Annabel's 1st Visit to the ER

Monday night Annabel slept great and woke up happy Tuesday morning, ate breakfast fine and drank her milk, did some rolling in the morning and ate snack just fine. At lunch she completely refused her meal and her milk and refused pedialyte at snacks. So I called Neuro and they suggested getting her in the pediatricians to rule out any sickness since there is a lot going around, but also mentioned that if we couldn't get her to drink any liquids that we'd need to bring her in to ER so she didn't get dehydrated. So I got her in with a resident and he diagnosed her with a left ear infection, which was a little suspicious given that she doesn't have any cold symptoms. We tried to get her first dose of amox in her with 1ounce of milk but she wouldn't even take that so after awhile we got the amox in with a syringe. A little while after we thought we'd try tylenol again (which she's had many times) because she was pretty fussy. As soon as I shot it in she vomitted everywhere again. : ( So after that we decided to take her in to the ER because we couldn't get anything in her.

What normally takes 25 minutes took over an hour because of the bad snowstorm and needing to take the back roads! We got there at 8:30 p.m. and didn't get discharged until 4:00 a.m. Wednesday. The doctors in the ER did not detect an ear infection and decided to do a full shunt work-up because of her symptoms. So she had an xray to check for kinking of the tubing in her tummy, an ultrasound to check for spinal fluid cysts, and finally a CT scan (which she was an agel for and didn't need to be sedated) to check the functionality of the shunt and to make sure there wasn't any pressure building. Everything came back completely normal and the CT wasn't changed from her last MRI - what a relief! They also did a urine sample and bloodwork, all of which came back normal. She did take 1 1/2 ounces of pedialyte before we were able to come home. The doctors chalked it up to fighting a bug of some kind and said that a lot of times when kids are given the IV for hydration that it helps them bounce right back. We had to take her to the pediatricians yesterday and Dr. Madison verified that she does not have an ear infection and also said it is probably a bug (B.J. has some upper respiratory stuff going and apparently what is a cold in adults can be a GI bug in kids). So today she's finally back on whole milk and taking her bottles fine but she still isn't taking much of anything for solids and she's still VERY fussy at times, acting as if her stomach hurts (maybe gas?). She has been extra burpy in the past few days. It is all still baffling to us since the other two have not been sick thru this and the way she vomitted just didn't seem like fighting a bug. So thank you all for your prayers, it has been a tiring few days but I am glad we had her shunt checked - I honestly think the doctors in the ER were surprised to not find anything wrong with it, given her symptoms. Continued prayers that Annabel recovers from whatever it is that's ailing her, and quickly would be appreciated!

Today Early On OT came and instructed us on the brushing technique for Annabel. It basically entails using a soft bristle brush to deeply massage her, allowing different sensories to kick in. Hopefully this will help many different things for her, including her rocking, some of her eating issues, and most importantly help her developmentally, creating new neuro pathways. We will do this for about a month, every day, every hour and a half while she's awake, with the process taking 1-2 minutes each time. I am definitely curious to see how this works, it has been proven to be quite successful!

The past few days have been busy for Madelyn and Johnathan. B.J. finished building the entertainment center deterrant for Johnathan (he is not too impressed - it took him quite a while to figure it out) but it looks great and it definitely does the job! It is wonderful having a husband who can do handyman work like this! Mady and Johnathan have been quite the team lately - riding cars together, discovering opening and closing the toy box, and working on walking (Johnathan continues to take single steps here and there). My mom rigged up Johnathan's headband this week and it works so much better. We are now able to get both his hearing aids and glasses on, which is so great!

B.J.'s parents came to town today for the weekend to celebrate Christmas so it will be a fun few days! And one more thing - Happy Birthday Hershey! She turned 5 years old today!