Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Home Again, Home Again....

Well, we're finally home from the hospital.  Reagan was discharged this morning (Wed.) and we were home a little after noonish.  She remains on oxygen and still has a yucky cough which brings up thick mucus.  We're hoping in the next week she can clear those lungs out and be able to finish off this bronchiolitis and do away with the oxygen.
Originally, Reagan's cardiologist had scheduled an MRVenogram to be done outpatient yesterday.  Since we were in the hospital they went ahead and did the procedure.  This was so that they could get a better look at her blood clot and make sure there were not more clots higher up in her veins.  She did have to be sedated for the procedure.  I was able to go into the procedure room and stay with her while they put her to sleep with a gas mask.  I then had to leave.  Mom & I waited for about 2 hrs. for a procedure they said would take about an hour.  I finally was able to go see her in the recovery room.  She was none too happy to be there but was glad to have mama.  Unfortunately, they had to intubate her for the procedure but was able to take the tube out immediately after.  Later that day, her cardiologist, Dr. Johnson came by her room and gave me the results of the scan.  It appeared that there was just the one blood clot--thank you Jesus!!  He is going to bring Reagan's case up this Friday when all of the cardiologists have a conference to decide if we should give the Lovenox shots more time to try to deal with the clot or go in through a heart cath in the very near future to place a stint in that vein to open it up.  Hopefully, I will know something before laying my head down Friday night.
Reagan will follow-up with her pediatrician this Friday, hematologist on Monday, and pulminologist in 2 weeks.   We appreciate all your prayers and support through this journey, as always!!!
Here are a few pics from the last few days:
Me speaking at Women's Conference day before Reagan went in hospital

In ER @ 7am with Reagan Sunday morning

Reagan in her room coloring after being admitted

Reagan with her vest on getting ready for a breathing treatment. 
(We told her she looked like her daddy with his vest on in the cockpit)

Getting her breathing treatment while the vest "shakes" her lungs to break up all the yucky stuff

Heading to her MRVenogram on Tues.  Poor baby, she had no idea what was coming, 
she was just so glad to be getting out of her hospital room

That's wraps up this update, I'll keep you posted on what the cardiologist decide to do about the blood clot. 

Monday, September 13, 2010

In the Hospital Again....

Sorry, for not updating in awhile.  I had meant to do a big update to tell how good Reagan has been doing over the past month but have been busy preparing for a speech.  I spoke at my mom's church Sat. Sept. 11 at a Women's Conference on the Legacy of Motherhood.  In my spare time, I have been preparing for that which was this past weekend and then had planned on doing a good update on Reagan today but things have changed.  While we were at my mom's house this weekend she got sick, or should I say worse.  She has been really rattly, junky, & wheezy sounding for about 2 weeks now.  We did a round of steroids at home and extra breathing treatments but to no relief.  The junkiness continued in her lungs and work of breathing while doing activity.  No fevers though so I had kept her home.  Early Sunday morning around 4am, I awoke at my moms and felt of Reagan and she was burning hot with fever.  I had already decided I was going to take her in Monday and make someone see her and find out what all this junkiness was about.  Being about 2 1/2 hrs. from Austin at the time worried me with her junkiness, work of breathing and now fever so I awoke Aunt Kay & decided we better take her to the ER.  Aunt Kay had gone with us to my mom's to watch the kids while mom & I attended the Women's Conference on Sat.  So around 5am, Kay & I headed out from Whitney and headed to Austin, I actually made it in a record 2 hrs. driving with my flashers on.  Thank you God for not putting any cops along our path.  In the ER, she had 101.6 fever.  They did a chest x-ray which to my surprise didn't look much different than her baseline x-ray.  They decided it's probably a viral bronchiolitis but with the fevers, drew labs to make sure there's nothing bacterial going on.  They also admitted her to watch overnight.  Once moving to the floor Sunday afternoon , they decided to put her on a little oxygen, she's only on about 1/5 L of oxygen but has brought her oxygen sats from 88 to high 90's just with that little bit of O2.  She also ran a little more fever Sunday afternoon in her room but none overnight.  Overnight, she did however, threw up about 3 times and hasn't had an appetite this morning.  She has done alot of coughing and has begun to cough up some thick mucus which she had not until this point brought anything up yet.  The pulminologist suggested using the "vest" on her during her breathing treatments while here but doesn't see a need for it at home. She used it for the first time this morning, it's meant to help break up congestion in her chest.  She did really good with it.  It's quite loud and shakes her whole body but mom & I told her how big she looked in the vest and that daddy wears a vest when he flies.  She smiled and thought that was funny!
For now, we are just hanging out and watching her closely to  make sure the fevers don't return and nothing grows from the blood work.  So far, so good.  Will try to keep you posted.  Hopefully, they'll just watch her for a day or two more and then we can go home.  Praying she only gets better from here on and not worse.  Thanks again to everyone for your prayers and support!