Catching Up

The last two weeks have been chaotic, and a lot of that was because of Michelle's asthma. In her first couple days home, we were in and out of doctor's office and the ER. We discovered that she is allergic to the inhaled steroid they prescribed as a maintainance medicine. She first reacted on Wednesday night, and in addition to having swelling red patches, she was burning up and struggling to breathe.

We rushed her to the pediatric ER and were told that no one is allergic to inhaled steriods and that her fever was causing the breathing problem (similar to a dog panting). They gave her motrin, which took away the fever and the breathing problems, and the benadryl we gave her on the way to the hospital took care of the swelling. The doctor said no one is allergic to the inhaled steriods (which I questioned).

She was still burning up on Thursday, so I gave her tylenol every couple hours and was in contact with the doctor's office thoughout the day. We also were continuing with her breathing treatments. When I gave her the inhaled steroids, I stripped her clothes and waited for her to swell, and she did :( I started taking her to the ER again, but halfway there, the benadryl kicked in, so we turned around and went to the doctor's office. The doctor confirmed that she was allergic to the medication and said that she was probably coming down with either pneumonia or a bronchial infection and gave her antibiotics for it.

By Friday night (7 days after this all started), her eyes cleared up, and Sissy was starting to look good again. Her fever was gone Saturday morning, so we were finally able to go back to church (it'd been 6 weeks since we'd been in our church!).

We took her to her allergist, who is also an asthma specialist, on Tuesday afternoon to discuss a treatment plan. We were continuing to do albuterol breathing treatments several times a day, but the doctor wanted us to do that only as needed. Michelle is now taking a chewable Singular tablet once a day, and starting tomorrow, will only be having breathing treatments as needed.

Michelle is definitely back to her perky, feisty, determined little self and is working on new words and commands ("more grapes!") every day. We are so blessed to have her happy and healthy again!

Sissy's Home!!

Michelle was doing well enough that we got to bring her home earlier today! We had originally anticipated bringing her home yesterday morning, but her oxygen levels dropped during the night Saturday, so she had to stay until she could sleep without supplemental oxygen.

Michelle definitely has asthma, and it is pretty severe. We have to give her breathing treatments every four hours (including at night), and she has a follow up visit with her pediatrician on Wednesday afternoon. Depending on how she is doing at that time, we may be able to decrease the number of treatments she gets each day. I am sure that sometime soon we will be meeting with her allergist again. We were pleased to learn that he specializes in asthma, and that is a huge blessing. Michelle's pediatrician was glad to hear that he is her allergist.

Thank you for all your prayers, but please don't stop praying. We have a long road ahead of us as we adjust to a new way of life. We don't know exactly what we'll be doing long term, but we are thankful for a God who not only is there with us each step of the way but also provides for all of our needs. We have already had to spend a couple hundred dollars on her breathing machine, and I have no idea what kind of bills we're going to get from this weekend. Needless to say, we are very thankful for health insurance!

I'll be sure to update you again after her appointment on Wednesday. Again, we appreciate your prayers for Michelle, our family, and her doctors.

God is good. All the time. All the time, God is good!

Please Pray for Michelle

Last night around 1:30/2:00, I took Michelle to the ER because she was really struggling to breathe. She received several breathing treatments and was on oxygen before we were transferred by ambulance to a better hospital. She was tired, cranky, and hungry (and I was getting there too!), but the breathing treatments were helping. Late this morning, right after Mark and Steven arrived, she was moved to her own room. It is a huge room with a nice size tv, dvd/vcr player for her favorite videos, bathroom/shower (way bigger than the one on our cruise!), and a very cute plush teddy bear just for her.

The plan was for Steven and me to take off since I haven't slept since Thursday night. However, we waited around until she was settled in, had at least one more breathing treatment, and were confident that Mark was sufficiently up to speed.

She is scheduled to have treatments every three hours (so she should have just had one), and they started her on steroids. When I checked in with Mark, she was playing but starting to slow down, which was good since she only slept until 1:30 or so last night and then took a 1 1/2 hour nap in the ER before they transferred her to her room.

The current plan is for Steven and me to catch up on some sleep and then head back to the hospital. Either Mark will return home with Steven or he'll go to a friend's house. We're just waiting to see how things go.

I was told this morning that Michelle would be there overnight. We're praying that she isn't there longer. At this point, they don't know what is causing the breathing problems. They have ruled out pneumonia through chest x-rays (so fun to do at 2:30 in the morning!). We really believe that it's asthma, but the doctors are hesitant on that right now. From what I understand, they don't like to diagnose it before the age of 3. However, with her medical history, it makes sense. Her allergist all but said that she'd develop asthma and that it was just a question of when, not if. At this point, there is no indication that this is an allergic reaction.

Thank you for praying for Michelle, for us, for the medical staff, for Steven, and for our families. My dad has been sending out updates through Facebook and Twitter, and I'll do my best to update when I can. However, I'm hoping to be asleep for quite a few hours :)

Adoption Blessings on Etsy

I started making hairbows for Michelle earlier this year, and because of all the compliments I'd get on them (you have to admit they are stinking cute!), I decided to start selling them online. I've been very busy building inventory, and I now have over 50 different ones for sale. You can check out the complete list of them under Adoption Blessings on Facebook or see the majority of them at my etsy shop, AdoptionBlessings. Custom orders are always welcome too, of course!

All the hairbows/flowers are on fully lined alligator clips, and all ribbon ends are heat sealed to prevent fraying. I also stitch together the korkers (instead of just bundling them), so your child, if she's anything like Michelle, won't be able to rip them apart. The only advantage of Michelle's distructiveness is that I've refined and reinforced all my items. If she can't destroy, I doubt anyone can!

Korkers--$3.50

Large Flowers (5")--$5.50

Small Flowers (2"-3")--$3.50

Butterflies--$4.00

These make great gifts, so even if you don't have a little girl, you probably know one who'd love one! The large flowers also look great in Mommy's hair too! Again, check out AdoptionBlessings on etsy for about 35 more options!