Update On Ella!

I think to do a full update on Ella I have to start back in August of 2022. Last August she had a seizure and we ended up being transported to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital via ambulance. From that stay the Neurologist decided to put Ella on Topiramate for her migraines. The nice thing about that medication is when taken in higher doses it can help with seizures as well. Thankfully Ella has never had another seizure. She even had a 48 hour EEG and her brain never showed any kind of seizure activity. 

Fast forward to this year and from February 6th - June 1st (almost 4 months) she had 4 puking episodes. It usually starts out as a headache and it always ends up with multiple times of her throwing up. On June 9th she had a Neurology Appt and we discussed her puking episodes and how at least once a week she was waking up with headaches. He didn't like that so he change the dosage of her meds. Her new does was 25mg in the morning and 50 mg at night. Prior to this she was only taking 25mg twice a day. 

Since June 21st until September 16th (Almost 3 months) Ella has had 10 puking episodes some times spanning two days. She has actually lost weight this summer. I believe at one point she was 112lb, but she went down to 105lb after one of her worst puking episodes. 

I have been in contact with her Neurologist and he doesn't feel like it has anything to do with the meds. They are supposed to help with her migraines. He suggested that we go see her Neurosurgeon to make sure it wasn't something that would require surgery. Her appt with her Neurosurgeon was on Monday, August 28th. The day we had the appt she was doing great and he said she looked great and didn't look like she was sick. He did look in her eyes and didn't see any swelling or pressure behind her eyes so that was good. He said the only thing we could really do was have an MRI to confirm that her ventricles were in good shape. He did ask me why I didn't take her to the ER during her latest puking episode and I told him that I was planning on it if she didn't stop puking by a certain time. Thankfully I was able to give her the anti-nausea meds that she's been prescribed and they finally worked and she stopped throwing up. We did set up an appt for an MRI on October 14th. 

The night before the first day of school, Sept 4th, Ella started throwing up again. She was still throwing up at 10am so I was done....I was taking her to the ER. 

She never did throw up again once we left the house. She felt awful though. She had a terrible headache. They gave her Tylenol and thankfully she kept it down. I hadn't even been able to get her to keep her anti-nausea meds down. They wanted to run some blood tests, but since she was dehydrated it was hard to get a vein. The first nurse was digging around her in left arm and couldn't ever get a vein. The second nurse came in and had better luck with her right arm. They also hooked up an IV and gave her a bag of fluids. This sweet girl is such a trooper. She wasn't even squeezing my hand when they were digging around in her arm. I told her later that she is going to be amazing at birthing a baby since she handles pain so well. 

They were able to get her in for an MRI at the hospital so canceled the one in October. Ella's Neurosurgeon came over and discussed the results with us. Her ventricles looked beautiful! That's super great news because it means she doesn't need brain surgery, but it still leaves us with unanswered questions. Why is she having these puking episodes? Is it because of her headaches or another issue altogether? Is she allergy to something else? Is it a gut issue? So many questions.

 She does have an appt with a GI Specialist, but they couldn't get her in until Dec 20th. I honestly feel like we need a Dr. House. I need someone to look at her overall health and figure out this mystery. Poor Ella's life has been greatly impacted by this. She was even scared to go to camp thinking she might puke. She has had to cancel sleepovers because of throwing up. She's losing weight when she should be growing! As a parent the not knowing and understanding what's going on with her body is maddening. I will do anything to figure out what's going on with my little girl. 

I did go ahead and make an appt for her with my Naturopath. She has been amazing with me and I feel like their might be a hormonal connection. I know that migraines can be higher for women during the years they have a cycle. My mom had terrible migraines until menopause and then she finally she got some relief. I do not think it has anything to do with her Hydrocephalus. I think there is something else at work here, but I feel like all the MD doctors are so focused on her Hydrocephalus they aren't able to see the forest through the trees. 

I think there might be a connection with food as well so Ella has started a food diary. We have found out there were things she was eating that had food dye that we had no clue about. I guess we had gotten a little lazy. One of the things that we found was the mystery Air Heads. She very rarely gets to eat gummy fruity candy because of dye. The mystery Air Heads are white so we thought they were okay when in fact they have red, yellow and blue dye in them...go figure. Also the seasoning packets in Top Ramen have dye as well. It's crazy what has dye in it. We also are wondering if it has something to do with her digestion. Sometimes when she throws up it will be hours after a meal and she is puking up fully intact macaroni noodles. That doesn't seem right. I'm hoping because we are keeping this food diary we'll be able to have a really good discussion with the GI doctor. 

There are still so many unknowns and like I said it's maddening. I just want my girl to be healthy and not have to go through all this. She has been through enough already! Please keep our sweet Ella Grace in your prayers. Pray for healing of her body, wisdom for me and Michael and the doctors involved.

Ella's Seizure Scare!

There's so much to talk about so this is going to be a long one! 

Ella has suffered from migraines for years now. Back when she was younger she would get a headache and then throw up. We were always worried this was a sign of her shunt malfunctioning since basically any flu type symptoms are what we are supposed to be on the lookout for in regards to that. That led to a lot of worry on my end anytime she would throw up or not feel well in general. 

A couple years after her brain surgery we met with the new pediatric neurosurgeon. The surgeon that performed Ella's brain surgery retired and I wanted to make sure we met his replacement. Not that I thought she would need brain surgery again anytime soon, but I thought it would probably be nice to introduce ourselves in case there ever was an instance that she would need to possibly have a procedure again it would be nice to be like...Hi nice to see you again...vs...who are you?! 

He was the one that first mentioned that migraines can actually be caused by an allergy to food dyes. We started down that journey of purging food dyes from Ella's diet. We noticed right away that her migraines all but disappeared. She would have a couple every now and then, but we narrowed it down to she was also allergic to paprika so we cut that out too. Still there would be breakthrough migraines occasionally, but overall they were very minimal. 

As Ella has gonna older and gone through puberty things have been more and more volatile. She was getting migraines much more frequently and there really wasn't a rhyme or reason as to why. This summer they had especially kicked up a notch. 

On the third day of school, August 19th, Ella had another migraine....that was her third migraine of the week. She was really not feeling good so I told her to take an Ibuprofen and go sit on the couch for a bit while I did school with the boys in the dining room. I kept checking on her and then I decided she should probably go upstairs and lay down. I thought a nap might help...she had been sleeping in a lot during the summer so maybe the 3 days of earlier mornings was contributing a bit to the headache. I had taken her temperature and she wasn't running a fever so that was good. 

After I told her to go upstairs, I was walking by the stairs and I heard a funny sound. I looked up and noticed that Ella was just laying on the floor in the upstairs hallway. I rushed up to see if she was okay...I thought she might have gotten dizzy and fell over. She was sitting there rocking back and forth saying....I don't feel good....over and over again! I helped her get to her bed and one of the boys brought up a bowl so if she did puke she didn't have to get up and go to the bathroom. That's when I decided to make a doctor appt. I tried calling her neurologist, but I could not get through....I was on hold for so long. I tried to make an appt online, but they don't let you do that even though the website said you could. So I made an appt with Ella's pediatrician instead. Her appt was for 1:45pm. Ella did not want to go because she felt so bad, but I knew we needed to get her seen. 

I kept checking on her while also doing school with the boys. I knew that it would take a bit to get her down the stairs and in the van to go to the doctor appt so I headed upstairs just a bit before 1pm. She was not feeling good at all. I felt for her pulse and I also felt her chest. Her heart was pounding it was beating so fast. Her skin was all clammy and sticky. She was breathing so fast. I tried to get her to slow down her breathing and breath in through her nose and out her mouth, but she couldn't do it. I had put her fan in the window earlier to cool down her room, so I asked her if she'd like me to take the fan out and actually point it at her body to help cool her down. She said yes so I turned around to move the fan. By the time I set the fan down I heard that guttural noise you hear right when someone starts to puke. She had leaned forward and grabbed her bowl and was puking. This in and of itself is not uncommon in our house. Ella is a pro at throwing up. She has a migraine, she feels like crap, she throws up 5 or 6 times and then she's right as rain! 

I started rubbing her back to comfort her and I had my hand on her right shoulder, but then I started noticing that her shoulder was getting really heavy like she wasn't bearing any of her weight. I also noticed the her hands weren't really holding the bowl anymore and she was almost vomiting outside the bowl. I immediately grabbed the bowl and held it with my right hand while also hold her right shoulder with my left hand keeping her upright. That's when her active vomiting turned into more just fluid running out of her mouth and it was bubbling around her mouth. She also turned her whole upper body towards me, both her hands turned in on themselves. She was staring right at me and then she gritted her teeth and moaned while her whole upper body shook. It was kind of like if you were trying to flex your muscles really hard. She never did fall back on the bed and shake violently thank goodness. 

After she was done shaking she did fall back onto her pillows and she went very still. Just a couple minutes prior her heart had been beating so fast and she had been breathing so hard and then it all stopped. Her heart was beating, but it was terribly slow, she wasn't moving or responding. Of course by this time I had been yelling at the boys to get me my phone I needed to call 911. I think Owen brought the phone up. I called 911 while trying to get Ella to respond. I was squeezing her hand and saying her name. I was opening her eyelids to see if her eyes would respond at all. I was asking Jesus to help my baby girl. I told the 911 operator what happened and she was sending helping. She did tell me that I needed to roll Ella over just in case she vomited again so she wouldn't aspirate. Ella's legs were like concrete. Getting them to move was very difficult. I did get her to roll over a bit on her side though. The 911 operator told me help would be there soon. Once I hung up I immediately called Michael....he told me he was already on his way home. One of the boys had called him from the house phone. I also called Ga-Ga and told her to just pray. She initiated the pray chain at our church. 

After around 3 minutes....I finally got Ella to grunt. It was shortly after that when the firemen showed up and came to check on her. There were 3 of them. They were asking me what happened and they were asking Ella questions too. She was able to say her name and what year it was. She was exhausted! They checked her vitals and they even checked her glucose levels which were normal. They asked asked her if she remembered doing the things I was telling them she did, but she has no memory of what happened. 

At one point we were discussing if we should just take her to Mary Bridge or if she should actually go in the ambulance which hadn't even shown up yet. In the end they decided they wanted to take her in the ambulance because she would bypass all the emergency room protocol stuff and just go right into a room. I rode with Ella in the ambulance to the hospital. She still had a headache at this point and was feeling very tired. 

We got to Mary Bridge and they got her in a room. Everyone there is just so amazing! We love Mary Bridge. She was very dehydrated so the first thing they wanted to do was get an IV in her. The doctor also wanted to get an MRI. The normal wait time for an MRI in the emergency room is about 6 hours. Ella ended up getting one about an hour after we got there. 

By that point Michael was at the hospital. He had packed a back for me and Ella and brought the boys with him since they were so worried about their sister. Unfortunately due to Covid protocols they wouldn't let anyone under the age of 12 come into the hospital if they weren't a patient. So the boys had to sit outside with Zeke on a bench next to the doors to ER. We contacted Papa & Ruth and asked if they would be able to come get the boys and take them home. While Ella and I went for her MRI, Michael went out to sit with the boys and wait. 

When we got to the MRI area in the hospital, Ella was not feeling good again. She was starting to breath really quickly again. The technician wasn't sure if she was going to be able to get the MRI if Ella wasn't doing well. I knew that this was such a gift to be able to get the MRI so quickly so I tried to comfort Ella and we decided that I would go into the room with her just to help. I had to change into a hospital gown as well in order to be in the room with her. Once we got in the room, Ella threw up again all over herself. We had to get her cleaned up and redressed, but thankfully after throwing up she felt better and she didn't have another episode! Her MRI was only about 5 minutes long and then we were taken back to her room. 

By this point her headache was still there so they ended up giving her morphine to help with the pain. The order of things gets really mixed up in mind by this point. We saw the on-call doctor for the ER, we saw the registration lady that took our insurance information, we saw a Pharmacist that was talking to us about different seizure medications. One of the meds they were talking about putting her on had a high percentage of headaches as a side effect so that didn't make us feel good. And we also saw the Neurosurgeon that Ella and seen all those years ago. He even walked in and said....I remember meeting you guys years ago. It was like the exact situation I had planned for and it happened. He wasn't a stranger to us, nor were we to him! There was this immediate connection and common goal of figuring out what is happening with our girl! 

Her Neurologist did say he looked at the MRI results and he wasn't impressed by them. Then he went on to say he didn't think that surgery was necessary and I was so confused. I asked him what he meant by they didn't impress him and he said...there wasn't anything usually that made him get excited about. Surgeons are so weird! :)

They did want to admit her for observation overnight so we were moved up to an overnight room. We ordered dinner for Ella, but she still wasn't super hungry. Michael went out and got me Jack in the Box for dinner and then he headed home for the night. The on-call Neurologist wanted to get an EEG done by 9pm so that got underway. It was all really happening quite quickly which even the staff were surprised at how quickly things were coming along. The EEG was hooked up for about an hour and then after that her and I were spent. We went to bed...thankfully the pullout chair was actually pretty comfortable. Of course like any hospital stay the nurses come frequently to check on you so the sleep you get is really broken up. Ella didn't sleep that great because she was hooked up to the IV and things were beeping, but she did at least get some rest. 

The next morning Ella was actually feeling hungry so we ordered her some breakfast. She also go to watch a bunch of movies on the TV. I spent a good deal of the morning on the phone talking to friends or family. Michael came back, but I don't remember at what time. The on-call Neurologist came by to see us and she gave us her theory as to what happened. 

Ella had a migraine, she was dehydrated and had lower sodium levels, she was nauseous and she was hyperventilating. All of this put too much stress and strain on her body so it reacted by having a seizure like episode and then she passed out. 

The doctor said that basically everyone gets a "one-off freebie" seizure type episode in their life. The EEG didn't show anything worrisome at all. So they were not going to label her seizure as Epilepsy. They said they are very careful to not do that because once you have a diagnosis like that it will stay with you for the rest of your life and have major life impacts. Of course if she does end up having more episodes they will reevaluate and diagnose appropriately, but for right now they didn't want to place that label on her. She also told us that the one seizure drug we were worried about was off the table. She decided to put her on Topamax which in low doses helps prevent migraines and in higher doses can prevent seizures. So it's a win win really! 

After the visit from the doctor it wasn't very long and we were out of there. Michael picked up Ella RX and then headed home. 

Our sweet girl was feel much better than the day before! Such a difference from 24 hours before!

Going forward we were supposed to have an appointment with her actual Neurologist in 2 months, but he ended up wanting to see her earlier than that. He decided he wanted to go even deeper looking into Ella's condition. So the past few weeks have been filled with all kinds of appointments. Ella's gone to the Ophthalmologist to have her eyes dilated so we could make sure there wasn't excess swelling on her optic nerve. That looked great! Next Ella had an hour long MRI at the hospital. According to the findings that I read online in her My Chart records that looked good as well. Our next appointment is in October where Ella will be having a 48 hour EEG. We will go to the hospital get her all hooked up and then go home. The next day we'll have to go back to the hospital to make sure all the connects are still holding and adjust anything that needs it and then go home again. She'll come back the day after that and have the connections removed. The week after that we'll go back to the Neurologist and hopefully hear amazing news that everything looks great. 

Right now Ella is taking Topamax twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. It did make her a bit tired in the beginning, but I think she's gotten used to it. She is also drinking more water to stay hydrated and we are using some of those electrolyte powders in her water which she really likes. So far she has not had a headache since August 19th which is an absolutely miracle!!! 

Thank you for praying for our girl and please continue to pray for her that all these test will be normal and she won't have to do anymore. Pray that the meds keep doing their job and that we never have to go through another scary episode like that again. I'm super thankful that Ella has a great Neurologist that is being proactive and wants to be confident that we aren't missing anything. 

Recently I heard a song on the radio that said....I don't know what tomorrow may hold, but I know who holds tomorrow! I know God's got this and He's going to take care of our Ella Grace. He's going to use this as part of her story for His glory and He is so faithful! 

Ella's MRI!

On Tuesday August 23rd Ella had an appointment to see her Neurologist. She goes in for a check up about once every 3 - 4 months. Dr. Philips just wants to make sure there is no swelling and that her shunt is operating correctly. At this last appointment my biggest concern that I wanted to talk with him about was the fact that Ella has way too many headaches. I actually had been keeping a log. She was getting headaches about 5 times a month and most of the time she would end up vomiting because of them. The funny thing is that after she would vomit she'd end up being fine and would want to go off and play. Other than vomiting the only thing that made her feel better when she got a headache was to go to sleep. I was starting to worry that her shunt wasn't operating correctly so I wanted to get to the bottom of it. Dr. Philips did follow the catheter part of her shunt with his hands all the way down to Ella's stomach and it seemed to be fine. She also still has no signs of swelling in her brain so that's great news!! He did send a note off to the new Neurosurgeon to see what he thought. The doctor that performed Ella's brain surgery has since retired. He did say that if something is wrong with her shunt it usually doesn't happen gradually....when something goes wrong things go downhill fast! He seemed to think that Ella is having migraines. My mom suffered from chronic migraines for years so it does run in the family. He put her on some meds to take every night before bed. Unfortunately since giving her the meds she's had 3 headaches! 

Dr. Philips did order an updated MRI. Ella just had one taken in January when I took her to the ER because I thought her shunt wasn't working, but he knows that the Neurosurgeon will want a more up to date one. 

On Tuesday when we got back from our road trip the boys went home with Ga-Ga to spend the night. Ella's appointment was at 8:30 the next morning so it just made sense for the boys to go with her so she didn't have to fight traffic the next day to come up and watch them. The moment Ella got out of the van when we got home from Ritzville she felt like she was going to throw up. She ended up falling asleep for almost 2 hours. Thankfully she never did throw up! When she got up I asked her if she just felt like throwing up or if she also had a headache and she said she did have a headache....so that's 4 headaches in a week since starting the meds!  

The next morning we headed out early so we wouldn't get stuck in traffic. We were one of the first appointments and we were early so that meant Ella got the gaming computer all to herself. She's really good at bowling...she got 3 strikes in the 10th frame!!! 

When her name was call the technician took us back to the very same waiting room we were in when Pa brought us to hospital in December 2013 for Ella's first MRI after her surgery! Thankfully this time around she didn't have to be sedated for the MRI. 

Since she had to change into a gown I took her coat and wrapped up her clothes and shoes in it and then tied the arms in a knot so nothing would fall out. 

Ella thought it was funny that I did that. I told her she could open her present and see what she got! 

The knot I tied was really tight! 

Hmm...I wonder what it will be! 

The suspense is killing me! 

Clothes...

Shoes...

She thought the whole thing was so silly! I love my goofy girl! 

After this it was back for the MRI. Just like in January I was able to go back with her and rub her legs while she listened to music and held still. She's such a pro! It was all over in just a few minutes and then she changed and we were off. 

On Friday September 2nd I got a call from the office of the new Neurosurgeon and Ella is scheduled to see him on September 15th at 11am. I'm bummed that she's going to miss some school, but she needs to be seen. I want them to figure out why my baby girl keeps having these headaches. Also it will be good for us to meet the Neurosurgeon now so that when there comes a time for Ella to have surgery we will already know who he is! 

Swollen Eye!

On Thursday the 14th I was outside with the kids...we had been picking raspberries and then they wanted to play hide and seek. That didn't really last very long because honestly there really isn't that many places to hide outside. I went in and was in the kitchen doing something when I heard Zeke coming down the stairs crying and saying that his eye felt funny. I hugged him and looked at his eye. I could tell his lower eyelid was swollen a bit and his eye was super watery. As I held him I could honestly see it swelling before my eyes. Also I noticed what looked like a water blister on the white part of his eye. That's when I called his Pedi and left a message for the nurse. When she called back she informed me that they didn't have any appointments left for the day. I knew right then that we were going to the ER. 

Zeke had gone off to lay down since he didn't feel good.

Poor thing looks pitiful! 

I called Michael and asked if he could come home early so I didn't have to take all 4 kids to the ER with me. Thankfully it wasn't really all that early so he was able to come home. When he got home we went up to check on Zeke and he was OUT...I mean Michael was blowing raspberries on his cheek and he wasn't waking up. Right after he told me his eye felt funny my first reaction was it was his allergies. So I gave him his rx allergy meds. They have never made him tired like this before so I think it was just the whole situation!

I finally just picked him up and he woke up a little bit. I strapped him in the van and told Michael that we were going to Mary Bridge. He wanted me to just go to the Children's Urgent Care in Federal Way since we know they opened at 5pm, but I told him when I took Zeke there to get stitches and the urgent care wasn't open I just didn't get a good vibe about the place. I love Mary Bridge and that's just where I feel comfortable taking our kids. 

There was traffic so it took us a while to get to the hospital which was nice since Zeke was so tired. He was out the whole trip there. 

Of course just like always we were taken right back. 

Zeke wanted to eat, but I wasn't sure if they wanted him to eat. I called the nurse since he was almost crying. She told me that he should wait until the Dr came in. Thankfully the Dr came in shortly after that and said it was fine for him to eat. 

Yay for fig bars!!! A second Dr came in and said this is super common. He most likely got something in his eye or on his hand and then rubbed his eye and he's having an allergic reaction. She was also concerned about my eye so she checked it out and gave me the all clear. She sent rx eye drops to the pharmacy there at the hospital. After we were discharged we went right there and found out they didn't have them in stock and would have to order them. I asked if they could transfer the rx to Fred Meyer's because I didn't really feel like driving all the way out to Tacoma the next day to pick up a rx. They said they could, but I would need to call Fred Meyer's and have them call Mary Bridge. While I was talking to the pharmacist at Fred Meyer's I found out that they didn't have any in stock either. Then she called later and said that the eye drops he was prescribed were actually discontinued. Talk about ridiculous! 

After we got home I had to call Mary Bridge back and let them know what was going on. The nurse took down the information to give to the Dr so she could call in a different rx. Thankfully by the time we got home Zeke's eye was already looking so much better. He was also so alert! On the way home was so talkative! Complete opposite of what he was a couple hours before. I did give him some Benadryl to help at bedtime. 

The next day I got a call saying the dr called in a new rx. I also got a text from the dr checking on both of us!!! So caring! I went and picked the rx up after our trip to the zoo and I only had to put them in his eye twice! The nice thing is we have them now and I'm sure they will come in handy sometime in the future. 

Ouch That's Hot!

Thursday June 30th was just another normal day...Michael got home from work and after dinner he went straight out to work on the remodel some more. He was trying to cut through some 2x4's with the Saw-All. He asked me to get him a longer blade. I brought him the blade and that was that. I went inside and about a minute later Michael asked me for a different blade because the one I gave him wasn't doing the job. I went out to the garage and grab a different blade and then walked over to hand it to him. I was holding the new blade in my right hand and I was making sure that when I handed it to him I didn't stab him with it. Michael had the blade he'd been using for all of a minute in his right hand ready to pass it off to my left hand. He was holding it on the end that was attached to the actual Saw-All. Simultaneously he took the blade from me and I took the blade from him. 

The next part happened in just a matter of seconds. First off I realized I was screaming....loudly, but in my mind I didn't know why. It took my brain another second to realize that what I was holding was hot....VERY HOT!!!  That's when I threw or dropped the blade to the garage floor. The first thing I did was drop to the floor and put my hand on the concrete in hopes that it would be cool. It wasn't so I ran to our kitchen sink and put my hands on the stainless steel. I've done this before after burning my fingers and it's been great, but this time it wasn't cutting it. I grabbed some ice and put it on the burn and it hurt so bad. Then I went and sat down in the living room basically holding my hand and screaming in pain. The kids were freaked out a little. Michael of course was trying to help. I asked him for my lavender oil. He didn't know where I kept it so I got it myself and then put it on my burn. OH MY LORD!!!! That is the worst thing to do. NEVER EVER put essential oils on a burn right after it's happened. I found out later that the thing with oils is they keep heat in! My hand was basically "cooking" from the burn and I just shut the oven door to keep in the heat in. That's when Michael looked online and read that just running plain old cold water on it was the best thing to do. Not sure why I didn't try this earlier...chalk it up to being in the most intense pain of my life! 

After I ran my hand under cold water it really did start to feel better, but the moment I took it out of the water it felt horrible again. I got a bowl and filled it with cold water and then I got a paper towel I could hold onto. My hand felt the best when it was in the position it was when I grabbed the blade. 

I tried to contact a nurse friend of mine to find out what to do, but she wasn't responding. This is when I was able to research online and I found out about the oils and then I found out if you burn your hands you should really go to the ER. I was in so much pain at this point and it wasn't getting better I decided we needed to go. Michael had to finish up the electrical stuff he was working on since he had our power off and didn't want to leave the frig and freezer without power for who knows how long. I had also texted my neighbor to see if they could watch the kids, but she wasn't responding either. We decided to just stop by on our way out of the neighborhood to see if they could watch them. They were so willing and so happy that we stopped and asked. Rachael had just been in the shower so she hadn't gotten my texts. It was such a good thing that they were able to watch the kids because at Valley Medical Center they only allow 2 people into the ER rooms and that includes children. So Michael would have been stuck in the waiting area and I wouldn't have had anyone with me. 

When it comes to hospitals I really don't like St. Francis so I knew we weren't going there. I love Mary Bridge for the kids, but I didn't necessarily thing that we needed to drive all that way for me. So Valley it was....although it's probably pretty close to the same distance from our house than Tacoma General, but just in the opposite direction. When we got to the ER they took me right back to triage while Michael parked the van. While I was in triage I had to show the nurse my burn and she....having seen all sorts of awful things said, "Oh that's not that bad!" I wanted to smack her! Not that bad lady....my hand feels like it's incinerated! She showed me to my room before Michael was even back from parking the van. 

This is was the first picture I took of my hand. It's hard to see, but I had burnt all 5 of my fingers. Blisters were forming on my thumb, pointer and my middle finger. 

After a little while the doctor came in and wanted to look at it. He said they would wrap my hand up with burn cream and give me pain meds. The nurse came in with some oxycodone for me to take. After the doctor looked at it I figured I should probably keep my hand out of the water so it wouldn't be all prunie when they wrapped it up. I was amazed that it wasn't hurting immediately. After around 5 minutes though I could feel the pain in my thumb and then it moved to my other fingers. The pain was awful! It was like contractions where it would build up, peak and come down and then start all over again. It was hurting so bad it felt like my fingernails might pop off. The pain actually had me in tears it was so bad. When the nurse came in to wrap my hand I could barely talk and all I said was it felt like I was still holding the burning hot blade. Thankfully this was just about the time the pain meds started to kick in. They didn't stop the pain at first, but they did make my brain woozy so I think it just didn't really matter to me that much. 

She rubbed the burn cream on each finger and then wrapped them up lightly. The cream felt really good! After I was discharged we went out to the pharmacy to get my RX for the pain meds and then we were headed home. In all I think we were only at the hospital a little over an hour. 

We picked the kids up from Rachael's house and it was off to bed. I went to bed as well, but come to find out oxycodone and me don't really like each other. I was up tossing and turning until sunrise because I couldn't stop twitching and itching. My brain wouldn't stop thinking and the blood in my veins felt like it was traveling at 100 mph. 

Prior to going to bed I did wrap my hand in an ACE bandage. Since she put the bandages on so lightly I didn't want them coming off in the night. They said not to change them for 24 hrs so the above picture of me sitting on the couch is pretty much what I did all day on Friday. Michael ended up staying home from work. We didn't know how much I'd be able to do and with me being on high powered pain meds I couldn't drive....we all know how prone to accidents my kids are so odds are they would injure themselves and need to go to the hospital and I wouldn't be able to drive them. For the most part though I was fine....Michael helped me a few times, but he was also able to work a bit on the remodel.

Here's where the story of the 240 power plug for the dryer comes in. Michael was working on this part of the remodel on Friday when he got stuck. That is a lot of power and the wire was aluminum and he was having to change it to copper and everything that he could find on the internet was making him nervous. He finally said....."We're gonna have to hire an electrician!" I'm thinking....great! How much is this going to cost. It's a holiday weekend and we need it done NOW! So I did what everyone does when they need something....I posted it on FB! My friend Amanda ended up responding and saying that her husband could help. We made plans for him to come over on Tuesday after the holiday. A little while later Michael wanted to run to Lowe's to get some things and I needed to go with him because the credit card is in my name. So we all pile into the van and up to Lowe's we went. This is the cool part...while we were at Lowe's in the electrical aisle Michael notices a guy that he thinks is someone he used to play poker with. The guy and him keep eyeballing each other a bit and then the guy finally says, "Are you Mike?" and then Michael says, "Are you Pete?"  Ends up that Pete does electrical stuff professionally and he knew exactly what Michael needed to do in order to get the electrical stuff figured out. This was completely and 100% a God thing and I'm so thankful that I burned my hand! I really am! If I hadn't have burned my hand Michael would have gone to work like normal and this encounter wouldn't have happened. God is so awesome! Even though burning my hand sucked big time He worked it out for good! 

This is my hand 24 hours after the burn. I was honestly amazed at how well it looked. I was also amazed at how well it felt! I was sure it was going to hurt so bad once I exposed it to air, but it didn't at all. The only thing that was limited was my ability to bend my fingers all the way. 

This is my hand 3 days after burning it....all but two of the blistered had healed up. The blister on my thumb was already much much smaller. The one on my middle finger was driving me nuts, but I managed to not pop it until right before bed on the 4th of July. I just couldn't take it anymore. I put Neosporin on a bandage and wrapped it up.

The moral of the story is...don't grab onto a burning hot Saw-All blade! 

It was funny a couple days after I burned myself Ella was wanting to go down the slide aka the banister in the foyer of our house. She had asked Zeke to move, but he wouldn't. I told her to just slide down and that Zeke would learn to move out of the way because pain is a wonderful teacher. That's when Jack said, "No it's not!" and then I showed him my hand and said, "Do you think I'm ever going to touch a Saw-All blade that was just in use again? No....because pain is a WONDERFUL teacher!" 

Ella's ER Visit!

On Monday January 25th I came home from BSF and walked upstairs to change. Ella's bedroom is right at the top of the stairs and I heard this funny gagging sound. I went into her room and found her sitting up looking kind of out of it. I asked her if she was going to puke and she shook her head no. Then I went to change and she puked! Of course she had eaten a super awesome dinner so it was quite yucky! Michael dealt with all her covers and sheets....almost puking himself in the process. While I dealt with Ella and got her in the shower. Jackson ran and got a bowl so Ella would have something to puke into if she needed it again. She did end up puking two more times that night, but it was mostly just phlegm. Of course I kept her home the next day from school. 

On Tuesday she seemed tired, but that's to be expected, but she ate really good and seemed great by Tuesday night. Wednesday she went off to school and did fine she was tired and she did complain of a headache here and there. On Thursday I went to school and volunteered. I ate lunch with her and she didn't eat that much, but seemed okay. 

Thursday after school though she got home and went straight to the loveseat and laid down. This was SO not like her. She complained of another headache so I got her some ibuprofen. During this whole time she had had a cough....hence the phlegm. After I gave her the meds she was coughing quite a bit and ended up throwing up. The rest of the night she spent on the loveseat going in and out of sleep and puking every hour or so. She also had a low grade fever. She threw up again in the middle of the night...again just phlegm and then she woke up another time and said her room was too hot.

 Friday was the end of the semester so the kids didn't have school. She seemed to be feeling okay and she ate a good breakfast. The crazy part about all this was that NO ONE else in our family was sick....AT ALL. No hint of a runny nose, no cough...no tummy aches...nothing! I figured it was just the phlegm that was making her gag and it wasn't a tummy bug. I also toyed with the idea that it could be allergies. I also looked up the symptoms of a malfunctioning shunt online since that's the only thing that's different about Ella in regards to the other 5 members of our family. She was exhibiting the first 4 symptoms....vomiting, headache, fever and lethargy. The other symptoms included vision problems, seizures, loss of coordination and swelling/redness at the site of the shunt. She didn't have any of those symptoms. 

On Friday morning after she kept her breakfast down we went and visited Kim and the kids at their house for lunch. Then I took the kids to my parents house to spend the night. Ella was great at Kim's house....playing around. She didn't eat much, but she had a late breakfast so that didn't worry me at all. By the time we got to my parents house she just laid down on the carpet in the family room and didn't move. My mom said she'd call if anything got worse. I talked with her later and she said that Ella laid on the floor for quite a while and even fell asleep for a time. On Saturday she perked up though and seemed fine. 

On Sunday morning we were getting ready for church and she complained of another headache so I gave her more ibuprofen and then we were off to church. About halfway to church she said she felt like she was going to puke and that's when I had it. It was time to take her to the hospital and figure out what was going on. Michael got off the freeway and turned around to head home. I briefly thought about taking her to Urgent Care because I was also thinking it might just be a sinus infection....she had told me her cheeks hurt and my cheeks always hurt when I have a sinus infection. I figured a run of the mill sinus infection would be no problem for an Urgent Care Clinic, but then what if that wasn't it. Michael said that if I was taking her in I was taking her to the right place....off to Mary Bridge we went!   

We walked up to the front desk were greeted by a nice lady and then we were being taken back to a room....we didn't even have to go to triage! Have I said I love Mary Bridge? 

First the nurse came in and then the Dr. I explained my concerns about her shunt and she was super supportive of me bringing her in. She said that even if I had gone to Urgent Care they probably would have just sent her to Mary Bridge anyways. She said that normally she would look at a kiddo with these symptoms and say it's just a virus, but with Ella's pass history and knowing that she's had the same shunt since September 2011 it was definitely a concern that the shunt could be malfunctioning and we needed to rule that out. I helped Ella get into her gown and the nurse gave her some nice warm blankets and we watched some cartoons while we waited for them to come get her for her xrays. The purpose of the xrays was to see if the shunt was still connected and not separated somewhere and also to see if it wasn't kinked. I got to go into the room with her for the xrays, but I had to stand around on the other side of the wall where the computer was. I asked the tech if I could take pictures of the xrays when they were up on the computer screen. She was fine with that! 

This shows just how far into her brain the catheter goes....right to the middle! 

This one shows the tube that leads from her value down into her abdominal cavity. It's on the left side of the screen at the base of her neck and cross over the top of her collarbone. It's super light so it was hard to see! 

I had the hardest time finding the tube in the above picture. The tech was able to point it out. Besides seeing the tubes for her shunt it was just super cool to see all her bones! 

Here's the side view where her value is. It shows the tube going into her brain and it also shows her grown up teeth waiting to come in! 

After the xrays she got a little bit of energy back so we played the fun game that was on the wall in our room. She was being so goofy. I texted Michael and told him she was acting fine....of course we take her to the ER and she starts acting normal....typical! 

She thought it was so funny that her gown opened in the back! She was being silly and stuck out her tushie so I had to get a picture of her cuteness! 

Around noon we were taken to a different part of the hospital for her MRI. The MRI would show her ventricles and whether there was extra fluid or not. The last time Ella had something like this done was way back in December 2013. She was still so little she ended up having to be sedated. Thankfully this time around she was old enough to do it without all that fuss. We explained what was going to happen so there were no surprises. She also got to listen to music and I was able to stay in the room with her and rub her leg. The tech was concerned about my nose ring so she did test it with a strong magnet to make sure it wasn't going to get sucked out of my nose by the machine. Thankfully it was just fine! 

It took a while for the MRI results to come back, but when they did everything looked to be in working order! PTL!!!

Again the Dr was super supportive of me coming in and she even said she was concerned about the situation and she felt so much better knowing for sure that Ella's shunt was working properly! It's just one of those things where it's so difficult to diagnose if it's working and she just has the flu or a virus or if it's the shunt. Plus when nurses and Dr's keep acting all surprised that she still has her original shunt and it's almost 5 years old I can't help but think that it is a ticking time bomb and it is going to stop functioning at one point or another! 

Santa Al and his wife Ellen have a grown daughter with Hydrocephalus and she commented on my Facebook post that they ended up in the hospital quite a lot with concerns about their daughters shunt and whether it was functioning or not. That made me feel so much better! I do not want to be one of those over sensitive moms, but I think this particular situation calls for a bit of over sensitivity! 

Praise God our Ella Grace does just have a virus and it's nothing as horrible as her having to have another brain surgery!