Seventh Verse Same as the First.

I’ll admit that even I am shocked she hit this record. Seven hospital stays in one year. What a way to kick off your third year, hey? Little stay in Hotel LG.

I am sorry if this post comes across as slightly frustrated sounding. I guess that’s cause i am.

See, Kendall has a cold. She has the same cold that Kaylen has had for a week. I would swear on a stack of Korans that this is all they both have. Your basic average common crappy croupy coughy cold. The kind we all get from now until Memorial Day. The kind that most people just deal with, hack up a lung through, and move on.

Not Kendall Quinn. she has been struggling with her breathing (retracting and tugging more than usual, panting for breath at odd times, wheezing more and having her HR at a very uncomfortable high level) for a couple days now. Thank God for our awesome nurse cindy. By some act of God Almighty, she came in on her day off (yesterday) to help us out with Kendall – and we didn’t even know how “sick” she would be. So she was able to see firsthand how Kendall gets when she is starting to slide downhill, and when she came back this morning to a not much improved Kendall, she was able to really help talk me through what we needed to do to help her get better/feel better.

It really has been so amazing to have our nurse around to help us – to help ME – feel better equipped to know when to panic, when to observe, when to be proactive, when to lay low and let Kendall’s body do what it needs. And so that’s where i was yesterday. Even when Kendall was barely conscious after 17 straight hours of sleep. Even when her HR looked like she was running a triathlon {even though she was laying quietly in bed almost asleep}. Even when she started sounding like a mucus factory with a side business of wheezing. Even with all of that – I still was not worried. I knew she likely had the same cold Kaylen had. I knew we had LOTS of support we could give her at home. And I knew lots of people were praying for her. I knew I was praying for her. I knew Jesus was in her room with her, holding and rocking her and restoring her little cells in ways that I cannot even fathom.

But as I laid awake into the wee hours of the morning last nite (I don’t even know when i fell asleep) – hearing her alarms beeping that her heartrate was too high or her sats were dipping too low when she would try to cough through all the junk – then my mind started to work a little overtime. So by this morning, when C was justifiably and very visibly concerned that Kendall had made no improvement and in fact seemed slightly worse, and I knew it was time to make the call to Dr. A, i knew it was the right thing to do.

My message for Dr. A went something like this:

“Dr. A – terra here about Kendall. I am not bringing her to the ER, but i would like you to call in some antibiotics or some steroids to help her breathe better. Again – she is not in distress so I am not going to the ER. Love and hugs – me”

His reply message via his nurse a couple hours later":

“Terra – Dr. A thinks that’s a great idea to have you come in to the ER and get her evaluated. he will happily call in abx or anything else she needs once she’s seen there! See you soon!”

Me: Ummmm – no – exact OPPOSITE of what I asked him!

Nurse: Yeah, he said you’d say that, and I’m supposed to tell you that this is his final answer. Go the ER. We aren’t messing with breathing issues.

Me: @#%()*@#%()*@#%

So – I was kind of content to keep this info to myself (even though Ben had just walked in the door so I could go on my weekend of sanity restoration with a dear friend) – but he walked in to her room where her nurse was holding a very limp, very wheezy, and obviously very hard-heart-working Kendall and declared we were taking her somewhere no matter what.

And wouldn’t you know it – the second we get here, get taken right back to a room, get assessed – she is no longer AS lethargic, her HR is down out of the 190’s, she has a semi-grin on her face…ugh. Her usual routine. She likes to make it seem like I am crazy in front of the docs. But after some extremely difficult to stick and draw labwork, and a (clear) CXR – chest x-ray for pneumonia, and I assume a pretty good albeit slightly fast EKG – they came to take us to a room on 2Tower. at least its in the “new” part of the hospital. All fancy-like rooms that look right on out to the Portillo’s across the street. Much harder to “find” medical supplies here though. They have fancy locks on the doors in these rooms. Probably a good thing given my kleptomania for all things medical  – whether or not we actually USE those items (suction catheters anyone? IV start kits? suture kits?).

I think her official admit diagnosis is “tachycardia” – which means hella fast heartrate. (That’s my translation of Latin.) they have to “swab” her for the viral panel (to confirm that yes indeed, she has a rhinovirus of your garden variety, and hopefully not anything worse than that) – but her initial CBC/bloodwork came back looking “ok” – meaning we don’t think its a bacterial infection at this point.

As we sit here tonite though – with her HR again soaring above 200, and her fever now climbing into what they consider “real fever” range (103 F) – and yes I realize those two go hand in hand – I am hoping we can find an answer and a fix. And a quick one. For her little body, this is a hard fight. She has puffy red eyes that are definitely not sparkly like normal. Her skin is tight and dry and beet red from the effects of having such a rapid rise in her fever. She has one arm taped completely to a board to protect the one precarious line they have been able to start all day. she is hooked to heart leads, O2 probe leads, IV’s, oxygen and drainage bags.

she is very very tired right now, and so very brave. Her tiny little veins in her feet were just attacked and poked 6 times in an attempt to get enough blood to run new cultures in search of the cause of her fever. She is trying to throw up and doesn’t even have the energy to complete that task. I have put her in Jesus’ hands again – and am asking Him to sing His song of peace and calm and cooldown and rest and no-more-pain over her.

She is a fighter this girl. and right now the fight is just about out of her – for tonite at least.

Pray for rest. And strength. And healing.

thank you for just praying.

 

terra