Good, old friends I hate to see again

Before I get any further in this post, let me clarify something from my previous post.  Yes, Emma did take three steps with her right leg, aided by a walker.  She didn't do it without the support of a walker, but she DID IT!

So, on to less exciting....actually downright depressing news.  I am typing this blog from the comfort of a fold-out bed/chair in Emma's room in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.  We thought Emma had a cold, as she does every few months.  Today was especially bad for her, and she choked on that nasty mucus, turned blue, and passed out three times this morning with my mom.  Her pediatrican wanted her to come in just to check on her and make sure it wasn't something more serious like RSV.  The whole RSV thing was kind of a side note; she thought Mucinex to thin things out a bit would do the trick.  But we went in anyway.  Long story short, Emma was diagnosed with RSV on the spot (for once, labwork that comes back almost immediately).  So off to the hospital we went.  I learned tonight that Emma has a mild case of RSV, which is still pretty awful.  Perfectly healthy children who catch RSV very typically end up on a breathing tube for a week because their bodies just can't get enough oxygen.  We are seeing on Emma's oxygen saturation monitor tonight that she is hovering around 92%...which apparently is pretty good for RSV...we're used to around 98 or 100.  An average kid with RSV can't maintain sleeping oxygen levels above 75% sometimes.

The good friends I speak of in the title of this blog post are the absolutely delightful nurses who greeted us with hugs and gasps of how beautiful, sweet, funny, charming, and healthy (relatively speaking) Emma is.  If ya gotta go back to the hospital, it sure is nice to be around a group of people who treasured their time with our baby girl for 3 weeks, a long 18 months ago.  Everyone, doctors and nurses alike, are amazed at well she is doing, compared to how she was when we left this place 18 months ago.  I know and don't take for granted how God has blessed us with a flourishing child.  But it really puts it into perspective to come back to the people and places in our lives 18 months ago.  They are all so shocked at (a) how well she's doing and (b) that she hasn't been back in the hospital since we left in May 2010.  Do you ever have those days when you question where God is?  I do.  And today is NOT one, even though we're back in the hospital.  Because the nurses and doctors here have unknowingly slapped me in the face with a reminder that today Emma may not be well, but she has been growing and flourishing for the last 18 months - something that they never expected.

So I LOVE lists.  Here's the list of things I forgot in my mad dash to pack myself and Emma:
1.  Emma's toothbrush
2.  Emma's toothpaste
3.  Emma's eye patch
4.  The USB cord for my camera

I have a few pictures to post, but #4 above presents a bit of a problem.  Hopefully I can get them posted tomorrow.

Please pray for our baby girl to get over this vicious virus tomorrow.  I am not naive enough to think that she'll get to go home tomorrow, but I also am not pessimistic enough to think it would be later than Wednesday.  RSV peaks around day 4 or day 5, which would be today or tomorrow.  Thankfully, the PICU doc was on day 1 of his 3-day shift, so he'll have witnessed the whole thing from beginning to end to decide if she can go home tomorrow or Wednesday.

Now...let's see if I can get some sleep on this awful bed, crammed in with Russell after he finishes working.  Oh.  Wait a minute.  The midnight running of the Daytona 500 is on tv.  Snooooooooooze.