A Trip to the ER
Two weeks ago we headed out to Indiana for the EMC General Conference. Miriam had been a little congested before we left, but seemed to be getting better. Her runny nose had stopped by that point, but she had a horrible cough. All this seemed to be in the natural progression of things when she gets a cold. On Monday of the conference though, she stopped eating. She refused to nurse and was extremely fussy. Monday evening she ate a little but lost all of what she ate. Tuesday while traveling back, she still refused to nurse, and I was starting to get concerned. She did drink a little bit of ice water from a spoon. I just assumed maybe she had a sore throat and this felt really good to her. She pretty much slept the whole 12+ hours home. Wednesday rolled around and she was still refusing to eat, and slept most of the day. With all this, we decided for me to keep the kids home from church that night, but I called Aaron before church with concerns of Miriam getting dehydrated. We called the doctor's office after Aaron got home from church that evening, and sure enough, they wanted us to take her to the ER.

A Long Night
As we got in there it was obvious that Miriam was dehydrated. She had not had a wet diaper since noon and she had no more tears left. The nurses and doctors that took care of Miriam were excellent, we felt very comfortable with them and their care for our daughter. They took many tests to rule out the "Big stuff". A chest X-Ray was first to rule out pneumonia then on to the task of getting an IV in to begin getting her hydrated. This process was long and very hard on me, she is such a chunky monk and with her being dehydrated, it was really hard for them to find a spot to put the IV in! The nurses on duty looked at each hand and foot and did not feel comfortable trying it, so they sent the IV team in. We repeated the whole process again and they at last were able to get an IV in her left foot. Miriam was so sick and exhausted at this point, that she literally went right back to sleep as soon as they were done. They were not able to draw blood when they put the IV in because they were afraid of loosing the IV. Later we went through the whole process again as one of the doctors came in and tried to draw blood. After some unsuccessful attempts, she sent for "Tyrone" who was able to draw blood. (Later we found out that they were still not able to get enough, and they had to stick her AGAIN later that morning after being admitted, poor little thing!) I was holding up "fairly" well at this point. (I won't lie, there had been a few tears shed) My undoing came after 2am when the doctor came in and said that after much thought, and because of her symptoms, he wanted to do a spinal tap to check for meningitis. well....as you know, that's serious stuff! Praise the Lord, that the doctor was able to report right after he had done it, that the spinal fluid looked clear, and so this gave us some level of comfort as we waited the "official" results.
Admitted to the Hospital
Miriam did test negative for Pneumonia, Meningitis, and other bacterial infections and positive for RSV. As we look back, Aaron had been feeling horrible during conference, and we think he and Isaac also had it. By this point in the game, she was over the worst of the RSV, but it was complicated by her being so dehydrated. She was finally admitted at 6am on Thurs. She literally slept that whole day, waking long enough to loudly protest any poking or prodding from nurses and doctors. It seemed like a very slow recovery to us, but gradually she began having longer periods of awake time. Her first smiles were a wonderful sight to behold after our usually cheery and content little girl hadn't been quite so cheery. The two main reasons for her prolonged hospital stay was 1) she still refused to nurse or drink and 2) her blood sugar was really low. Finally through the night Sat. night into Sunday morning, her blood sugar stabilized and they gave us the OK to take her home.

Road to Recovery
On Monday(a week ago now, it has taken me a few times to get this all typed out!) she had a follow up appointment with her pediatrician. She still was not drinking much even though her appetite was almost back to normal. Upon examining her, the doctor found that she now had an ear infection as a spin off of the RSV, which would explain her not wanting to suck. On top of all of that, she has 6 teeth that have been working their way through!

How She's Doing Now
Praise the Lord for His strength and healing! After the 3rd full day of antibiotics, Miriam started drinking out of the bottle. (We just finished day 7 of the antibiotics) She has continued to improve each day, being less fussy, smiling and laughing more as she is feeling better. Her appetite is back to normal now and all signs of RSV are gone. Thank you all so much for your prayers, visits, care for Isaac, and food. We appreciate it so much~