I am soooooooooo

Sorry.
Dr. Al. came in a little after 4 and after talking with him he said we could go home and it was a whirlwind from there. I totally forgot about updating for all you out there in blogger world. Hopefully your refresh button isn't too worn.
Anyway, this post is from Macomb! We were discharged about 5:30.
I don't even know how to explain what Dr. Al had to say, but I'll do my best. Apparently we are back to where we were in May. From what he could see from the aspiration, she has evolving AML or pre-leukemia. So what does that mean? We will wait for a confirmation on how "evolved" the cancer is from the actual bone marrow biopsy which should be back by mid- to late next week. We go to St. Jude on Tuesday and check her counts. She will get transfusions as needed over the next couple of weeks.
Our options are:
1. Treat the pre-leukemia by transfusing whenever necessary and wait to see if it "disappears" again.
2. Start chemo treatments.
Once we have all of our information from the biopsy, we will sit down as a team and discuss what is best for Olivia. And, yes, this is very frustrating. I thought a person either had cancer or they didn't. Or if you had cancer, it didn't just go away. So, we have lots of research to do and lots of praying to do before Tuesday. If we start to understand any of this, we'll be sure to let you know. Until then, feel free to join in our confusion!

Still waiting

That pretty much sums it up.

Biopsy done

Dr. Al just came in and said he was successful with his bone marrow aspiration and will let us know as soon as he knows anything. It should be a couple of hours. She handled it well with lots of sedation. She is still sleeping and requiring a bit more oxygen (4L). As she wakes up, she should be able to get back down to where she was this morning. She is going to get some platelets today while we await the results.
Dr. Al did say that if the results don't show anything, we should be able to go home. If they do show leukemia, we will stay and most likely get a central line put in sometime in the next couple of days and start planning treatments. Back in May, we talked about low dose chemo and conventional chemo. Low dose tries to slowly suppress the cancer and the conventional is rough, but holds a better chance of knocking out the cancer. He said we would go with the conventional method because her heart function is good. That's the blessing here...at least she's "healthy" and strong this time.

A good night

From the sounds of it, Olivia had a really good night - slept almost the entire night. She woke up about 4 and had some juice and went right back to sleep. Now, why doesn't she do that at home???
They were able to get an IV in last night and our sweet little girl didn't even cry. Obviously, at least 75% of the credit has to go to the nurse that put it in, but it just shows how comfortable she is with everyone up here. She has been showing off for everyone and is loving all the attention. She definitely shows off her ornery streak, as she was pulling up at the end of the crib and trying to pull out the cables from the monitor!
She got all of her blood throughout the night so she should be all tanked up. I had turned her oxygen up to 2L at home on Saturday and had not been able to get it back down, but she is back down to her normal 1L this morning. It's amazing how much a little extra blood can do.
Her bone marrow biopsy is scheduled for 8:30. Dr. Torres will be in here doing her sedation and Dr. Al will be performing the procedure. It should only take about 20 minutes or so and then we will just wait for the results. Because of Olivia's extensive track record, Zac and I have learned not to worry about things until we have concrete evidence of something. So, as of now, all we can do is pray and play the waiting game. Fortunately, we are really good at both of those things!
Keep you posted...
Oh, I almost forgot. Her MRSA test came back positive. Surprise, surprise. So, yellow gowns it is today!

Here we go again...

This is one of those posts that is so hard to know where to begin. We came to Peoria today for the first of her GI studies. That went off without a hitch. She didn't like it by any means, but it's done. Then to the lab for repeat lab tests to check on her recent blood situation. Not so good. Her platelets dropped again to 29,000 and there were "blasts" found on her white cells, which is what she had when we were originally told she had leukemia. Olivia's cardiologist and oncologist said we may be heading down that road again, but we'll know more in the next few days. They did admit her and we lucked out with PIC being full and are upstairs in PICU with her friends. She's as happy as can be and playing with everyone that comes by to visit. She is having a bone marrow biopsy done in the morning around 8:30 and we should get some preliminary results back 3-4 hours after that. If nothing "substantial" shows up we should be able to go home and wait for further results to come back later. If bad things come back, we'll make some decisions from there. She is getting some blood tonight to get her pumped back up. The good news is her heart function is great. Her pulmonary hypertension is worse than in her last echo, but that can be related to stress. Olivia...Stressed? We'll be saying some big prayers tonight.

The big day...

We got so much information today, it's hard to know where to begin, so you'll have to bear with me.
ENT - we never made it to see the Ear, Nose, and Throat guy. We spent too much time at the hospital, so we re-scheduled for Thursday at 3:30. However, if this doctor thinks Olivia needs tubes in her ears and he is willing to coordinate a time with the general surgeon, they can do this at the same time as the G-tube. That would be awesome!
Cardiology - we went to see Dr. Shah at 1:00. Love that guy. Anyway, he ordered some labs, listened to her, and here's what we know. Her platelets are at 45,000 (up a bit), her hemoglobin is at 9.6, and her white count is still low. Her retic count was good, meaning her bone marrow is producing healthy new baby red cells. He consulted with Olivia's doctor from St. Jude and they are both tending to believe it is something viral, not cardiac related or having anything to do with the old leukemia stuff. They are going to continue to watch her counts by re-testing on Thursday and getting a chest x-ray. Dr. Shah heard a little something in her lungs, so he's just checking for pneumonia. So, we thought that was all good news. They let us leave, after all!
G-tube/General Surgeon - We met with Dr. Pearl at 2:15. We loved, loved, loved Dr. Pearl and his entire staff. They had done their research and knew all about Olivia extensive history. He went through all the possible scenarios and didn't even laugh at our questions! So, for now, we are going in Thursday to have a GI study done, and again on Tuesday for another GI study to get more information. If he still needs more info, we'll go for a third test that would require an overnight stay. We are definitely going ahead with the G-tube, but are trying to decide if Olivia has a problem with reflux and needs what is referred to as a Nissen. We'll know more on Tuesday afternoon when we meet with him again.
We felt really good coming out of all of these appointments. It's definitely going to make for long days on Thursday and next Tuesday, but it will be nice to move forward with all of this. Thanks for thinking and praying for us today! It definitely brought us peace! And the best part - Olivia was happy all day. She usually gets really fussy after spending all day in and out of doctor's offices. I think the main reason is that Zac was there, which helped tremendously. He can be pretty entertaining. At least Olivia thinks so.
Jack is feeling better. Just a bad morning, I guess. He should be good to go tomorrow!
I suppose that sums up our day without giving too much medical detail. There will be plenty of time for that!

Why not?

Just to throw a kink in our big day, Jack is home with a fever. It's only 100.5, but his eyes just look sick. I'm so used to "big" fevers, maybe I shouldn't say "only." Anyway, it should be an interesting day!

Hoping for some answers...

We are preparing for a big day tomorrow! It turns out that the puffiness she's been experiencing is actually a cardiac issue, so we are going to see the cardiologist tomorrow at 1:00. Then to see the general surgeon regarding the G-tube at 2:15. An ENT finally decided they would take Olivia, so we have that appointment at 3:30. Throw in some labwork in between there somewhere and we should have a very eventful day! Hopefully we will be able to get some answers. I'm anxious to see her cardiologist because he knows Olivia so well. He should be able to get to the bottom of all this.
The one comforting thing is that Olivia is so happy and playing just like she usually does. She doesn't act sick at all. It's just one of those little bumps in the road!

Ugh.

Hemoglobin - down to 9.5
Platelets - down to 38,000
Albumin - low (consistent with the puffiness around her eyes)
INR - low

Ugh.

Waiting to hear from doctors.

Snowy Sunday

I think I scared everyone off with my "phone post." Nobody's been calling me. It was really just the doctors offices I didn't want to talk to anymore, so I'm sure that will pick up again tomorrow.
Olivia's purple dots are much, much better - almost gone! Yippee! She did have a bloody nose around midnight, but not too bad, so hopefully her platelets are picking back up. Now, she is just holding so much fluid for some reason. She could barely see out of those little eyes of hers this morning, but as the day goes on, it gets much better. I'm really anxious to see how her blood tests come back tomorrow and to go to her appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday. I think once we get this all done and over with, we will be able to take a deep breath and relax!

Phones

We've had two days in a row where the phone rings off the hook. I'm ready to throw it out the window.
Anyway, we heard back from the doctors offices and it sounds like no one is too worried. Her platelets aren't low enough to transfuse, so we will just watch her this weekend and have a CBC drawn on Monday to check platelets, and hope they head back up. I guess everyone thinks it's just related to a virus that she has/had. They should replenish themselves. Hopefully soon.
So, it will be nice to put that in the back of our minds and concentrate on this whole G-tube thing. I'm anxious to ask some more specific questions to the surgeon on Tuesday...hope he's ready for us!

The waiting game.

Well, Olivia woke up this morning happy as a clam, but her petechiae (those little dots all over her face) have gotten worse. As of last night, her St. Jude doctor had not called our pediatrician back, so we were still waiting to hear back. That's still the case! (sense the frustration?) Anyway, she got a shot in both legs this morning for her synagis (RSV shot). Then to the pediatrician's office for a Protime/INR finger stick (that bled for 1 hour and 20 minutes) and then to the hospital for a CBC (however, they were able to use the same finger, since is was still bleeding!) But, because of the bleeding we thought it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and have the lab draw a Protime, which required another stick, actually two, and they never got any blood. That was pointless.
Now we are just waiting to hear back from someone, somewhere, to let us know what to do from here. Her platelets did go down again and I would love to know why. On a bright note, we have an appointment set up with the pediatric surgeon in Peoria for Tuesday afternoon. The ENT in Peoria is saying they won't take Olivia because she doesn't live within 20 minutes?!? Never heard that one before, so we'll see where that goes.
Anyway, just a little update on our day! She definitely loves to keep us on our toes!

G-tube

We met with the pediatrician today and got all of our questions answered! We are going to go ahead with the G-tube. We are very confident that this is exactly what Olivia needs right now. The doc is going to call in the referral to Peoria and she estimated that Olivia should have her G-tube within the next month or so! Hopefully this will help with her respiratory issues and she become a much healthier little girl!

We are also going to try to get in to see a Pulmonologist and an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat doc). The pulmonologist can hopefully help with Olivia's chronic lung disease and respiratory problems. The ENT can take a look at her vocal chords - she's got the most raspy cry - which is most likely associated to the amount of time she's been intubated, etc... Also, since she is on her 4th ear infection, it's getting closer to the time when we start thinking about tubes. It would be awesome to get them put in at the same time as the G-tube - the pediatrician's looking into that.

But that's not all...when it rains, it pours. Olivia's INR is out of whack again, maybe. On our home machine I got 2 readings of 7.0 and "greater than 7.5" Too high. The doctor's office got 3.5, which is on the high end of okay. The hospital lab here (totally unreliable) got 4.9. We're waiting to hear back about what dose, if any, of coumadin to give her tonight and will most likely go to Peoria tomorrow for labs.

And...Olivia woke up this morning with petechiae all over her forehead and torso. This is just a fancy term for little purple dots, which are kind of like little broken blood vessels. Olivia's had this in the past, but not since July or August when her platelets were low. So, to the hospital for labs and sure enough, her platelets are low. Don't know why. Waiting to hear back about this, too. I'm just praying that it's something simple and not her heart or her bone marrow doing wierd things. Keep you posted...

Oh, gee...

Sounds like we may be heading in the direction of a G-tube for Olivia. I'd been fighting this so hard, but now that I've gotten over my rebellious, stubborn phase, I think we are ready to start discussing it. If you remember, back in September when Olivia had a swallow study and she aspirated everything, the person who performed the study said we could either re-test the next day or put in a G-tube. Because I didn't think that was necessarily her decision, and I thought her tactic was a little abrupt, the rebel in me came out and I decided Olivia would never have a G-tube. Now that I've gotten over myself, and realized it's not about me, we are thinking a G-tube may be what's best for Olivia. After talking with the feeding therapist from yesterday, our speech therapist, and our pediatrician, we realized that Olivia aspirating may actually be causing her constant respiratory issues. If not a cause, it definitely could be hindering her health. It's hard because she's obviously been thriving, but her lungs are her main medical issue, and without her lungs being healthy, it's kind of pointless to worry about her eating issues. It's very possible that a G-tube could help make her a healthier, happier little girl (although she's pretty darn happy already). Zac and I are going to go talk to her pediatrician in the next couple of days and make a game plan. Any thoughts or suggestions from any of our PICU friends??? We are looking for any input...

I really dislike swallowing

Olivia had her swallow study today. She wasn't happy about it at all. Drinking barium laced with a little rice cereal doesn't sound to appetizing to me either. Anyway, she wanted nothing to do with the bottle, so we switched to the spoon. She aspirated both the thinner and the thicker purees. Not good. The bottom line is that we are leaving things the way they are until the feeding therapist can talk to Olivia's doctors.
On one hand, she seems to handle this consistency just fine, so why change anything. On the other hand, she seems to always have some sort of respiratory thing going on which could be attributed to aspiration. Her lungs are, for the most part, her main medical issue. Any aspiration makes that worse. What to do, what to do?
So, for now, we'll wait to hear from someone about what to do next.

Ears, Swallowing, and Miracles

Olivia hasn't slept in days, which in turn means I haven't slept in days.
I took her in to the pediatrician today and actually hoped that she had an ear infection and this wasn't just a phase. Luckily, that was the case. Is it sad to wish for that?
Anyway, hopefully starting an antibiotic will get her back to sleeping at nights. It would benefit the entire family, I'm sure.
We go to Peoria for her swallow study tomorrow. I'm hoping she is able to get off her current rice cereal diet and back to just using the Honey Thick thickener. She's gained almost 1.5 pounds in 3 weeks, which is just too much. It's good to gain wait, but in a reasonable manner. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
And, the best news of all...Olivia was nominated by the medical staff as a Miracle Kid for the Children's Hospital of Illinois. This is huge! We may be able to share her story and tell people how amazing the doctors and nurses are that have cared for Olivia. We are filling out the paperwork for it and don't know when or what we'll hear back. Stay tuned....

Snow Day!

Due to the inclement weather, we haven't been driving to Peoria! This is definitely working in our favor. We did go to the pediatrician's office yesterday and today to have Olivia's INR drawn and they got a 1.5 yesterday and 1.9 today. So, we are working our way back up, which is good (as long as that is accurate). We'll have one drawn again tomorrow and check on our home machine now that I have a few strips again. Hopefully they are close so we know we are getting a somewhat accurate reading. Then, to Peoria on Tuesday to compare and repeat her swallow study! What fun.
Also, due to the frigid, freezing weather, there was no school today and no school tomorrow. As much as I want to make snow days fun, it always seems to be a day of fighting and fussing. Zac still has to work on snow days, so from sun-up to sundown, it's a constant "when is daddy going to be home?" Looks like I need to be more exciting.
Otherwise, it's nice to have things back to "normal" around here. Now we just need some warmer weather.

Still driving

We did get yesterday and the weekend off, so I'm sure I don't have a reason to complain, but there are only so many routes you can take to get to Peoria. We've conquered them all within the last week.
Olivia's numbers are still our of whack. Her INR on our home machine yesterday was 4.3, which was a little high. So, we held her coumadin and were going to redraw this morning. I couldn't get a reading because she wasn't bleeding well enough to get a sample. Then I ran out of testing strips, so the girls and I loaded up and headed to Peoria for labs. They got an INR of 1.7. Too low. Now we are at the other end of the spectrum. So, back to giving the coumadin and we'll head to Peoria tomorrow.
The bright side to all of this? We are going to the pediatrician's office before we go to Peoria because the adult doctor in her office has a Protime machine. If he can get an accurate reading, it may save us some trips to Peoria.
Also, because we have been coming to the Peoria lab so often they have given us a "series account" so we get to bypass the admitting/registration part and go straight to the lab. This cuts out anywhere from 15-45 minutes depending on the day. That's a definite bonus.
Luckily, the girls are good travellers and with any luck we'll have her back on track in no time!

Christmas catch-up Part One

Not that anyone is even interested, but I'm finally getting around to post about Christmas. It's going to be in a totally random order because I can't find one of my memory cards. I have the pictures my mom took over Christmas, so until I find mine, I'm afraid the Chatterton side is going to have to wait until I find that card. Sorry.

December 22nd - the Chatterton/Newman/Trent Christmas celebration...

We usually host this event every year, but the last two were at my parent's house since Olivia was in the hospital. So this is the first year we hosted in Macomb. We have delicious appetizers, good wine, and too many presents.

The cousins all had a great time playing with the new loot.


Both big girls got the Barbie Cruise Ship which was a big hit and the boys got their own putting green. Olivia loved all the commotion and can't wait to start pushing around her new shopping cart!

December 25th - Christmas Day...

I have no pictures from the morning since I left my camera at the in-laws on Christmas Eve. Boohoo. I may have taken some pictures with Jack's camera, but I have no clue where that is. So, the pics start at my parent's house later in the day.

After waking up to find that Santa had found our house, we packed up and went to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Peoria for Jesus' birthday party and breakfast.

This has been a tradition for over 50 years. Although it's changed locations a few times, you'll always find your fair share of pancakes, pickled herring (yuck!) and potato sausage (can you tell we have a bit of a Swedish background?)

After the breakfast, Zac and I took the kids down to the hospital. We went up to the PICU to visit and drop off some cards the kids had made for the sick kids up there. We've spent so many holidays with them, we couldn't go without seeing them on Christmas!

Then to Mom and Dad's for a small break until everyone comes back to their house for presents, pizza making, and games. We started the pizza tradition at least 5 or 6 years ago. We all make our own pizzas - any and every ingredient you can imagine (except anchovies)!

A little Christmas Concert to pass the time...

Away in a manger, I assume...

The boys' part...

The kids were excellent. It's awesome how much better they get along the older they get. It's great to see.

Other excitement for the day...my niece lost her first tooth on Christmas Day! My mom asked to feel how wiggley it was and out it came! If she looks a little concerned, it's because she was. It freaked her out a little bit.
We stayed that night in Peoria and I got up early to do the "Day After Christmas Sales." I got some pretty good deals. Then I actually got to partake in another family tradition that I usually miss. My grandma takes everyone out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings and then to a movie. I did the lunch portion, but skipped the movie. This made for a great ending to a wonderful holiday season!

48 hours and counting...

I am so glad last week is officially over. We've made it over 48 hours without anyone puking. The fact that the two big kids didn't get this nasty bug is a miracle in itself. I wish I could take credit with my cleaning and disinfecting skills, but it's probably got a lot to do with the fact that we shipped them off most of last weekend and Olivia and I were on the road for the first half of the week.
Anyway, things are going great. It's amazing how quickly you forget how happy and playful Olivia can be when she's feeling well. Zac even made the comment yesterday that she was so happy and he hadn't seen her like that in so long.
We've had a relaxing and lazy weekend and should be good to go for the upcoming week. As of right now, we have no trips scheduled to Peoria until the 20th! We'll hope it stays that way!!

A banner day.

Olivia is so much better. She did get sick first thing this morning, but I think it was just for old times sake.
We didn't have to travel to Peoria today.
Zac is better.
The house is somewhat clean. Okay, not clean, but "picked up"
Jack and Brooklyn have been fighting non-stop.
Looks like things are getting back to normal!
Yeah!

We're heading the right direction...

Finally.
Olivia is doing so much better. I really thought Zac was going to have to have me institutionalized last night. So far today we have had no vomiting! (Knock on wood...) Yippee!
We did, however, have to travel back to Peoria for more labs. I drew her INR at home this morning and it was 5.1. Too high. They wanted to double check the accuracy of our machine. I drew again while she was sound asleep in the parking lot of the hospital and got a 3.7. Much better. The lab got 3.1 which is with normal range, so we *hopefully* won't have to go back tomorrow. I'll draw again in the morning and call that in and see what they say. I did also request a BMP lab to tell how she is doing otherwise (with hydration and such) just for my own peace of mind. I didn't get a call back about that, so I'm sure we'll hear tomorrow. The fact that she has been eating and keeping it down is a great sign that she is on the mend. She's been happier this afternoon than she has been since last Thursday.
Now Zac thinks he may have a touch of the bug. He came home early from work and moaned and groaned on the couch for a while before heading out to a wrestling match. This may just be what it takes to push me completely over the edge. He is worse than all three kids. Put together.

This is getting really old.

Olivia's INR today was 5.7 which is a huge improvement. We went to Peoria for labs and it took another 6 hours out of our day. Granted 3 hours of that is driving time, but I feel like I haven't been home in days. I had Brooklyn with us today, too. She did awesome! That's more than I can say for Olivia. The second we walk into the lab, she screams. The second we turn the corner to walk in to the cardiology office, she screams. She's definitely picked up on all this medical stuff. I finally just told them to call me when they needed us back in the office and we hung out in the cafeteria and on the little skywalk there. Anyway, we are going to try to check her INR on our home machine in the morning. If we get a reliable reading, we'll probably restart her coumadin on Thursday. If not, we'll have to drive back to Peoria again tomorrow to compare it with the lab. The thought of that makes me cringe.
She's still having a few issues. She's not keeping down as much food as she needs to, but I don't think it's flu related anymore. She has a tendency to do this after she's taken a hiatus from eating. I do hope she snaps out of it soon, though. I'm so tired of cleaning up bodily fluids. On a bright note, the pee did pick up a little bit...thanks for the prayers!!!

Ummm...change of plans

So we had a little unexpected turn of events today. The end result...we are home, but it was a long day to say the least.
Here's a little background to the story of the day. Olivia is on coumadin because of her artificial mitral valve. This is a blood thinner. We monitor her "INR" regularly to make sure it falls into the range of 2.5-3.5. The INR dictates what dose of coumadin she gets on a daily basis. We originally went to the hospital here in Macomb, but they test differently and her INR was always coming back high. So, that's when we switched to Peoria for all labs. We had received a home machine to test her INR way back when, but it never worked with her blood for some reason. So Saturday we got a new machine. In anticipation of her going to Peoria for her INR check, I wanted to make sure I knew how to work it before trying to calibrate it with the lab.
Fast forward to last night. I check her INR and get a reading of "greater than 7.5" At first I'm ecstatic that it actually popped back a number. That was a first for us! However, that's obviously too high.
Is it accurate?
I decide to test my own INR and get .9 which is great for a person not on a blood thinner.
What to do, what to do?
I call our pediatrician. We brainstorm. Is has to be off. We decide to watch for any signs of bleeding and definitely get the INR drawn this morning.
I then wake up feeling icky and Olivia had been sick in the middle of the night, so I'm not going to drag her to Peoria. We'll give Macomb another try with the expectation of it being a little off kilter.
Brinnnggggg.....
Her INR is reading at 16.something. Whoa!
"Head to Peoria. We'll have to admit her"
Bummer.
So, Zac forbids me to go, since I'm feeling icky. I tell him he's crazy and we head to Peoria. The cardiologist doesn't want to jump the gun on this, so we have Peoria re-draw the lab. As blessed as we are to have a big hospital with exceptional care close by, it sure does take a ridiculous amount of time to get through the process of having someone draw a lab.
Anywho...Dr. S. pops in and says if her INR is less than 10, we'll just watch her closely. If it over 10, she need some fresh plasma.
INR=10.2
Luckily, Dr. S. is awesome and let us come home this evening and skip the plasma. We are watching her very closely for any bleeding from anywhere. The concern is, if she were to start bleeding, she wouldn't stop. We've stopped the coumadin until further notice and will head back to Peoria tomorrow morning for another INR test. We're praying for a lower one!
Oh, could you please pray for some more pee, too. She's only gone twice today and that's not meeting her quota. Just something else to add to the list.
Okay. I guess this turned into a really long post or a lecture on coumadin therapy, for that matter. Have a good night!

Day four.

Enough already.
This stinks. Literally.
It's officially day four of this flu. I wish I could express how unbelievably well Olivia is handling all of this. I figured for sure we would be in the hospital at least for some fluids. She's doing great, all things considered.
The much anticipated diarrhea started Saturday afternoon and has continued. I'll spare you the gory details, but Zac finally witnessed an "episode" last night and said the next time something like that happens, call the ambulance! Believe me. I wish they answered calls like that.
The vomiting has slowed tremendously. She only tossed her cookies, I mean Pedialyte, twice yesterday. However, I'm typing this today at 1:00 am, after cleaning up a huge disaster from both ends. Hopefully this isn't how the day continues. We are supposed to head to Peoria for some labs in the morning, but the way things are looking, I think we'll skip that.
Anyway, nothing like waking up on a Monday morning to read about someone's bodily fluids, huh? Sorry. Have a great day!

Going strong...

Olivia is still hanging in there. She's definitely slowed down on the vomiting end of things. She surpassed her "3 wet diapers" quota by last night, and we'll watch for that again today. She was able to keep down about 8 ounces of Pedialyte yesterday and has kept down about 4 ounces so far today. In between "episodes," she's playing and crawling around, so hopefully we are on the upside of things.
Zac took the kids to Quincy today with a friend to get them out of the house. I was impressed that he is taking on a 7 year old, 4 year old and 3 year old at an indoor playground. Should be an interesting day! I'm spending the day disinfecting and doing laundry. Hopefully, Olivia and I will catch a nap this afternoon!

Happy New Year.

My poor baby.
Olivia woke up with the stomach flu this morning. She's thrown up 12 times in the last 5 hours and can't keep a thing down. This is the first time she's ever had a stomach bug like this and she's handling it like a trooper. I took her in to the pediatrician and she didn't fuss at all. Normally she would be screaming and fighting the ear check, throat check, etc...but not this time. She was totally cooperative. You could tell she didn't feel well. So, we are watching her for dehydration, pushing the Pedialyte, catching the Pedialyte when it comes back up, and holding her Lasix - no need to dry her out anymore than what she already is. Apparently everyone in the town of Macomb has this bug. Olivia has barely left the house, but leave it to her to find that silly germ somewhere.
We did get a prescription for Zofran, so hopefully that will help cut down on the vomiting. We are praying that this is short lived and it doesn't spread to anyone else (which would be an actual miracle).
I haven't forgotten to post about our Christmas happenings, it's just that with everyone home for break, things are crazy around here. I have to actually be responsible.
Here's to a great 2009!