A Trip to the ER

Admist the craziness of the week of painting- Ellie got sick with Croup.  Like really sick.  She has always been a "sickly" child.  If one of my kids is going to catch something- it's usually Ellie.  That's how I was when I was little, I was ALWAYS getting sick.  Usually it was Strep.  My mom had rheumatic fever when she was younger, so I think I got the bad immune system from my mom and passed it on to Ellie.  Anyways, so we painted probably 10-12 hours on Monday.  Ellie was very sick all day and I took her to the Instacare because I though for sure it was strep, but it wasn't.  The doctor said it was just a really bad virus.  She was lethargic all day and just laid around not eating a thing or even wanting to watch TV.   She wouldn't talk at all because her throat hurt her so much.  I gave her some Nyquil and put her to bed early.  I finished painting and at 12:30am I went to bed exhausted.  At 2:30 in the morning I woke up to Ellie in a panic, "I can't breath!" I was so tired I told her to take a shower and the humidity would help her.  She was relentless, in a raspy voice she kept whispering "I can't breath!!! Mom, you don't understand, I can't breath!!" then she started hyperventilating.  At this point I was more awake and taking her serious.  Darren also was awake by now.  He  jumped out of bed and scooped her up in her arms and and started telling her to breathe- helping her to relax.  Since Darren is used to crazy medical situations, he kept calm the whole time.  He whispered to her helping her to breath in slowly, and out slowly.  He cursed that he didn't have his pulse oximiter to see her oxygen saturation levels.  He recently bought one, Gabe played with it, and we haven't been able to find it since.  So poor Ellie laid there in Darren's arms gasping for each breath.  After he got her calmed down he wrapped her in a warm blanket and took her outside in the cold air.  He was still barefoot and in his garments. LOL I was so thankful for Darren and his calm demeanor.  After a couple minutes he came back in and said that she needed to go the the ER and get a breathing treatment and some steroids.  It's too bad we don't have a nebulizer or albuterol on hand.  It could have saved us a lot of money. But we weren't taking any chances.  It was a scary situation and Darren is well aware of the seriousness of kids not being able to breath.   Darren carried her to the car and I drove her to the ER.  I was thankful the hospital is 4 min. away.  They were great. We were the only ones there and we hadn't waited a whole min. before they called us back.  When they took us back her temp.  was 101.8 and her oxygen stat was 94.  She had just been siting in the car so she was doing a little better.  But by the time we walked back to the ER room her oxygen had dropped to 88.  It slowly went up to 90, then stayed between 92-94 the rest of the night. Even after the breathing treatment.  I don't really know a lot about those numbers- but Darren said that's scary.  The nurse said at 94 a child feels very oxygen deprived and it's very scary for them.  She said with Croup a lot of times you can put them in the shower, or take them in the cold air to help them- but in Ellie's case she needed to come in. I was glad to hear that- because as a parent you hope you make the best decision without being dramatic, and at the same time, not wasting a ton of money by going to the ER without needing to. She assured me we had made the right decision by bringing Ellie in.  And I guess if Darren says she needs to go, she needs to go.  He knows what he is talking about.  

I could hardly get her to smile- but managed a few pictures with a smile.  Her face was pretty blotchy and red because of her fever. After the breathing treatment she felt much better. This reminded me of the same thing thing that happened to her when she was just a toddler.  ER with the croup.  Like I said- she is a sickly child.  I am so thankful for modern medicine, hospitals, doctors, and nurses.   She was still very sick the rest of the week.  We gave her lots of blankets, pillows, electronics, popsicles, ice cream, and of course, lots of love.  We love our little Ellie and are so happy she is feeling better now!

House Projects

Ok- If anyone has been following my instagram account you know I have been working like crazy getting our house painted.  The last two weeks I built our kitchen cabinets up to the ceiling in anticipation for Darrens week off and his dad coming from Massachusets to visit and help with the house painting.  I had everything ready and we have been painting like crazy the last 5 days.  I am exhausted.  I am not going to label any of the pictures because I am just to tired.  There are no "After" pictures here.  This is all "Before" and "During."  My house is still a complete disaster, but I'm just keeping it real.  Here is what I have so far.  You get what you get:)

There you go.  We are painting the bathroom, doors and trim tomorrow.  And hopefully cleaning up a little bit!