Finding Normal

Tuesday night we got a call from our pediatrician who after looking at the results of both the ultrasound and her blood work made the decision to have us take Hannah to Dell Children’s Hospital right away. I quickly grabbed her and carried her to the car. She was crying and was filled with fear and telling me she didn’t want to go. Heather was some what quiet about what the doctor had told her on the phone. This left me overwhelmed and seemingly traveling blindly through a tunnel of doubt.

And there was a kid, with a head full of doubt. So I scream til I die or the last of those bad thoughts are finally out

I met up with Heather an hour or so later. We still didn’t have many answers and they were still taking blood, xrays, and an ultrasound before making any decisions on how to move forward. Time seemed to flow differently in that small room in the hospital. I tried distracting myself with my cell phone and the internet. Soon they informed us that they needed to stick a needle into her hip to see what the fluid looked like. Depending on that would decide the next steps. So they rushed her back and put her to sleep. Heather and I waited patiently in the waiting room. They quickly sent someone out to let us know that the fluid was infected and full of puss. So they had to then make a small incision and flush the infected fluid and then clean out the hip joint.

Soon after we met back up with Hannah as she was waking up out of her short surgery. Then they moved us into a more permanent room on the 3rd floor of the hospital. Once in the room we decided that Heather should head on home and I would stay with Hannah in the hospital. So later that night I met 2-3 doctors who gave me a little bit of information each time. The next morning our room was filled with a team of 7 doctors and medical students. I felt like I was on an episode of Scrubs, only there wasn’t much comedy. They still were waiting on results of tests and monitoring Hannah. They still didn’t have much of an idea of how it happened or what it exactly was. They were calling it Septic Arthritis of the Hip. Which essentially means that their is an infection in her joint and the joint in this case is her hip. They didn’t know what was causing the infection, so they just make an educated guess based on her history and that it was caused by a bacteria. They just don’t know what bacteria it is. So they have to make another guess on which medication to give her. The only way to know if it is working is by how well Hannah progresses and reacts. Luckily so far the medication is seeming to work and slowly she has been able to regain complete movement in her hip. Since the infection is in her hip, it is a very long term cycle of medications. It could be anywhere from 1 week to 6 weeks, but they are guessing that it will take 3 weeks. So they had to place a PICC line to allow us to continue giving Hannah medication at home through an IV. There are a lot of risks involved, so it’s a little scary, but after a lot of research and multiple conversations with her team of doctors and medical students both Heather and I felt this was the best option for Hannah and us.

Coming Home

We finally arrived home from the hospital at around 3:00pm on Saturday (July 2nd). On our way home from the hospital we had to stop off at the home care office to pick up a weeks worth of medication and get our last training session.

Finding Normal Again

Now we are trying to find normal again. We are adjusting to a new schedule where Hannah needs her medication 3 times a day. So the medication schedule we are on is 6:00am, 2:00pm, and 10:00pm. We are also having Hannah wear a leg warmer on her left arm to cover up and protect her PICC line from Connor. It feels very comforting to finally have everyone back home under the same roof and relatively safe and healthy again.

This small experience has made me THAT much more compassionate and sympathetic to all the other children and families in the world who are enduring much longer stays in the hospital with more severe health and medical issues. The children and families who are battling cancer and other potentially terminal issues are especially heart wrenching. I don’t know how they have the faith and strength to battle their way through it all.

Life is Full of Choices

Children are so innocent and pure that in my mind they don’t deserve to go through anything like this. But the fact of the matter is, this is all just life and the beautiful struggle that it is. Their is seldom any real rhyme or reason for any of the things that happen. I feel that we as people are constantly searching and wanting a reason. however I just feel like things just happen and as things happen and as they happen it creates an environment to learn and grow. At the same time those exact same things can also create an environment where you can become resentful and full of hate. Life really just comes down to how we chose to react to the circumstances and environments in which we are placed throughout our lives.