Our scary day

Things have finally settled out a bit, so thought I’d do a slightly longer recap.

From yesterday’s post, Annabelle had a not-stellar day yesterday, and I was a wee bit worried. But I put her to sleep last night, and her SATs came right back up. I left the O2 monitor on her for a few hours, but about 1, I turned it off because when she would kick, it would stop picking up well and beep REALLY loud.

I got up with her a few times after that with her tossing and turning.

About 5 a.m., she started to fuss pretty bad, but she fell back asleep. At 5:30, she started crying really bad, so I got up, vented her Gtube in case she had gas pains, gave her morning meds, and picked her up and went and rocked her.

That lasted about 1 minute. She just looked weird to me, her cry was now to the point of terror, and I couldn’t console her at all. I put her on the O2 monitor, and her SAt’s were 40!

We debated for a few minutes just putting her in the car and driving up here to Vanderbilt, and I tried to up her oxygen to get her stabilized, but it was still staying high 40’s. She started gasping for breath and her eyes were glazed over and it was just REALLY horrible to see. We called 911, ambulance came, and we started the trip to Nashville. After a few minutes though, they changed their minds and decided to go to the nearest hospital (still 15 minutes away) and life flight her to Vandy because her heart rate was dipping and they had to do CPR a few times to get it back up.

When we met the helicopter, they intubated her in the ambulance and I flew with her to Vandy Children’s.

Since we got here, she’s been stable. She still has dropped her SATs some though, so we aren’t weaning the vent at this time.

We have no clear idea what is wrong and why she had this issue.

It took a long time to get access in her (for blood draws and IV meds), they finally did a central line (took an hour and a half!) and got labs early afternoon.

But for the most part, all of her labs were fine. Her electrolytes were all normal. Her initial blood gas when we got here was awful, but a repeat one this afternoon was normal.

Her BNP was WAY high though… 2200. We are unsure if this is because of the extra fluid she has on board, from the CPR and subsequent trauma her heart went through, or if this is a sign of true heart failure. A repeat one later, and look at a “trend” will help us better guage this.

Her chest Xray was VERY wet, so that is not good either.

Her other issue is her belly. It was VERY distended when we got here, and we did a belly xray and a CT scan of her belly, and it shows a LOT of air in her intestines. This, however, just needs to come out through “normal” means.

There is a little concern that she has some air in a place where it is NOT normal to be, so general surgery is going to come and consult just to get another set of eyes and opinion on that.

But in all, there is no clear reason for her issues this morning. A lot of signs and symptoms, but it is hard to know what is a RESULT of this morning and what is a CAUSE of this morning’s issue.

Oh, and we still have viral panels out and some other tests that will test for a virus to see if she just had a bug. To that I say…. Um… PLEASE tell me we won’t have to do CPR every time she gets a little bug!

In the back of all of our minds is still the “rejection” word, but her echo didn’t look “bad” so we aren’t jumping on that just yet, but keeping a close eye out.

We are… tired. Frustrated. Feeling a little defeated. Sad. Overwhelmed. But thankful to be in a place where they can care for her. Being home with her so sick was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced!

It is SO frustrating to not know what is wrong and how to fix it. I think that is the worst today. She’d been doing so well…. although I’m still cogniscent of the fact that we were in the hospital a day last week for fluid issues…. I just am afraid we are “missing” something in all of this. I don’t know.

*sigh*

God DOES know though, and as we have this whole past year, we place our Annabelle in his capable hands. It’s been one scary, crazy day though.

Your continued prayers for Annabelle, the doctors, and our family are so very appreciated!

Will update when we know more.

Oh, and THANK YOU THANK YOU for all your support today. Your comments/tweets/messages have really helped me today. It is so comforting to know so many people are praying, and reading them gets my mind off scary things. So… thank you!