9.27.13 Normal

Tonight, for the first time in oh so long, I looked at Aimee and saw her there. She start talking again this evening and engaging as she normally does. Her symptoms are almost completely gone. Her temperatures have normalized to her typical levels. And she is back to her emotional self. We trade all nighters full of coughing and choking for late night sob sessions, which is absolutely wonderful. Not because I want to see her cry, but because this is her normal and because holding my healthy girl brings joy to my heart. She is communicating with me again and even in the abundance of tears that wet her cheeks, I am so thankful. Here is to health! 

We have a few follow ups this week to officially ensure that her infections are cleared, but I believe I can finally say, after a full month of sickness, Aimee is well! And colds, flus, viruses, and infections, keep your distance! You are unwelcome guests.

9.16.13 Answers

Aimee is definitely improving. They for sure identified an infection in her urinary tract and are also treating her for pneumonia. She has perked up significantly and the antibiotics are doing their thing. 

Yesterday this musician came and played his bassoon right outside our door. Really, really cool!

Also, Aimee and I got to cuddle up together during the thunder storm and cheer on the Seahawks. A special treat to get so much time with my girlie, although I miss all my handsomes!

9.14.13 At Children's

Quick Update:

We spent several hours in Urgent Care this afternoon and were finally transferred to emergency at children's. After blood cultures, x-rays, catheters, ect, it looks like she has a pneumonia and they
want to keep her here while they wait on her blood cultures to come back to see if the pneumonia has spread bacteria into her blood stream. Her blood pressure is low, her white blood cell count is low, although her temperature has been in the 96s. 

Ed and Elliot headed home to get some rest. Not the place we would have chosen for a girls' night sleepover, but I am glad to be with my sweetie.

9.13.13 Perplexing Patterns

Confused and worn down me cannot process this past 18 days. Several ups and too many downs later, Aimee is still sick. This is simply not normal. I am afraid that our life is warping around it and these coming months will shift our patterns of interaction with the world outside our door. Perhaps I will have to let go completely of attempting to keep up with the typical world.

Aside from the perplexing pattern of sickness, another oddity that has us confused is Aimee's temperature. We have been diligently tracking throughout this last month. While nearly always low, her temperature graph shows it ping pong around throughout the day. In Washington, we have had, and are still having, a lovely summer. It has been consistently sunny and warm. Our house has been, on average, 76 degrees during the afternoon/evening and 71 by the morning. Quite often through the afternoon we would get body temperature readings in the 95-97 degree range. By first thing in the morning and through most of this sickness, her temperature is in the 93-95 range. Occasionally, her temperature flies up into a mild fever. Yet, I have not seen any shivering or sweating on either end throughout.

This is a picture of Aimee the other day. 80 degrees in the house and sick Aimee was bundled up in layers of fleece clothing and blankets to keep her temperature up.

This has me throwing random ideas around. Is she not getting enough fats, does she require movement to keep up her temperature, is it typical for low toned kids? Is her nervous system's inefficient communication affecting her body temperature? And how in the world can I regulate it? Sometimes it changes 3-4 degrees without any external adjustments at all. Perhaps, after we all recover and get some sleep, my brain will be able to better sort it out. 

Ps. Thank you to my generous parents who came over Monday and gave me an opportunity to take a nap, read a book, and even provided dinner. What a refreshment! Thank you to Kathy for coming this afternoon so that I can get groceries. Thank you to Shari for always supporting us. And thank you to each of you who in different ways are gracious towards us, listen to our challenges, befriend us from afar, and remember us in your prayers. We are grateful for such a wonderful crowd of friends and family. 

9.6.13 Update

Thank you for praying for us this last couple weeks. Aimee is still sick, although improving a tiny bit everyday. We have had some scary moments and definitely need to get an O2 monitor before the next sickness hits. Ed was able to be home today, which meant I got to reacquaint myself with my bed and he took my place during the night monitoring Aimee in the living room. (Thank you Ed!) The kids and I survived (barely it seemed) our first 2 weeks of an Aimee sickness on our own, with some much needed help from Curious George.  Long nights awake with Aimee choking and long days with a snotty nosed helper and a chubby infant. Three is a big number when Aimee is sick and sleep is scarce! Really hoping to see big improvements before Monday morning rolls back around.

We did have to cancel Aimee's sedated exam and all appointments this week. I had pushed it back to this month so that we could have a break after the baby arrived. Honestly, I was also really hoping the sick season was a ways out. Wish we could protect her from it without locking down in our house. We will try for this exam again in the coming months.