There is a song by elevation worship and these are a few of the words. This is the song that came on the radio as I drove on to the interstate bringing Lillian home from a five day hospital stay. I had to reign in the tears as I contemplated the prior week. Our son had gotten braces and the day after he came down with strep throat. He was super sick and I took him to urgent care Saturday. He got better after two doses and life seemed to move right along. On Monday evening, Lillian came down with a high fever and vomiting. We couldn't get anything into her and the night just got worse. I had been keeping in contact with her pediatrician and ended up taking her to see him Tuesday afternoon, all while she continued wretching every 15 to 20 minutes. He gave her a shot of rocephin and then I had to go to walgreeen and pick up IV phenergan and take it back to the office so they could give her a shot of that. The night did not get better. She couldn't sit still, or lay down and the wretching would not stop. Her face was very swollen. I rubbed her down with all kinds of oils over those two days...she was up again all night. At 530 wednesday morning, she vomited blood. I hit the shower, called my hubby home and packed as quickly as I could manage and headed south to the children's hospital. Her wretching continued total on into Thursday. After some testing, it was determined she would need to stay. By afternoon, about eight hours of being in the ER, she was admitted to a room where she continued to wretch. The medical team came in, examined her and after quite a bit of conversation, they ordered a CT of her face and neck and ultrasounds of her abdomen, more blood to test her pancreas and liver. They suspected possible appendicitis or pancreatitis or abscess in her sinus. What came back was a complete shock to the team. She was diagnosed with epiglottitis. A rare and dangerous condition that escalates quickly. It is brought on by viral and/or bacterial infection. Given the inflammation marker tests they had done, it was determined she had a bacterial infection. She continued to struggle the entire night. They ran two heavy hitting IV antibiotics and by the next day started IV steroids. We started seeing marked improvement after steroids were on board. This turned out to be one of the scariest hospital stays of her life.
Blessings : thank God he gave me the urgency to pursue help right away.
we had an excellent ER nurse who was able to start two IVs after one stick each
She had excellent nurses on the floor.
Her pediatrician giving her that shot likely saved her life
She was supposed to be on a room hold, but we got in a room after roughly 7 hours in the ER
I had a full tank of gas and we had safe travel
All of my kids pitched in with food and deliveries to the hospital
My friend sent money for food
I was gifted a visa card at the hospital
we forgot to get parking validated, but they waved the $40 fee and let me out
our sweet friend sent her a basket with her favorite snacks
my tribe has surrounded us with meals for the next few days and I couldn't be more grateful
Most of all, I know there was an army of prayer warriors on our behalf.
You can trust the Lord. He never fails. He's good even when our circumstances are not. Even when things don't turn out the way we plan. We make our plans but the Lord determines our steps.
Thank God.
