One Year Ago Today: 12/18/2012 - Play Hard & Pray Hard: Pneumonia and a New Born (We Were Expecting)

(12/18/2012, Tuesday) Evie slept fairly well, but awoke in a lot of pain due to her pancreatitis. She made the decision independently to skip breakfast. Upon hearing she was in pain, the doctor specified that she shouldn't eat, so we were all on the same page. Her Uncle Leif was able to come up to visit and assist today, which was really awesome. Eventually, Evie was able to get pain medication (morphine) which made her much more amiable. She enjoyed getting a bath, and I was able to get a handful of sticky-remover wipes and spend about an hour peeling off two dressings which needed to be removed. Between the morphine and Uncle Leif's caring distractions, we were able to go slow and steady to win that race. Two difficult dressings removed without any shrieking -- and I even cleaned up several other spots had leftover residue from previous dressings. She was able to get a sponge bath as well, which wasn't what she'd had in mind when she asked for a bath, but in the end I think she enjoyed it. We had a bit of a fiasco trying to order oatmeal for lunch but eventually it arrived, and it got eaten.

Evie's hospital teacher came by about 15 minutes after a movie had started, so when I turned it off she was noticeably perturbed. Eventually she was coaxed into reading a book to the teacher, which was really good for her as its been about 3 weeks since she read anything herself, and for her that is way too long to go without reading.

Afterwords we put Evie in a red wagon, and just wandered around our floor hallways for 20 or 30 minutes. That went well enough that we decided to visit the children's play area. We started off by playing a piano, which again seemed to help re-awaken part of her that has been dormant for weeks. We enjoyed playing a few games (Cranium Hullabaloo, Cooties, trains) and ended up staying for the full two hour block. We may have pushed her to do a bit too much, but it was great to see her out and about.

Shortly after our return she took a two hour nap while I drove home. I left the hospital for the first time in two weeks, and spent 12 hours away so that I could be there for Heather's Ultrasound. The little guy doesn't have a name yet, but look at him from this side, isn't he adorable?

The report from Uncle Leif is that Evie went to sleep around 2230, having received both Diazipem and Morphine. Unfortunately during the night she started having problems breathing. Long story short, we have detected fairly early that she has developed pneumonia. Evie is now on 15 liters of oxygen per hour at 40% (Meaning she's inhaling air that contains 40% oxygen vs. the 21% oxygen that regular air contains.) It appears it may be an infection rather than simply extra fluid in the lungs, but between her x-rays and the general presentation, her case doesn't quite match what is typical. So we've moved again, back to Pediatric ICU -- our seventh room. If we're able to get her off the extra oxygen, Evie could go back to a regular room Thursday (12/20/2012).

DISCLAIMER: Posts Labeled "One Year Ago Today" are a record of what transpired when Evie first became ill.  The slightly edited text comes from emails which we sent to family to let them know what was happening, and to keep them updated.  These posts are usually long, but if you want to truly understand what life was like for us, and what led to this point, it makes for great "light" reading.