Thanksgiving in the ICU

Yep - Seraph is back in the hospital.

She has been gaining a lot of weight all month.  We thought it was normal weight gain, but turns out she was retaining too much water.  Her diuretic medicines (the ones that help her pee off extra fluids) may have been an incorrect dose all month.  OR she might have a very serious problem with her heart.  She'd been slowly getting more puffy.  Wednesday morning her neck was extremely puffy and she was having trouble breathing.

An ambulance ride and a relatively calm ER visit later, they transfered her to the PICU. As they rolled the bed towards the elevator, she stretched her neck all the way back so she could see her mommy and daddy.  The nurse pushing the bed was walking faster than us, so it must've looked like (to Seraph) she was being separated from Mom and Dad. Fear and stress filled her face.  We ran up next to her bed and she was visibly calmed.

I'm glad she's old enough and strong enough to communicate her feelings.  It also makes it harder to leave her at the hospital while we go home. I've been crying alot this time around - I'm just sad.  We expect she'll be home in a few weeks.  We expect she'll be home for Christmas.

She is still in the ICU.  She is on 7 liters of high-flow oxygen.  (That's a lot--I believe after 8 liters oxygen, they have to switch to bipap or a ventilator.) She is slightly sedated - otherwise she pulls off the oxygen tubes that she really needs.  She's awake and responsive. Her breathing is slightly better than yesterday.

I think once her breathing is better, they might want to do another heart cath. They need to make sure there's not an obstruction in part of her heart.  They haven't seen one with the non-invasive tests they can do.  ...but they need to be sure. An obstruction would be a serious problem.

Despite all this, Thanksgiving was very nice.  My family came over and we ate and played games all day and all night.  I wouldn't have made it through the day without my family here to distract me.  Thanks, guys - I love you :)

Please pray for my sweet Seraph.  Thanks.

I'm thankful for....Christmas!!

Last November, the children's hospital had a wall dedicated to thank-you's.  We all taped up a note of thanks and then looked for them each time we walked by the wall.  We did something similar in our home the previous year with a whiteboard.


I like seeing a wall full of things that make people happy. I wanted to do something similar this year, but couldn't decide where to put it.  I finally settled on something alot more Christmas-y.  This way the notes of thanks can stay up even longer PLUS I get to sneak in Christmas decor early.  We'll grab some green and red paper to make a border along the top of the wall with alternating christmas trees and hearts.  We'll write something we're thankful for on each cutout.


There are so many things to be thankful for this year.  I think it'll be good for the kids to practice focusing on the good things. :)