Maleia in the hospital

After a horrible night in the hospital with Maleia, she is doing much better. That being said, it's been a roller coaster of a ride!

Yesterday morning we were playing outside and having a great time and then then kids came in and asked to watch a movie. After half of the movie at around 1:00 I noticed that Maleia was breathing really hard and so I got her some water and sat next to her for a few minutes. She mentioned that she was REALLY tired and asked to take a nap. I mean, really? When does a child ASK to take a nap? I told her that we would eat some lunch and then she can lay down. We made lunch and she curled up on the chair and told me that she couldn't sit up to eat. I put her on my lap and could feel her heart beating so fast!! She only ate a few bites and I took her to lay down. She fell into a stupor/semi-sleep (with eyes slightly ajar) and I could see that her chest was retracting severely and her belly was contorting. (Apparently it was her diaphragm working really hard to try and help her breathe.) This scared me, so at 2:00 I called the clinic here at the hospital and they said that they had a 4:45 appointment open. I thought, well, maybe after a good nap she will feel better, but we were constantly watching her and noticed it was NOT getting better, so at 2:30 Stephanie and I just took her in. We didn't even tell Reid where we were going. We just left.

They got her in and checked her, in her stupor state, and found that her oxygen level was at 80%, her heart rate was at 150 beats per minute, and that her breathing rate was 54 breaths per minute. She was immediately admitted to the hospital and put on oxygen. This helped a little and they gave her some breathing treatments that seemed to get her oxygen levels up to about 92%. She also received a blessing and the doctor even volunteered to help out! How amazing that there are worthy priesthood holders around every corner in UT!! They started an IV of antibiotics and saline which, of course, she was devastated about and so we sat there crying together until they found a vein that worked. Even Reido teared up a bit... they wrapped it up in a white bandage and Maleia calls it her cast. She threw up a few times, but the doctors said that it was her reaction to the antibiotics and the treatments. They did a chest Xray and didn't see signs of pnemonia or bronchitis, but her lungs looked like big over-inflated balloons, which means that oxygen was going in, but she wasn't breathing out. After some more breathing treatments, we were optimistic and we soon realized that we would be staying at the hospital overnight, so I went home to my in-laws home, which was only a block away from the hospital, to get a few things and "slept" with her in the hospital. Though we didn't sleep much. After a few hours into the night, the breathing treatments stopped working and at one time her oxygen level went as low as 83% and they were talking about making arrangements to life flight her to Primary Children's hospital during the night. I was picking things up and was just waiting for the go-ahead, but then her breathing went up to 89%, so I went to sleep only to be awakened by 2 nurses trying to get the oxygen back on her. She pulled it out!! She hated it and was crying while wheezing and complaining how much it hurt. And she threw up again, so they finally gave her some phenegren for the nausea. They cut the strips that go into her nostrils for the oxygen and put tape on her cheeks to hold them. This only lasted about 30 minutes until she was screaming because she not only ripped the oxygen out of her nose, but the tape that was holding the tubes took some hair with it. It took me a while to calm her down and that is when her oxygen level went down to 83%. She couldn't even cry and it seemed like she would hold her breath forever in between gasps. They gave her a few more breathing treatments and a steriod medication into her IV and her breathing went up to 90% again. Needless to say, I slept on her bed with my arms over her arms so when she had the urge to rip out her oxygen in the middle of the night, she would wake me up first so I can prevent her from pulling her oxygen out and create another "crash" (as I call it, but I know it's not a "real" crash, but it was close enough to me.)

In the morning they continued her treatments, she even ate, and got her back to the levels of yesterday afternoon (92%) and then she even perked up! They took another chest Xray and it looked the same as yesterday. Things were looking better and better as the day moved on and by noon they were even trying to reduce her amount of oxygen. She ate some more and by afternoon, she finally was up to around 97% and they were slowly reducing her oxygen. Her oxygen would go down to around 90%, then they would give her another breathing treatment until her oxygen level was stable, and they would try to reduce it again. There was only one time when they had to move it back up and wait a little longer to try again. I guess weaning someone off of oxygen is harder than just "taking them off oxygen." Her heart rate was staying around 110, but her breaths per minute were still high. At 3pm we both took 3 hour naps (thanks to Stephanie for staying in the room so that I could feel comfortable enough to rest) and I guess while she was sleeping her heart rate went down to about 100, her oxygen levels stayed around 97%, and her breaths per minute went down to around 35. WOOHOO! We ate dinner and I am home now to get a few things while she is watching a movie with Grandpa at the hospital. They stopped reducing the amount of oxygen because they said that at night, it goes down anyway and so they will resume reducing the amount of oxygen tomorrow and see if we can take her home. We are optimistic that this will happen... even if it means that we have to take an oxygen tank home with us so we can observe her a block away from the hospital.

The results are inconclusive of why this happened, but what they think is that she is having an allergic reaction to an infection that she must have gotten. This caused an asthmatic response. They aren't sure that she has asthma, but they are sending me home with inhalers and some other gadgets that can help me diagnose this even earlier, though they were surprised how sudden it came on and we were grateful that we took her in when we did.

So all in all, we are VERY grateful that we are here with Reid and Stephanie because if we were still in Ogden, Meechelle's family (my sister who we are staying with) would still be on vacation, and if we were in Budapest, Brandon would have been in the US for his training in DC still. So my other 2 kiddos are doing great and loving the time with their grandparents and I can concentrate on being with Maleia. Thank you so much for your prayers!!