Esther Marie is Back in the Hospital Again!!

I guess we didn't get enough of the hospital last week, because here we are again!!! Esther Marie was admitted this morning for overnight observation and to help alleviate some dehydration she has. You might be wondering at this point....what happened and why is she back there???

Well, this morning we went to the doctor appointment as planned at 8:00 a.m. Things were going well and Dr. W, who has been our pediatrician for over 12 years, was checking Esther Marie out to find out why she was still running that fever. He said her ears looked clear...no ear infections...thank God! Her lungs and heart sounded good. He started to look at her throat and barely put the tongue depressor on her tongue when he said...hey, she's bleeding! Well, I thought he had hit that spot on her tongue that I thought was the thrush, making it bleed......NOT!

She was bleeding profusely from the mouth and the blood was pouring out!! Things happened so fast at that point, and I have to admit that I got pretty upset. The thought that she was going to end up back in surgery flashed through my mind. Dr. W was very professional as usual and kept his head in a crisis situation. He called for an ambulance and we were transported to the hospital very quickly. I am SO glad that Jasper was with me because he was a rock and was so calm during the storm, so to speak. He stayed with Esther Marie, mopping blood up, when I had to leave the room to have a good cry. Dr. W's nurses were SO understanding and sweet and I appreciate them so much. One thing that touched me immeasurably was that Dr. W took the time to pray for Esther Marie and us while we waited for the ambulance to arrive. God bless him! The paramedics let us carry Emmie out to the ambulance and they kept the siren off to keep her calm. I held her in my lap on the way to the hospital.

At the hospital, she was examined and the roof of her mouth was covered in blood that had clotted. Again, it was shocking to see and it scared me. She had stopped bleeding by that point and that was a relief! One of her surgeon's from last week came to see her and decided she should be kept overnight for observation. The nurses came in and tried to put an IV line in her foot....but it didn't work. Then they tried the other foot....and that didn't work. It was taking entirely too much time! Esther Marie was screaming and crying and so scared. At that point, I was very upset, so I left the room to pray and Jasper stayed with her. I was like a mother tiger with claws out and was wanting to protect my baby. So instead of saying something I might regret, I left the room. Finally, they called in another nurse who was successful in getting the IV into one of her hands. (I later found out that they were having so much trouble because she was pretty dehydrated and her veins were collapsing!!)

It took awhile to get into a room, but we were finally taken to a very nice room on the 6th floor. Esther Marie was SO stressed by this time that she was clinging to me for dear life! If anyone came close to her, she whined and cried...no matter what the reason. She finally fell asleep around 1:00 p.m. and slept until 5:30!! Jasper and I had not eaten all day so he got us something from the cafeteria...and I teased him by asking if he wanted to have a romantic, quiet lunch with me....seated in the hospital room with our sleeping child! We had a good laugh and I was glad because the day had been so stressful.

So our other three precious children are tucked in at Susan's and Victor's house once again, and I can safely say all the kids involved are NOT unhappy about that! (Susan and Victor...thank you and we love you!) Tomorrow is my little man's 11th birthday and he is so patient and understanding...thank you, Joshua. I was going to take cupcakes to school tomorrow at lunch time, but we are going to have to postpone that and do it another day. Hannah cried when Jasper told her what happened today and I'm not sure how MaryAlyce reacted. I know this is emotionally stessful for all of them...they are worried about their baby sister.

So Dr. G, the surgeon who fixed her palate last week, came by and took a look at her mouth and says he has no idea why she was bleeding like that. Apparently, the roof of the mouth is not connected to any major arteries. He didn't see any damage or anything that concerned him. So we are watching for more bleeding and Emmie is getting hydrated with the IV drip.

I have NO clue why this happened, but I do know it's a good thing because we didn't realize Esther Marie had gotten dehydrated...it happened pretty quickly. She needed to be here on that IV! And we are SO happy that the bleeding happened at the doctor's office where Dr. W could make all the decisions. Imagine if THAT had happened at home! God is SO good and totally watching out for His (and our) little Esther Marie!

It's 11:15 p.m. and I have been trying for hours to get this posted. Esther Marie began to relax some and is less clingy. (meaning....she is not choking us any more by holding on so tight!) She has eaten some creamy chicken soup, some vanilla ice cream and had a little Sprite. We are trying to get more fluid into her. She is sleeping peacefully right now and is much less hyper-viligent...yippie! We have had two fantastic nurses...Paige and Sara....they are wonderfully helpful and sweet.

Hopefully, we will go home tomorrow morning some time. Please pray for the dehydration to go away, for no more mystery bleeding to occur, and for all of this trauma not to damage the bonding that has formed between us so far. Thanks to everyone...your prayers matter!