Welcome home, Lucy- again!

It's good to be home. For those that don't know, here is our story of the last several days.

Saturday I spent the day with family traveling to Ft. Worth for an uncle's memorial service after he lost his bout with cancer. I took Lucy with me and it was fun to introduce her to family. That evening we went out to eat with family. Sunday all of our family would be gathering at church for Sydnee's blessing day. After everyone separated to their separate sleeping places- we all settled in for the night. Lucy slept in our room since we were housing Scott & Katie. Around 2am Lucy was moving around, acting uncomfortable. I got up and fed her, and as I began changing her diaper I noticed how warm she was- so I asked Todd to get a thermometer to check her temperature. Uh-oh, 101.5- with infants anything over 100.3 is considered dangerous- so we called the on-call doctor and she told us to take her to the ER. Blessedly, we had family here, so we could leave in the middle of the night without worrying about Ava & Sydnee.

We got into triage quickly and they began with all of the tests. Blood work, urine analysis, and the awful lumbar puncture/spinal tap. Todd and I, having never been through anything like this, were extremely anxious and worried. With the lumbar puncture, we were wrecks. The ER doctor had a difficult time finding the right spot and had to do it twice. I cried as much as Lucy did, Todd gripped his arm so hard that you could see his finger nail prints for a while after the procedure was finished. It was probably the most difficult moment I've experienced as parent and maybe in my life. I hope to not have that feeling ever again in my life.

After some time, it was decided that she would be admitted to go under observation and wait to see what the test results would be. Early on, they determined no menigitus, which was a good sign. The rest of the night and then into the day- we spent our time waiting on the results. Slowly results began to come in- and most of them came back normal, which meant more waiting. On Monday morning our doctor came in- he was such a welcome sight- and said that the urine analysis looked abnormal and he suspected she had a urinary track infection. He ordered an ultra sound, and that evening it came back normal- so more waiting to see what the blood cultures would produce. Another night. The following morning all of the tests would be back, and it confirmed the UTI. Lucy was put on oral medication and was able to have her IV taken out. She had not been too comfortable that day, so the doctor opted for 1 more day of observation. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was our best night at the hospital in that Lucy slept, ate, and acted normal. Hooray! We came home this morning- grateful to be back with family.

Throughout this experience, I have learned a few major lessons. First, I'm grateful for all of the family/friend support that we have received. I have felt their prayers throughout this process. In fact I felt those prayers lifting me up and calming me down when all I wanted to do was cry. We have been surrounded by well wishes by way of Facebook, phone calls, e-mails and visits. I'm convinced we have the best friends in the world, seriously. I already know we have the best family. :) This experience also opened my eyes to what it would be like to have a chronically ill child, blessedly- our little one is on the road to recovery, but I got a taste of what it was like to be in those shoes- to not know what is going to happen, the waiting, the same 4 walls for days on end. I hope that I will be more compassionate to those that experience this in the future.

I should also say how grateful I am for our pediatrician and the staff at Hillcrest Hospital- everyone from the cafeteria staff, cleaning crew, technicians, and especially the nurses and aides. They made this horrible process bearable and provided the basic things- like food and conversation- that I alone was not able to provide for Lucy. I hope to do something nice for them someday soon.

Lastly, I learned a little about myself and my capacity to love and be loved. Since Todd needed to go back to work- at least in part- I stayed at the hospital full-time while Todd's parents watched the girls. Anyhow, its amazing how these experiences can clarify things in your mind/heart. What a blessing are friends and family that pick you up when you are down and step in to make life as normal as possible for the family that is absent from the hospital room. I learned that I love this little girl a little more each hour, and although I've only known her for a short period of time, she's won my heart. What a blessings are her smiles after such a heart-wrenching experience. My heart also grew a little more with the love of my girls that were waiting at home. Perhaps I can be more patient and loving to them now. And my heart grew for the man who stood by the whole time this happened. I kept thinking that it was a blessing to be able to go through this ordeal with my best friend. Not sure I could have done it alone, anyways!

Yes, we are home now- but not quite out of the woods. More tests will be run to tests for long-term problems and to see if the antibotics worked their magic...but for now we will love a little deeper, hug a little longer, thank a little more loudly, and enjoy our time together...because that's what its all about!

Here is a silent movie (didn't realize I had the mic off) of our room.