Ahhh, how nice to stretch out

We are LOVING Emma's new room in the PICU. It's so much more spacious. It's still not as nice as her room in the NICU, but that's ok. Russell and I have spent the last three nights here, and they've been ok. Monday night was pretty good, and last night was just ok. Emma chokes a lot at night, which is alarming to wake up to. She also makes a ton of noise when she sleeps, which we could sleep through when we only hear it through a monitor...but sleeping through it IN the room with her is a different story.

I last blogged that Emma choked 21 times from Sunday morning to Monday morning; she did it 12 times from Monday morning to Tuesday morning and 10 times from Tuesday morning to this morning. Even though the choking incidents have gone down in number, that doesn't mean the problem is fixed...it just means the symptoms aren't as prevalent on those given days. Emma's throat muscles just don't work properly, and there's not really any way to fix them. So we're just sitting tight, waiting to see how things develop.

Emma had a terrible day today, probably the worst day she's had ever since she was born in terms of pain. Because her breathing is so precarious right now, they can't give her much in the way of pain medicine. Mom and I were about to go bonkers. Emma stayed awake for 12 hours, beginning at 5:30 am, and she cried...no, make that SCREAMED...beginning at lunchtime until she fell asleep at 5:30 pm. We finally figured out (the stinky way) that she was gassy. Poots ruined my day. She was in so much pain; it was just heartbreaking. Since it's the hospital, she can only have Mylicon every 6 hours...which did us no good today. I have a theory, though: Emma's getting formula that runs through a tube from her nose to her stomach, and I think that some air got in that tube and caused all this. We witnessed it today, actually, and luckily caught it before it was too late. The nurse just had to come in and disconnect it at a certain point to let the air out.

It's kind of weird to watch stories on the news and read about them in the newspaper and realize that these are the kids right down the hall. You may have read in the paper about a 7-month-old boy from Easley whose death is being treated as a homicide. He was our next-door neighbor. You may have also seen that a 2-year-old little girl drowned - we saw the helicopter fly her in and then saw the helicopter crew 5 minutes later. In fact, I saw more of this sad situation than I wanted to because I had to use the bathroom; we have a toilet in Emma's room, but it sounds like a grenade going off, so we use the bathroom right outside the PICU. I couldn't get to the bathroom around the helicopter gurney last night, and I had to walk past the little girl's crying family this morning an hour after she passed away. No telling what's next. Our night nurse told us before she left this morning that it was a bad night. They anticipate a bad weekend this weekend because it's a holiday weekend. The nurses have told us that during holidays and summertime, they are full with traumas, and during the fall and winter, they're full with flu and pneumonia cases. So far, we've found that to be true - with the warm weather, one little girl drowned and another little boy fell out of a tree. He's doing well, by the way, for those of you who have been keeping up with my blog.

God, please have mercy on our little girl. We don't know what your mercy will look like, and we don't know what to pray for specifically. You feel the groans of our hearts when we have no words, though. We trust that you will guide us through this trial; please reveal your will to us, and let us be at peace with it. Thank you for these nurses who care so much for our little girl, and please comfort all those families around us who are struggling as well.