Every parent's worst nightmare is to find themselves in the emergency room with their child. As a new mom, I knew this day was probably inevitable but I definitely did not expect to find myself there so early in Liv's life.
Thursday May 31st Liv woke up with several red bumps on her body.
I texted a pediatrician friend of mine and she told me that they were most likely bug bites. BUG BITES!?! I was freaked out by this thought and immediately went into operation clean everything mode! That day became an all day laundry fest!
We even washed our dog Brinkley! Poor dog was falsely accused of being the source of the "alleged" bug bites and his wrongful imprisonment consisted of 20 minutes in the bathtub and an all day quarantine. He has since been exonerated and cleared of all the charges against him ;)
Here was his mugshot:
I did think it was weird; however, that Jarryd and I had never seen any bugs and we were free from any bites ourselves. But without the presence of a fever, we weren't very worried about it.
This was all about to change...
By the time we were getting her ready for bed that night we noticed more red bumps and she felt warm. After taking her temperature we found out that she was running a mild fever... her first one ever.
And this began the downward spiral of the nightmare.
Now please don't hate me but my sweet amazing 3 month old daughter sleeps through the night... a full 12 hours usually... and she has ever since she was 10 weeks old. (Again please don't hate me ;) I know how blessed I am and it will probably never happen again with any of our future children.)
But this night Liv was up every couple of hours crying hysterically. I probably took her temperature a thousand times that night... each time my heart would race as I read the low triple digit numbers.
By Friday morning Liv was running an average temp of 100.5 and had broken out in a weird blistering rash that was mainly covering her arms and legs.
Jarryd and I were pretty worried at this point and were ready to head to our pediatricians office by 7:30 that morning and forced our way in by the time they opened at 8.
Liv was not a happy girl on the way there :(
While at the pediatricians office we got some rather bad news.
THE DOCTOR HAD NO CLUE WHAT WAS WRONG WITH LIV!
She had NEVER seen a rash like Liv's in all her years of practicing medicine! She even brought in another doctor to take a look and she was dumbfounded as well. They literally went through a list of possible infections and were able to rule out everything that came to mind.
To make matters worse... word got out that there was a tiny patient with a strange illness and students began pouring in to take a peek at this apparent once in a career event.
Needless to say this was a little unsettling...
The only suggestions that they could come up with was a severe bacterial infection like Meningitis or a dangerous virus. Thats right... you read that correctly... MENINGITIS!
Our stomachs sank and there was definitely a point where I realized that I wasn't breathing and had to remind myself to do so. We were told that we would need to go to the emergency room immediately and that they would call over to let them know we were coming.
The next 12 hours were a blur...
When we arrived at the ER there was a team of people waiting for Liv... I was glad that they were efficient but I have to say... I didn't take this as a good sign.
They immediately began to assess Liv's condition and reported that her temperature was now at 103 and her breathing was labored.
I don't think I have ever been so scared in my life.
When they finally got us into a room, Jarryd held me as I held Liv and we said a prayer for the healing of our sweet baby girl.
Next thing we know the room is filled with nurses and a Doctor who proceeded to tell us what the plan of attack was. The first thing he wanted to rule out was Meningitis... yep... there is that scary word again. Along with several other scary sounding bacterial infections.
He ordered a chest x-ray, spinal tap, a catheter, an IV, and a full blood workup. Watching our 12 pound 3 month old daughter scream her head off while people poked and prodded and poked her some more was miserable... probably more miserable for us than it was for her. I kept reminding myself that she will never remember any of this.
A picture of her IV which she ripped out at one point.
This picture absolutely kills me, she looks so terrible.
The ER introduced us to these vanilla scented pacifiers and they were a lifesaver, it was the only thing that would temporarily soothe her.
Once the results of the spinal tap and chest x-ray came back clear and they were able to stabilize her temperature, they gave her a shot of a powerful antibiotic and told us we were able to wait at home for the rest of the test results. We were so relieved to hear some good results but we knew we weren't out of the clear yet.
Our car ride home... we decided to not put her through anymore stress and kept her clothes off. She loves to be naked... which is something we are a little worried about!
By the time we got home, she began throwing up and was unable to keep any of her food down. Over the next 24 hours we got very little sleep, contemplated returning to the ER twice, prayed constantly, and waited by the phone to hear from the hospital with any news of what was wrong with Liv.
Whenever we fed her we had to prepare for her food to come back up... hence all the towels :(
In the end, all of her blood work was free of any bacterial infection and they decided that it was an unknown dangerous virus that had to pass on its own. With each day that passed Liv got back to her usual self and her skin finally began to clear up.
Whenever Jarryd and I go through hard things, it never fails that the Lord reminds us of how blessed and loved we are! Word spread like wildfire that Liv was in the emergency room and people from all over the country were praying for her and us. Literally all over the country!!
Our amazing pastor Lee Brewer came up to the hospital to pray over all of us and brought us lunch (which he had to force us to eat because we had NO appetite)
Also, Jarryd's wonderful parents drove in all the way from Odessa to help us! It truly does take a village to raise a child!
Our phones were blowing up with friends who were all asking us if we needed anything. We have some incredible friends who live in Mustang, OK and they offered to buy us dinner by calling in an order to our favorite delivery place.
We have a couple from our church, Ken and Cindy, that have literally become family to us. On the day that Liv went to the ER, Cindy was making a meal for another family in our church (she is so amazing) and she had so much left over that she began to pray for God to reveal who else needed a meal that day. In the middle of her prayer, Ken got the text message from Jarryd about Liv and Cindy knew exactly who needed the food! Needless to say we had an incredible meal that night!
God is so good! He is constantly reminding Jarryd and I that WE ARE NOT IN CONTROL and that He absolutely is! What better way to teach us this than to have Liv contract an illness that multiple doctors had never seen before? With all of our modern technology and medical advances we must remember that our hope cannot be put in them but rather in the Creator of all things. In the moments that we felt the most helpless and scared we felt God's presence and were comforted by the truth that His will will be done. It brought us such a peace to know that we could trust in God's faithfulness and that He would ultimately carry us through whatever life brings us.
Thank you to all who prayed for us and our sweet daughter! We are humbled by your love and support!
Every parent's worst nightmare is to find themselves in the emergency room with their child. As a new mom, I knew this day was proba...
That is a mischievous grin
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Cutie Pie!
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One of her many car rides... she loves them!
First trip to the pool!
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Love these...
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Someone asked me how many bows she has... it's too many to count!
She looks like a doll!
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Father's day!!
Her Father's Day present to Jarryd!
Learning to play the piano already!
Wore out from being so cute!
And all that in just 4 months...
