Scary

We made it home last night.  Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers, comments and emails.

It started early Friday morning.  I woke up at about 4:30 am to the sound of Rory coughing.  I laid there for awhile hoping she'd go back to sleep after the first couple of coughs, but it continued so I went in to check on her.  She was gasping for air.  I immediately got her out of bed to give her a nebulizer treatment.  As Josey plugged the nebulizer in, Rory was reaching for the mask to get it in her mouth.  Right then I knew it was not good.  The breathing treatment didn't help at all, so we followed what the doctors had told us before; we took her to the ER.

We got there around 5:00, and she was still barely getting any air.  Her oxygen levels were unbelievably low, and the doctor at the ER told us we were lucky we got her in when we did.  The nurses hooked her up to oxygen, took blood, and put in an IV, and Rory barely moved.  She was so worn out from struggling for air that she was limp; she could hardly keep her eyes open, and she didn't even try to fight the pokes from the needles.

As soon as the hospital opened up, she was admitted.  The nurses took good care of her, and the day was spent with constant checking, breathing treatments every hour, and lots of medicine.  She was pretty worn out for the better part of the day, and many episodes of Dora were watched.

I avoided calling family because I knew that talking to them would make me cry, and I didn't want Rory to see me upset because she gets so worried.  I stayed that night in the hospital with her, lying on a fold out chair that smelled like band aids.  The nurses were in every hour to check her and give her treatments, so I hardly slept.

The next morning, they took her off the oxygen, which was a huge relief for all of us.  It was one less tube holding her down, and for Josey and I it meant a chance at her getting to go home.  Then, the doctor came in and told us that she probably wouldn't get to go home until she went a night without the oxygen.  The meeting with the doctor ended with a "maybe you can go home tonight if she takes a good nap this afternoon and doesn't have any problems."  We were desperate for her to take a nap, and the medicine that she had been given was not on our side.  She was seriously like a monkey in a cage at the zoo.  Hyper.

We ended up getting home at about 8:00 last night. It was a huge relief.  Rory was so happy to be home.  She went around our whole house telling me about each and every thing she could think of.  Over and over again.  She had an excellent night, spent in her own bed, and she looked 100% better when she woke up this morning.  We are continuing her treatments at home, and the doctor has given us some preventative treatments to do every day to try to avoid an attack this bad again.  The whole weekend was a whirlwind.  I'm physically and emotionally exhausted, and it's going to take me awhile to catch up on everything.  I'm just glad to have my baby home where she belongs.

Thanks again to everyone who thought about Rory this weekend, stopped by for a visit, or sent an email.  It is a blessing to have such wonderful people in our lives who love Rory so much.