Our poor little Natalie had to be hospitalized for RSV this week. She had been pretty sick with fever and lethargy and just sleeping on the couch for several days, but on Monday evening her oxygen levels dropped really low and Austin decided to take her to the emergency room.
They were there for awhile before they decided to hospitalize her and I drove up to ride in the ambulance with her. She was very happy because although I forgot to bring almost anything with me, I did remember to bring her Petal Bunny. Once we got settled into a room, Austin and his dad gave Natalie a priesthood blessing.
It was really late by the time they left and we were ready to sleep, but like any hospital stay, it was constantly interrupted with nurses, doctors, phlebotomists, and respiratory therapists coming in the room. Natalie insisted that I sleep in the same bed as her, which was good anyway because she needed a lot of help not ripping all the tubes and wires off when she half-woke up throughout the night. Our little lady endured a lot of poking and prodding and even had to get a second IV put in when the first failed. The doctors decided to give her antibiotics because they believed she had developed a bacterial pneumonia. Her fever, which had barely been manageable with both Tylenol and Ibuprofen dropped the next morning, so I think they were correct. When her second IV failed, instead of trying for a third, they decided to administer her antibiotics through two simultaneous shots to the thighs- that was miserable, but better than enduring a third IV. Every single nurse there was incredibly patient and attentive to her. When they had to do something difficult, they brought her a little prize and she enjoyed that. She also became quickly attached to a snowman quilt that a volunteer had made for her room and she got to take home. A teddy bear was also in the room, but she didn't care about that until the last day when she started feeling better and wanted to play more.
Natalie did not enjoy the hospital, but once she wasn't just completely miserable, she did like getting to eat anything she wanted any time of day- I was just happy to get food in her. She had milk and juice whenever she would drink it and figured out pretty quickly that I wasn't going to say no to her eating a cookie for lunch. Although, after awhile I did insist that she eat a few bites of something real before starting on the cookie or brownie (she never finished more than a few bites of those either).
We were most blessed by all the support of family members. Grandpa Brent came to visit Natalie every day, Grandma Kate came and brought her roses, Aunt Renee visited with a bag full of prized that were perfect for a little girl stuck in bed. Aunt Renee and Uncle Justin also visited us on Thanksgiving to bring us some dinner (and help me keep my sanity after being stuck in a little room for days on end). They also took our older kids for two nights while Austin kept Trevor who got quite sick, but never quite as bad as Natalie. Austin and Trevor came to visit us once as well so that I could go out on a walk (with Trevor because I didn't really want him in her room to pick up extra germs). My family kept in touch over the phone and we had several offers to come help take care of the older kids, but we were blessed for Austin to be able to work from home and the kids were responsible enough to take care of most things while their dad worked.
On Wednesday night I started to see a little bit of Natalie's personality returning, although she still mostly just slept, she tried to joke with me and play a little bit. By Thursday evening, when she was awake I could really see her personality back. I really needed all those prizes from Aunt Renee then to keep her busy in bed when she wanted to get out. On Friday, the doctors and respiratory therapists decided to aggressively lower her oxygen and see how she tolerated it and by the afternoon they were ready to take it off. They wanted to see how she did when she was sleeping, so I had to convince her to take a nap (not that hard once I turned all the lights out, took away her toys, and had the nurses stay out of the room). She struggled a little bit, but they decided that we could go home as long as she had oxygen at night for a few nights. We were ecstatic to be able to get unhooked from all the machines and go home- maybe I was even happier than she was!
So far she has been doing pretty well, even though she fights us to have to take her antibiotics every morning and night. Trevor also seems to be getting better and not going down the same road as his little sister.
