Home, sweet, home

Yeah! We were able to break out of Sparrow just a couple hours ago! We are so thankful to be home! Ethan is sitting in his chair watching Blue's Clues as I type! I cannot believe the turn around he has had in less than 24 hours! Wow! He is back to his sassy little self again! I swear he is even asking "Why?" to some things we tell him now! Isn't he too young for that! Ethan is completely off the oxygen and has been since about noon today! We are still having him on the vent at all times, but we'll survive. Ethan's lungs still sound pretty bad, but they are sounding overall better than yesterday! The PICU doctor showed us the x-ray they took last night and there is a very clear bubble of infection in his left lung. We don't know where it came from, but hopefully it will be gone soon! Ethan came home with a new breathing treatment, nystatin, and 2 antibiotics. We'll be busy for the next 10 days or so with all the new meds! And the Diuril wean is on hold for now. We don't know if that was part of the problem or not, so the doctor just increased the dose back to what it was. Thanks for all the prayers! There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that they work! There is absolutely no way that the child I took to the hospital yesterday would be home with me today without your prayers! Thank you so much!

Ethan's plans...

Are not our plans...

Yesterday Ethan started acting really funky. It worked out really well, coincidentally, or rather divinely inspired, that Bryce had a check up at the pediatrician yesterday. I called and wouldn't you know, they had an appointment available for Ethan right before Bryce's appointment. How blessed were we?!?!

Anywho, Ethan had been a little congested for the last week or so, just with allergy symptoms like I had. He was still his sassy normal self, all over the place and into everything in the house! Until yesterday mid-morning...something hit him and it hit him hard. His oxygen levels went down and he was just crabbier than crabby! He didn't sleep well during nap time and his heart rate was high. We gave him a couple albuterol treatments which didn't seem to help much. His lungs sounded bad. In fact, Dr. G. is not one for mincing words, especially with me because he knows I am a nurse, and he said that Ethan's lungs sounded "awful with a capital A!" He got another albuterol treatment in the office and it didn't help. They put some oxygen on Ethan and that brought his sats up. At that point, Dr. G. asked where we wanted to go, meaning Sparrow or U of M, and I told him home. He said that Ethan needed oxygen and I very politely told him we had oxygen at home. He then told me he thought Ethan had pneumonia and would benefit from IV antibiotics. I couldn't argue then.

So here we are at Sparrow in the PICU. The doctor last night was wonderful! He was very thorough and has been around for probably longer than I have been alive! He knows his stuff and he is willing to stick around and share it with us! Right now Ethan's heart rate is coming back down around his normal and his fever has broken. His chest x-ray showed some pretty good pneumonia going on and his white blood count was way up around 32! That is high! He is getting 2 IV antibiotics. He is on the vent 24/7 right now with minimal oxygen, but his oxygen levels are still not where they normally are. He is starting to feel better already thank heavens! Hopefully soon we can break out of here! We should know more after rounds today.

I cannot express my thanks and gratitude enough to Christina. There is a song from church that has a line that says, "The errand of angels is given to women..." reminds me of Christina! Thank you so much for opening up your home to Bryce and letting him have someplace fun to go when Ethan throws things in our way we didn't intend upon! We are so blessed to have your family in our lives!

It is never a good thing...

When a member of your church's leadership calls you on Tuesday and wants to meet with you...Weylin and I experienced that this week. We did meet with someone today, but because nothing is official, you will have to stay tuned until probably next week to find out what new responsibility we were asked to take on! I have to say, I was a little surprised, but I am more surprised at how excited I am! Any guesses from anyone?

Most importantly, today is Weylin's birthday! Happy Birthday Weylin! I could not have asked for a more loving man to spend the rest of my life with! He loves me unconditionally and more than I deserve! I won't tell you how old he is, but he is just a year older than last! Love you dear!

All about Bryce...

We have a separate website set up that we keep updated about Ethan, so I thought I would write about Bryce today! He certainly keeps us busy with all that he does, but I consider it a privilege to be his mother! This is a young boy who just a couple months ago when we talked about him getting baptized was crying about the fact that he would have to dunk his head under the water. However, this did not stop him from ever wanting to get baptized. He woke up on Sunday, which was also the best Mother's Day I could have asked for, and was so excited that he was going to be baptized! He was going to become a member of the church! Here is a boy who is terrified of putting his head under the water, but yet so excited to do it! Bryce did such a great job on Sunday at the baptism. I know that it really helped that Tyler's parents let us baptize Bryce on the same day that Tyler was being baptized. I like to call these boys twins separated at birth! They have practically grown up together and Tyler's mom has always watched Bryce for us, except for the short time they lived in Utah!

Bryce is also so blessed to have some great aunts and uncles as well! All of them flew in for the weekend, for Mother's Day and for his baptism. Bryce's Uncle Jared came from Utah, Aunt Elaina came from Nevada, and Aunt Tiffany came from North Carolina. We can't leave out his Aunt Meggen and Uncle Josh who are local here in Michigan too! It was great to have everyone together, as it happens so rarely now!!

Bryce played in his last soccer game of the season on Tuesday and did really well. I am hoping this summer we will get the chance to help him expand his skills even more. He has told us that he is interested in playing next year again! This will be his 4th year! As he grows up more and more, I feel more and more sad that he is so big. Where did my little Bryce go? I don't think I am going to let him get any older! Any tips on how?!?!

P.S. You will also have to pardon the pictures where they are! I still need to take the time to mess around with the blog to fully figure things out!!!! E-mail me with any tips you might have! I am not that good with technology sometimes!

So much to do, so little time...

I feel like such a slacker for not using the blog for the last 5 weeks! We also have a website at carepages.com that we use to update everyone about Ethan. The biggest problem with the blog is that I cannot access it at work, but I can access the care page at work. Oh well! I will repent and move on!

So much has happened and I can't even try to catch up. The most important event was Bryce turning 8 years old. I clearly cannot be old enough to have an 8 year old! As a great Mother's Day gift to me, Bryce has chosen to be baptized on Sunday. I could not be more proud of him than I am now! I am one proud mama! We are looking forward to getting together with friends and family this weekend and celebrating this life-changing decision Bryce has made! We are thankful to John and Christina for letting us share this day with them, as Tyler will be getting baptized as well. It was originally Tyler's date, and they let us join the date!