Just Enjoying

We have just over two weeks until the catheter. Our way of coping so far has been to push it out of our minds. We have not told our two other kids yet. We did not want to give them all the extra time to worry.  But we will have to tell them in the next week.

Until then, our family has launched full on into just enjoying the blessings around us and making preparations for Purim. We have been planning our costumes since the day after last Purim. Tehilla has changed her mind many times and honestly, she better settle on something soon, or she will have nothing to wear.

But we are not shying away from the festivities and are hosting a Purim seudah (meal/party) with probably over 30 people. Despite it being 3 days before her heart catheter. We are celebrating Purim in the biggest way we know how and filling our home and holiday with joy.

Tehilla is loving school and overall happier. She makes sure to save some of her mischief for when she gets home. She had strept throat over the weekend and very sweetly shared it with me and now Ron. Thank G-d we are all on the mend.

I've been having a lot of thoughts about gearing up for this catheter and I'll try to post later.

Our Family Portraits

I am so excited to share with our blog family this post. After our disappointing cardiology appointment last month, I was very disjointed. It was a very unexpected setback and I found myself lost a little. I struggled to remind myself of the joy and blessings.

I reached out to a member of our blog family, someone who has become a friend. I needed desperately to capture our family's joy. I needed this keepsake and I needed it present in our home, constantly visible.

I cannot even begin to explain to you how joyful this family photo shoot was. We all had so much fun and the kids enjoyed themselves so much, that they have asked that we start to do this regularly. I can't possibly promote Faigie more, for her talent and work. She gave us something that we will treasure forever. Here is a link to her Facebook page: Faigy's Photography

Enjoy!

Purple is the New Pink

After a pretty exhausting night, most of us slept in. Tehilla woke up without a fever, still flushed cheeks, and a cranky and whiny disposition.

The on-call doctor very thoughtfully called to hear how Tehilla was and what happened at the hospital.  He repeated the need for Tehilla to be checked out today.

So midday we saw our family doctor.  He was pleased that this on-call doctor had reacted to Tehilla's situation appropriately. He asked some questions and then said, "She's a little purple but looks great otherwise." He read through our discharge papers and felt that the hospital had really checked her out thoroughly.

He said, "So, she's a little purple!" It does seem that she just developed a little virus that had very bad worrisome timing. She is doing fine and seems to be improving. 

Going Home

We have been discharged.  Her blood tests came back clean.  They believe that she has a virus but want her to be checked tomorrow by our doctor.

Yay home!

Toddler Naughtiness

Being in the ER is a different experience with a toddler. Tehilla is being naughty and funny. She removed her pulse ox sensor a few times and puts it back on trying to hide what she's done. She doesn't understand that when the pulse ox reads 96, we know it's not on and it has to be taped down again- with more and more tape.

They might have actually put enough tape on now. Because she can't get it off. So she says, "Mama, this off. Finger hurts. Go home now."

She now doesn't like nurse who took her blood and any time he approaches she starts to shriek. Poor guy. She also yelled at him, "No no no!"

We are waiting for test results and they want to speak to a cardiologist. Her oxygen saturation keeps jumping between 78- 82.

Getting Checked Out

We have had an amazing nurse and doctor so far who have done everything perfectly, including putting EMLA cream (numbing cream) on as soon as we got here for her impending blood tests.

Tehilla has cooperated like a champ. She has been pretty blasé about the whole thing. She let them check her and has been cooperating very nicely.

So far, her chest sounds clear, her oxygen was a bit low for her- it was 77, her blood pressure was her usual high... They found in her throat some pus. So, it could be a viral throat infection.  They did a throat culture and are preparing to do blood tests.

ER Run

We are on our way to the ER. Tehilla finished her antibiotics yesterday and woke up this morning with a fever of 38.4.

All day she ate and drank very little and her fever rose to 39. She started breathing heavily. Her oxygen and heart rate are fine. We called the on call doctor who is concerned that she had a failure of treatment for pneumonia. He is sending us to the ER for blood work and a chest xray.

And here we go...