himself who diagnosed her as he walked into the exam room - before he'd ever even seen what she looked like. The doctor then went on for a few moments, telling me that she definitely has asthma and it must be aggravated by seasonal allergies. Excuse me doctor?!?! He was lucky that I was in no mood to argue with him. I just allowed him to refuse to admit he might actually be wrong even though we had medical evidence to prove this wasn't seasonal allergies.... Ok, off of that topic. He deserves no more of my time. Though the med clinic is getting a letter from me about the whole thing.

 

Anyways, Ruth did great at home. Until day 4. Then this happened:

 

 

It started on her inner arm Friday night. By Saturday morning,the rash had spread everywhere. And by Sunday, it had turned to big welps on her back. And it started to itch...

 

I called the hospital nurse Saturday morning. She assured me, without needing to see her (so nice!), that it was an allergic reaction to amoxicillin. Turns out, she was on a sulfa drug in the hospital, so she'd only been on amoxicillin for 3.5 days when the rash appeared. The nurse told me what to look for when deciding if I should bring her in. None of those symptoms appeared, so we waited till Monday to see our pediatrician. He agreed it is an allergic reaction to penicillin.

 

Today, Wednesday. Her back and belly are completely clear! Her arms, hands, palms, face and legs still have a few spots on them. But they no longer itch. Yay!

 

Needless to say, it's been an eventful few weeks in the life of our little Ruthie... She's taught us a lot, and been such an amazing trooper through it all!

 

Oh, and now since we've apparently met our deductible this year, everyone's getting their tonsils and appendix out next month. Just kidding. Sorta ;)

 

Ruth Update

Ruth's been in the hospital for 3 days now. I'm just getting a chance to update the blog again, so sorry for those not on facebook to see brief updates! And sorry for those who've messaged me and I've still not responded. It's been a bit overwhelming - but in a good way. We're so thankful for all the people that care, pray and have helped!

Ruth is doing well. Yesterday was a good day. Though the doc added a new antibiotic because they diagnosed her with mycoplasma pneumonia - on top of the double pneumona, rhinovirus and a double ear infection. Poor kid! She progressed well yesterday, though!

Today she moved up to the regular pediatric floor today. I'm not sure what it says of me that I had no clue we were on the Pediatric Intermediate Care Unit (PIMC)... I've lost most sense of time and place ;)  But the nurses and hospital staff have been awesome!

Ruth moved up to the regular floor because she no longer needs a heart monitor. She had a number of PVCs, arrhythmias and bradycardias (abnormally slow rate) last night - which everyone assures us is completely normal, especially during sleep. Faith has PVCs. I have tachycardia thanks to hormones (abnormally fast rate episodes). And I know both are benign so I'm not worried, in the least, about Ruth's events last night. But that darn heart monitor alarm... Ug!!! I would have actually slept had it not gone off so much.  So saying goodbye to the monitor is good news on a few levels!

Ruth's O2 levels are great during the day! But when she sleeps, it's another story... which, everyone tells us is normal. You're not moving around when you sleep, so everything slows down. Last night started off well, but by 2am, I had to start adjusting her sleep position a lot to get her 02 stats up. I'm sure we'd be home by now if it weren't for how low she dips at night. But the doctor isn't concerned. In fact, she sees so much progress that she's removed the constant O2 monitoring. Ruth gets checks a handful of times throughout the day now, and when we let the nursing staff know she's asleep. Yay for even fewer wires and tubes :)

Her breathing rates are still hopping from 20s to mid 40s. Mid 40s is too high for her age, so the doc is slightly concerned about that. But not too much. Her retractions have almost completely disappeared - and that's more important! The doctor has uped her nebulizer treatments, though. Instead of every 4 hours, she got 2 every 2 hours today and now it's up to every 3 hours from now until we're discharged. Thankfully she takes these well while sleeping, too :) When we're discharged, we'll be going home with a nebulizer machine, too - not just an inhaler, it sounds like.

Once she's proven to do well without oxygen, they'll discharge her. We're praying and hoping that's early tomorrow. But no one knows. I've had many friends share with me their stories of their child in the hospital with pneumonia and it sounds like everyone stayed 4-9 days. Here's hoping we're one of the 4 day families :)

Ruth's a trooper!! She has been soooooo good! She hasn't complained too much about being stuck in bed, the nasal tube, the pulse oximeter on her toe, or being unable to use her right hand (the night they gave her the IV, she was very much favoring her left hand, so the IV went in her right hand even though I think she usually prefers her right on a normal day).

When a nurse, Respiratory Therapist or tech comes in, Ruth hands them her IV hand, or leg (for blood pressure), without even being asked. She's a pro! She reminds me so much of my Dad right now. Not complaining about a thing. Just taking it all in stride, with patience and full trust in the medical team (and her parents). What a blessing she is to us!!

Last night, she was giggly and telling all the staff "night night, bye bye, have fun!" after they came to check on her. Guess she thought we were all at a big party. haha  But she did eventually go to sleep. I was hoping to share the bed with her... cause the parent "bed" in her room was made of gravel. I feel bad for any parent who stays more than one night in there! But Ruth decided she needed the WHOLE big bed to herself. haha.

When she's awake, playing with netflix, watching family videos of her siblings, or doing puzzles on the iPad are her favorite things. Playdoh and reading the same books over & over until my eyes bleed, have also helped to entertain her. Every few hours crankiness hits, so we rock and snuggle and eventually she calms down.

Yesterday she was so tired. Hopefully today is better since she slept a long time last night (12 hours, 10pm-10am). Jacob has been with her since 1pm. He said she napped for a few hours, but still was cranky some. He'll stay with Ruth tonight and the big kids and I will go over in the morning. The parent "bed" in her new room looks not so grand... but 2000% better then the bed made of gravel in the PIMC room. So hopefully Jacob can get some sleep tonight with Ruth. And no heart monitor to beep every 3 minutes :D

Nathan & Faith have been AMAZING big siblings! They have been helpers when we're home (what little time that's been), and super patient at the hospital. Jacob got to take them on a Pizza Hut date last night, and tonight I spent time playing games with them, too. They miss their sister lots, and she misses them. We all miss Ruth. I'm use to sleeping at home with Jacob out of town, but going to sleep Thursday night with Ruth not home... that was WEIRD. I didn't like it. Is this what it's like for parents of teens and college students? Dislike! I imagine tonight will be just as odd.

Friday, Jacob's coworkers got Ruth a get well present. It was really sweet of them. And, especially considering they know nothing about her, I'm not sure they could have given her a better gift...

 

A "Read with Me" roro! She LOVES her Violet Leapfrog toy (aka roro). And she loves books! So she, obviously, loved her present. :D

 

And she probably loved reading the books with Daddy and her new roro even more.

 

In fact, all the kids enjoyed Daddy story time!

 

And nap time is more complete now with TWO roros :D

Well, that's about all the news I can think of. Thank you for praying for Ruth. Pray she goes to bed easily for Jacob soon and sleeps well tonight, with good oxygen levels all night! And that tomorrow we get to bring her home.

Pneumonia

It's been a long last 24 hours at our house. It all started with a sweet little two year old who had a coughing fit after our kindergarten tour at a local school. She threw up her breakfast from coughing so much. But she still seemed to be feeling fine. And had no fever (99.45). As the day progressed, she had little appetite but otherwise acted well. She coughed up her fruit from lunch and I grew more concerned... but still, no fever. And no other symptoms. Must be a cold going around... again. Seems like they're never ending in our area this year! And we've been blessed to avoid almost all of the bugs.

 

I put Ruth down for naps with a humidifier, advil and some peppermint oil to help her breath better. She slept well and woke her normal self. She ate two helpings at dinner, and joined us for a movie and popcorn in the living room after. That's when the coughing came back, and up came the popcorn. Must be the popcorn irritated her, right? I gave her some advil and took her temp - 99.3. Now I'm confused...

 

She started breathing heavily as we got ready for bed. And wheezing. Do I call the doctor in the morning or take her to the med clinic at 9pm tonight??? Ug, I hate the decision.

 

I googled her symptoms and found they were a dead on match for RSV. So off to the clinic we went.

 

The doctor was.... well.... a piece of work. He came in the exam room saying, "Someone in here has asthma, I can here the wheezing from the next room". I explained no one had asthma, my daughter was sick. The doctor sternly corrected me and told me, without a single exam, that she had asthma. She wasn't sick.

 

He asked for her medical history and was puzzled that she'd never had RSV or bronchitis before, usually kids get asthma after exposure to those illnesses a few times. So he asked about family history and, again, was puzzled. No one has asthma?! He didn't believe me. He told me someone in my family was hiding the truth, someone somewhere has asthma. So at this point, I have lost 100% faith in this doctor and if it weren't 9:30pm, I'd of demanded to see someone else. But there was no one else.

 

When he left the room to get the nebulizer machine, I googled "Treat RSV like its asthma" and found that many doctors do, in fact, treat RSV the same way they'd treat asthma. So I let the doctor do the nebulizer. Her oxygen level was 92 before the procedure. No one ever explained to me that 92 is the lowest most docs deem safe.

 

 

Ruth didn't like the nebulizer mask... but she was tired and sick and willing to obey, mostly. She got plenty of wiggles out after the 5 minute session. But her oxygen level was 85 afterwards, and her wheezing wasn't much improved. Again, I was ignorant that 85 was very dangerous. I just wanted meds and to go home to treat my child for the RSV I was sure she had. Afterall, it's going around church. And Ruth was a wiggly toddler who, aside from a cough and wheezing, was acting normal.

 

However, the doctor told me that she needed hospitalization, because "it is clear she has uncontrolled asthma since her ears and throat all looked fine". Um.... HELLO DOCTOR! YOU NEVER CHECKED HER EARS OR THROAT!!! He never did a nasal swab, a blood test, an xray.... He was a total quack set on his first impression that she had asthma and was unwilling to be proven wrong.

 

The doctor did look in her ears and throat after I informed him he had yet to do that. He apologed and told me he sees too many patients in a day. Um... great, thanks, that gives me even LESS confidence in you...

 

At this point, I've decided to take Ruth to REAL doctor in the morning. But this clinic doc won't let me go. He doesn't explain anything to me. He just tells me I need to get her to the hospital via ambulance asap. Huh? She's SICK doc. She needs antibiotics and maybe a steroid shot. Not an ambulance... are you crazy? I thought he was, after all, he'd given me ZERO reason to trust him thus far. And no one had explained why 85 was so scary.

 

The doctor decides, instead, to do a second nebulizer treatment with oxygen this time. Afterwards, not much improvement but her O2 level is 97. I knew that was good! Lets go home now...

 

But the doctor, again, refuses to let me go. He is insistent now that I take an ambulance to the children's hospital. No explanations. I have zero reason to trust his gut feeling and blow $$ on a seemingly unnecessary ambulance ride... So I quietly asked the nurse, when the doctor left, "Do you trust this doctor? If it were your kid, would you listen to him?" The nurse, earlier in the visit had acted as though she also felt he had some loose screws, so I thought she'd be honest with me. She told me she'd go by ambulance. I asked her to do one more pule oxygen test, now that 5 minutes had passed since the last one. She agreed. Ruth's #s had dropped to 92 in those 5 minutes. And she explained that under 94 is worrisome, under 90 is serious. That brain damage could occur. She convinced me.

 

Two minutes later the doctor comes back in a fury. He slams open the door and yells at me: "Do you have any idea how serious this is?!?! She could D I E (he spelled it out)"... I tried to explain he'd given me little information and no reason to trust him - but the nurse had explained things much better and I was OK with the trip to the hospital with Ruth on oxygen. He was furious at me. But I was still really confused... what was I doing?! Surely this isn't THAT serious. Is it?!?!

 

Ruth was a trooper on the ambulance!!!

I'm still in awe of how calm she was, just taking it all in. She couldn't see me on the 20 minute ride, I was behind her. And she never freaked out, not once. She even left the oxygen tube alone.

 

(Sorry for the blur, we were walking and I just had my cell phone).

 

Once in the hospital, the doc poked her head in to see how serious Ruth was. She explained she had 5 patients all come in at the same time and needed to determine who was in worst shape so she knew who to see first. 30 seconds later, she was back telling me Ruth won. What?! Really?!?! Now I'm starting to worry.

 

The hospital doctor agreed with me that this is probably no asthma and the clinic doctor had no right not even testing for other things. She explained they would test for RSV and a couple dozen other things. As well as xray. They also wanted to put her on an hour long albuterol treatment. So now I'm starting to think the clinic doc may have been a quack, but at least he was treating her the right way (even if for the wrong thing).

 

Ruth's xrays came back positive for double pneumonia. Bloodwork would later tell the doctor is was bacterial. Ruth got a heart monitor, a blood pressure leg cup, a pulse oximeter on her big toe, and an IV and split in her right arm. Oh yeah, and another face mask. Poor kiddo. Bubbles cheered her up some. But she was also exhausted. Afterall, by now its 1am.

 

She really liked (and still likes) her glowing pulse oximeter on her toe ;)

 

Mommy and Ruthie snuggled most of the night away as I tried to get her to go to sleep. But the mask was too annoying to her, she finally did fall asleep around 5. And after each hour long treatment, she was retested on the respiratory therapists scale, and remained at a #7 all night and all day Thursday. She arrived at #8 - going down is good. But she needs to go down much more.

 

Her heartrate climbed higher with each albuterol treatment (which we were told to expect, but that didn't make it less scary!). And once they uped her oxygen to 50%, her oxygen levels stabilized at a good spot. But most of the night and morning they fluctuated between 86-92. Keeping her above 90 was my job. Lots of snuggles, and readjustments of her body position and the mask.

 

Late morning, Jacob came to replace me. And let me get home to let big kids have lunch and naps. And, mostly, let me nap. By then I'd been up for 30 hours straight. Don't judge... but I let the kids get babysat by Netflix and I went to bed for 2 hours. That's all I could nap (thanks to my darn pregnancy that wakes me with dizziness when I need food). But the kids were great. They ADORE their baby sister. Nathan brought a whole backpack of books to read - books are Ruth favorite thing in the world. I'm pretty sure they beat out chocolate and mommy. Maybe not quite Daddy ;)  The big kids were worried about their little sis and so sweet to her during their short visit in the ER. Yes... ER... we still didn't have a real room.

 

While Daddy was on hospital duty, I think he read 100 stories to Ruth and got her giggling! She ate lunch and started to come back to life - yay! They even had her off oxygen for half an hour!! That was huge!! I was really worried about her that morning as treatment after treatment did nothing for her breathing (avg 45 per min, should be 20ish), retractions, or oxygen level and just made her heart go faster and faster. By the time we got back to see Ruth, and bring dinner, she was in a regular room, off the albuterol mask and on a regular oxygen nose tube thing. Only at 1 liter oxygen, too!

 

The nurse told us they'll probably cut it back to 1/2 a liter in the morning and then try to wean her off completely by afternoon. 24 hours after she's off oxygen, she'll be able to go home - assuming she does well.

 

So our sweet little angel is enjoying Daddy time tonight (with his phone!). And slowly getting back to her normal wiggly self. The nurses have all warned us that albuterol makes kids HYPER, so when she's feeling better, she'll be a bit wild. Sounds like fun.... wrangling a 2 year old attached to wires, in a tiny room, all day long. We shall see. I should go rest to prepare!! After all, 2 hours of sleep is not nearly enough for the last 38 hours...

 

I'll update the blog later tomorrow when we know even more. But in the mean time, we are so thankful for your prayers! And very grateful that Ruth has progressed so much today. And I'm even thankful for the crazy med clinic doc (who I will never see again). He may be a quack, but he knew enough to know those retractions in her neck and belly were not to be handled lightly and he got me to go to the hospital (well... his nurse did). The docs at the hospital have told us that Ruth may develop asthma later. But right now, their only priority is to clear up the real problem - double pneumonia. Oh yeah, and a double ear infection to boot. Praise God for getting me to get Ruth where she needed to be, in spite of my ignorance. I cannot imagine what we would have found this morning if I'd waited to call the doctor in the morning! Lesson learned.... listen to your gut!