The Week of Alayna and Mom

The Week of Alayna and Mom

Alayna and I had such a crazy week together!

Trip to the ER

“Alayna has been sick since Saturday.  We took her to the walkin clinic on Sunday and the strep test was negative.  Last night around 6:00 she started to get exponentially worse.  She woke me up a little before midnight gasping for breath.  It scared us both.  Her temp was 103.  I packed her up and we raced to the ER.  It was so sad because her throat hurt so bad she couldn’t swallow and she couldn’t have water til the doctor came in.  Then They took her for a chest x-ray, took her blood, took a strep culture , etc.  She just laid in that bed just shaking like a leaf.  She didn’t cry during the blood test which impressed me.  They said the strep and mono were negative.  Then it came back positive for walking pneumonia.  So, the doctor (who was awesome!  I loved her!) said they would give her IV fluids, steroids (to help her breathe), and the antibiotic.  If they could do it all through the IV, she would get better faster. 

When they were putting in the IV, it was a total Deja vu moment for me- remembering when Alayna was 4 months old, got RSV, and it took them 45 minutes to find a vein to put the IV in.  I sobbed back then.  This time, she was dehydrated again so they had a very hard time finding a vein.  She cried, squeezed my hand, and had these eyes that looked at me like, “how could you let them do this to me”.  I kept reassuring her it was for her own good.  There was a bit of a gospel analogy in there for me.  Anyway, they finally got it in, and we sat watching the Disney Channel (much to my delight, barf barf!) while the fluids went in.  She got ice chips and ibuprofen.  When we got there at midnight her pain level was a 9, by the time we left at almost 5AM, she was at a 1, and very tired.

I got her straight into bed, then I went straight to bed.  Only I couldn’t sleep!  I tossed and turned and when I just about out (5:45AM), she woke me up because of a coughing attack.  She couldn’t go back to sleep.  So I got her in a bubble bath and I got ready for work (another long story).  She stayed home with her Tyler today.  She is doing better.  The high 103 fever broke.  She can finally swallow so I got her some stuff at the store to get her to eat and drink as much as possible.  We both look and feel like death.  Im sure we will be asleep in the next hour. 

I will say though how grateful I am for modern medicine.  How grateful I am for kind, comforting, and understanding doctors and nurses.  AND how grateful I am for that mother’s intuition (I just KNEW I had to get her in ASAP) and I am so glad I listened.”

She is doing better today except for the fatigue and bad cough.

Take Your Daughter to Work Day

Actually, it wasn’t, but all of us had school and work, except for Alayna and I didn’t want to leave her home. So, we got permission for her to come to work with me and be a a TA. We had the best day together! She was an incredibly hard worker!!! We had a fun picnic lunch from subway in the back storage room. I wish I could take her to work with me every day! On the way home, I asked if this made her think about being a librarian some day and she said, “No way! It’s way too exhausting!!” I would have to agree. It is!!

Trotting with the Turkeys

With Bob sick (upper respiratory again), Kayla who forgot to take off work, and Tyler who has sworn off 5Ks for life, it seemed like maybe we wouldn’t be doing the turkey trot after all. But Alayna woke up and REALLY wanted to go. She has been training with the school running club and wanted a chance to do this. So, we went. There were about 2,000 people who ran (compared to the almost 30,000 from the color run). Before it started she was complaining that her stomach hurt. I asked if she wanted to go home and she was certain she wanted to try. We had to walk really slow, (which was killing me because I wanted to BOOK it! But it started getting very hard for her to breathe (as I am sure you can imagine since she has been fighting that pneumonia all week). She tried SO HARD and really dug deep to finish. I did have to carry up a hill at one point and I was scared about her breathing. We did finish and we didn’t come in last. Im so very proud of her for giving it all she had. She spent the rest of the day in bed.

Other news of Interest:

Tyler had his 1^st stake activity!! I could tell her was excited since he tried on like 3 outfits and actually showered of his own free will. He said he had a great time and even asked 9 girls to dance! Way to go, Tyler!!!