Another Trip to the Hospital

Thursday was like any other day....super busy. Emma went to school, came home, did her homework, and then we went look at a new ballet school. She was her normal self all day (although her teacher tell me she was complaining of a back ache all day).

Right before bed she mentioned that her chest was hurting. I pulled out her peak flow meter (which checks how much air she can blow out), it was a little low so I did a neb treatment and then put her to bed.
At about 10pm she woke up crying and screaming like she did two weeks ago. I did the peak flow again and it was down to 30 (210 is ideal, under 100 means call the doctor). I tried another breathing treatment and some ibuprofen but that didn't seem to be doing any good. She was struggling to breathe. We decided she needed to go to the ER.
Once we got to the ER, she seemed to be doing a little better, but within 30 mins of sitting there she was back to screaming. The doctor did a chest xray, and listened to her heart. He said she had a heart murmur and her chest xray with abnormal. He felt that she needed to be admitted but wanted her to be seen by a pediatric cardiologist (yes...I was FREAKING out at that point). He said he wanted to transfer her by ambulance to Emanuel Children's Hospital. So, at 4am we were taken to Emanuel.
Once there the admitting doctor came in and did an eval, agreed that her xray was not normal and requested echo and a cardiology consult for the morning.
By 5am everyone left us alone to sleep for a few hours. At 7am the doctors started pouring in. We had first 2 medical students that did an eval, then an attending and her 4 residents came through (each taking turns listening to Emma and asking a MILLION questions). The attending told me that they thought Emma had a enlarged chamber in her heart, but they needed it confirmed by the ECHO.
Next was Dr. Steve, he is Emma's rehab doc that we had an appointment to see that day (I guess he decided he would come up for the appointment). He was there to check out her scoliosis (that we just discovered). He did a once over and ordered a scoliosis xray (thank goodness it looks like it is slowly progressing. They found an xray from last year where it was missed and it's only moved 3 degrees in a year. YAY!). After Dr. Steve, Emma had an Echo. Then we had a nice quiet period of quiet. Emma got a much needed nap. Late afternoon the cardiologist came in and said the ECHO looked normal but he wanted to look around himself, so he did another ECHO on her. He found that all the structures looked normal. He said he was still concerned by the abnormal xray so he ordered a CT scan. The CT came back that her heart is completely normal (HUGE sigh of relief), BUT there is fluid at the bottom of her lung. The attending said normally that would mean it was pneumonia, but she still wasn't sure because this started two weeks ago and she has had NO other symptoms. She said almost always there would be fever or at least a cough. She said she wanted to get another look at the lung. She couldn't get another CT scan because it has too much radiation, so they did another xray. The xray confirmed that there is a dark spot surrounded by fluid, which the doctor felt pretty confident that it was pneumonia. She sent us home with two different kinds of antibiotics to make sure it goes away. We are to have her ped check her several times to make sure it goes away. If it doesn't then we have to go to a pulmunologist to have a lung study done. I guess they go in and take some fluid out and test it. Please pray that it's pneumonia and we don't have to put her through that.

So, that was our fun weekend. Lets hope that is her last trip to the hospital, this poor little girl has spent WAY too much time sick in her short life.

Obama!!

One last post!

*Disclaimer: I didn't take any of these pictures. I got them from a site where people that worked with the campaign uploaded their pictures to share with everyone.

I thought I would add a bit about my adventure in campaigning for Obama. I started back in January by helping out in Washington for our caucus. I was a prescient captain, which meant that I did a bunch of phonebanking before our caucus and then I was a campaign rep on the day of. I passed out pamphlets and stickers, and then did tally work for the campaign and reported our the numbers to the state campaign office. I was terrified when I walked in there. Most of you know me...I'm shy. I didn't know what to expect from our little town, but just like everywhere else in the country, we had triple the people they expected. Obama took our area with 65% of the vote. Yipee!!

I was really bummed when our state was done with the primary. I really wanted to be more involved. So when I heard that the Portland office was opening I jumped at the chance to get involved. I posted about that first day down below.

After that day I spent 4-5 days a week working on the campaign. Towards the end of the primary I was there 6 days a week. I spent hours and hours canvassing, and phone banking. Most days I would get home around 10pm. I even learned how to run my own canvass and phone bank. It was an amazing time. I loved our office and all of the volunteers. I made some really great friends. We had young, old, black, white, hispanic, asian, american indian, gay, straight. You name it, and it was represented. There was such a energy there it's hard to explain.
The last week of the primary Barack (President-Elect Obama) came for a rally at the waterfront. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to volunteer. It was a beautiful day, sunny, clear and warm (85). I was the first person people came across in the secure zone. By the end of the day I had NO voice (from greeting the 75,000 people that came that day) and was fried beyond belief (I even re-applied sun block all day). It was such a wonderful day and I even got to meet the man himself! After I greeted all of the people we took jugs of water around to re-fill water bottles (you don't want people passing out because of the heat). Once he came out on stage I was stuck in the middle of the crowd. I couldn't see him, and I was soooooo stinking hot! I working my way out of the crowd and found shade in the "behind the scenes area "(the volunteer badge came in handy). I came across two other volunteers and we found some shade. After sitting there for about 15 mins (we found a perfect spot where we could see the stage) we realized that behind us was his bus! (whoo0hoo!). When he was done he came back our way. He was nice enough to take the time to shake our hands and talk to us for a minute. It was a fabulous day!

After that he won Oregon and then the primary!

We moved on the the general election. It was long hours and hard work but we did it! Election night was great. We all had worked our butts off all day canvassing and closed down the office an hour before the polls closed. We went inside and watched the returns. It was an amazing moment to be with all of those people that you worked so hard with for so long and see our hard work pay off. There were tears and cheers. It's a day I will never forget!

That night we went to an election party for the democratic party. Boy.... are they boring. It was for a senator (Merkely) and many of the reps and other office holders. We ended up leaving to go meet some people at a restaurant/bar. As soon as we walked in our field organizer gets a call that there are hundred of people partying in the street in front of our office. We raced over to see what was going on. People had plugged a stereo with speakers into our twinkle lights that hung on our office (you know into the extra plug thing that always that the end of the string of lights??). They were dancing in the streets. The police had come and told us and as long as people stay on the sidewalk they wouldn't shut us down. It was amazing! People were on cloud nine. We (my friend Meg and I) finally left about 1:30. She is going through chemo and was very worn out.

The next day we closed down the office. The whole day as people drove past they would honk their horns and yell "thank you" out the window to us.

It was a very bittersweet day. We are planning to get together one more time before the inauguration. Some are going to DC, but most of us will be here. It was be great to see them again.



Totally jealous of the person that took this picture!


Little girl at the rally. I loved to see the excitement in the children.




Canvass packets! Never ending canvass packets!





Excitement at one of our office BBQ's! My sweet friend Ana Rosa. She was hilarious!




One of the BBQ's. I'm there in the green shirt next to the guy in the yellow.






Our organizers with Dulle' Hill. He's the guy in the show Psych. He came up here to help out.



Our field organizer showing the girls how to canvass

Me and cardboard Obama at the Mississippi street fair. I STILL have some scars from the sunburn I got that day (I know...sun block. I do put it on, I just never do it enough).

Our NE Portland Office. The best office in the country!!

Emma's trip to the Hospital

Well, last Saturday was an awful day.

Emma woke up about 5am crying that her back hurt. I thought that the boys had been too rough with her and pulled something so I gave her some motrin and rubbed her back. By 7am it was even worse. She was crying really hard and saying her chest hurt too. Then about 8 she started screaming that it hurt to breathe. We decided to take her to the same day clinic at her dr's office. The dr monitored her oxygen level and it was down to 85. He was pretty sure that she had pneumonia so he had an xray done. The xray showed that she didn't have pneumonia but that she was having what was called an "A Typical Asthma Attack". Her lungs were FULL of air that couldn't get out. The doctor gave her a nebulizer treatment and she seemed MUCH better. He sent us home with some steroids to keep the airway open. We went home thinking all was well. After about 2 hours it started again. The crying and screaming was MUCH worse. I did a neb treatment and that didn't seem to work. We called the doctor and he said to take her to the ER.

When we got to the ER, they put in an IV, did blood work, xrays, and couldn't figure out what was wrong. Her heart rate was up, and so was her breathing rate. When they listened to her breathing she was grunting and "splinting" (which means she wasn't taking full breaths). On top of that her blood sugar was WAY up (they think it was due to the stress on her body from all of the pain). They decided the best thing to do was admit her. Finally after about 8 hours in the ER, they got her into a room and gave her a pain killer. The poor thing had been in pain for over 12 hours. About 11 that night she started getting a fever, so that made them feel much better. That meant it was most likely pneumonia (that they couldn't find on the xray) or a virus. They spent the rest of the day and the next morning doing tests. As long as her pain killer was working she was just fine. We watched movies and played board games. The steroids that they gave her increased her appetite, so Miss "I only will eat two bites", turned into a hungry bear. She would eat entire plates of food!

In the end they decided that she had a virus (her blood work showed she was fighting something), even though there were no symptoms like a cough or runny nose. They said the pain came from a secondary symptom called pleurisy (inflammation in the lining of the lungs). They were very baffled by the extreme secondary symptoms that this minor little virus caused. They sent us home with more steroids and had her take motrin around the clock to keep the pain away. Within 3 days she was back to her normal self.

Her asthma doc increased her daily meds so hopefully she won't have another asthma attack like that and we have to follow up with her pediatrician on Tuesday to check her blood sugar. It was still raising as we left the hospital, but they were pretty confident that it was because of the stress.

So, that is another chapter in the crazy life of Emma Rose!

The great thing about the hospital is that they will give you whatever you want if you will take your medication. This is Emma eating chocolate ice cream and washing it down with chocolate milk after she took her nasty steroids. They also gave her a huge nail polish kit after she took some other medication and a build a bear with an outfit after they did some really NOT fun tests.

Christmas 08

Christmas was nice and quiet this year. The snow kept most people at home, so it was just us. The kids had a great time and seemed happy with everything they got.


My attempt to get a nice picture...ha!

Look at that sweet face.

Logan, happy to get more Warrior books.

Emma and her new Barbie Dream House!

Logan, showing off on his new guitar.

Aaron hitting iTunes!

Emma and the make-up Aunt Patti gave her.

Zoo Lights

Aaron's jazz band was asked to play at the Portland Zoo during Zoo Lights. They sounded great! It was only their 2nd performance of the year. Aaron said that it was really hard to play because it was so cold his fingers didn't want to work. Even so, he sounded great! He had several solos.

Ballet

Emma loves ballet.

She talks about it, reads about it, even taught herself the positions out of a book before she started taking ballet.

She started her first session of ballet 1 at Kids Club in November. She loved every minute of it. She took once a week and then had a Christmas performance. We loved her teacher, but didn't love Kids Club. Her teacher has decided to take a break from teaching to stay home with her daughter, so we are shopping around for a new school.


Emma posing before her Christmas performace.


Pretty little ballerina putting on her shoes.



Emma and one of her best friends Rebecca.




Getting ready for her performance. The room was so crowded that I couldn't get back in to take pictures. I had to watch from the window outside of the room.




Her class

Her last day of class was a parents day. We got to go in the room and watch them show us what they have learned.

One of her birthday presents was tickets to see the Nutcracker in Portland. She was in heaven!! She was completely star struck when she met the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Let It Snow!!

Wow...I can't believe how much snow we got!! We had at least a foot of snow if not more. It was beautiful and lots of fun! It did make Christmas shopping a pain, and the kids missed the last 3 days of school, but it was worth it. We even had big ol' fat snow flakes on Christmas day!







The snow just kept piling up!


I didn't drive my van for over a week.

Emma's Birthday Party

Emma had her 7th birthday party at the movie theater. We rented the theater before the movie started so we could do lunch, cupcakes, and presents and then we watched High School Musical 3. The kids had a blast! It was the perfect birthday party.

Can you tell that Emma loved her gift???

Everyone is ready for the movie to start!

Trip to California

Last month we took a trip down to California for Anthony's grandparents funeral. It was a long drive but it was good to see family. The funeral was the week of Thanksgiving so we were able to have Thanksgiving dinner (actually 3 dinners) with his family for the first time. The kids really enjoyed being around family.



Andy, Fawn, Lyn, and Anthony


We were also there for Emma's birthday. She was spoiled by all the family down there.



My kids fell in love with the kittens at great grandma and grandpa's house.




Emma and her cousin Emily.





Emma and her kinda cousin. Emma and Cassidy became best buds from the moment they met. They had a great time playing at grandpas house.