Rochester

So, we've had a pretty busy few days. On Sunday evening, Josiah came down with a nice 103 fever. A little Tylenol and he was happy enough to go sit in church with me. By Monday morning, he was acting very sick. Poor baby...so I took him to the pediatrician. He said that it was just a virus and it should run its course. Unfortunately, it was also contagious. On Tuesday, Grace acted fine all day. A little more tired than normal, but otherwise fine. Then she laid down for her afternoon nap, and woke up lethargic and with a 103 fever. I called her pediatrician, just for reassurance that this was the same virus. He wasn't in, but the nurses wanted to see her. So, we went in. The next thing I knew we were on the way to Arnot, being admitted for a CT scan. I was fine with that...but then we got to Arnot and the next thing I knew, I found out we were being transferred to Strong. Just for the record, that kind of news shouldn't just be dropped on a mom who's child has been through what Grace has. I was staring directly at my girl, who was upset and scared (and sick) but otherwise OK. I was flipping out, wondering what in the world was going on that I didn't see! It turns out that the pediatrician on call had contacted Gracie's neurosurgeon and her neurologist and had decided that the best place for her was Rochester. See, Elmira doesn't have a pediatric neurosurgeon, and the fear was that her shunt would need to be tapped in order to rule out a shunt infection. So, we had the CT at Arnot and she got an IV and blood drawn. Before we knew it, an ambulance was there and I was driving 85-90 MPH, trying to keep up. When we got there, she was in her room and acting pretty good. I found out that her CT had come back looking good, but that her infection markers in her blood work were high. At that point, it was a wait and see game. So, we got her in bed (it was about 11pm) and tried to get her to go to sleep. At about 1am, our door swung open and two men came in to CLEAN the room. AT 1 am!!! Ugh. I really though we must have been getting a room mate, but nobody ever came. They cleaned that room for over an hour, and THREW away Gracie's potty seat! I woke up the next morning and went to put her on the potty, and it was GONE. Hmmm. Oh well. We now have a pretty pink princess potty seat.
Wednesday morning the doctors came in and said they wanted to do an X ray shunt series and a chest X ray. She is so scared of the X ray, and it's even worse at Strong. They wheel you down to the basement, and into the OR prep room. So there are all these people, intubated and knocked out all around us. Then the X ray technician comes in and gets us...the hard part is that I have to be the one to hold her down. I can't imagine, being three years old and having this big machine come at me, as the person I trust most in the world, HOLDS ME DOWN. It's always a traumatic experience, for both of us. We got through it though, and back upstairs we went. Those tests came back fine as well, and later the blood work from the morning came back. Her infection markers were back down within the normal range. So, we came home on Thursday morning,, still unsure what was going on. She still doesn't feel 100%, but she's better.

My sicky girl on Wednesday after her shunt series.

Starting to feel a bit better!! With Amanda, my niece.

Playing the star tambourine at the music hour, right before we went home.