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So I did it. I started a blog. We will see how it goes. I don't know how often I will update it but I will try to keep things as current as I can:) Soooo Welcome to the life of the Hesch family....

Alli’s Hospital Adventure

November 7th & 8th

Alli woke up Saturday morning with a slight cough, it got worse throughout the day and tapered off again by late afternoon. We got home from being out for the afternoon about 4pm and she just lay on the couch, looked tired and was quite grumpy. Someone stopped by our house for a minute about 6:30pm and she started coughing again. I asked her to go to her room for a minute so she didn’t get him sick. I hear her crying a minute later so I went in and she was breathing very heavy and panicking. I told her she needed a hot steam shower and that we would get ready for bed. She was in the shower for about 15min and by the time she was done she said she was tired, she had a temp of only 100.3. She was totally fine as far as coughing and breathing. I just thought she was upset I asked her to not be around the company and started crying too hard. She went to sleep at 7pm. She woke up again about 9pm breathing heavy and her heart beating fast. She was taking very short and shallow breaths. We gave her an inhaler (albuterol, which Dr. Patterson had told us to use anytime the kids were coughing really bad and congested) and gave her another hot steam shower. Her temp was gone. She lay on the couch for a few hours waking up a lot and crying, we just held her. I had her go to bed with me around 11pm. Jesse stayed on the couch. She never really settled down or fell asleep, I stayed awake making sure her heart didn’t get faster or her breathing worse. She started saying her throat hurt and it felt like someone was pushing on her chest. We were thinking that if she fell asleep her breathing would get into a better pattern and her heart would steady. 3am things were getting worse and she couldn’t get a full breath at all. I called the Doctors office and got a call back from the nurse and after 30min of questions and having us take her temp and count her breaths pre minute (hers were 75 and normal is 40sih) she said it sounds like pneumonia and to take her to the ER. At this point it was about 4am. Jesse and I both wanted to be with her so we called my mom and she came over to stay with Katie and Jack for us.

We took her to Twin Cities because that is the hospital we have always used for everything. On the drive there she seemed to be almost normal and she was spelling to us, c-a-t, d-o-g, b-o-x, K-a-t-i-e, J-a-c-k! We got to the ER and got right in, we were the only ones there at the time. Will and Kathy (Jesse’s parents) came by and waited in the waiting room for support and updates from about 5am-7am. Alli’s heart rate was 160ish (normal is 100) and her oxygen intake was only 90%. A wonderful Doctor ordered an x-ray right away just to be sure it was pneumonia. Alli was brave for the x-ray and we were in the room with her. While we waited for the results, several nurses came in for breathing treatments, the first two treatments were a tube blowing the medicine in her face and she was just supposed to breathe it in and the third one she had a mask put on. The x-ray results came back in about an hour. No sign of anything, completely clear. The Doctor was shocked and a little baffled. She ordered steroids (orapred) for her and said they wanted to send her to Sierra Vista pediatrics so she could be monitored, watched and checked by a regular pediatrician. The shift change was about that time so the Doctor coming on checked her out and agreed with the first Doctor. They wanted us to wait until we got to Sierra Vista to do any more tests. Alli got a popsicle while she waited. That was her first smile and the nurse loved her dimples. Our friend Matt was also at the hospital and came to check on her several times, she was happy to see him.

The ambulance was called and she was loaded up. I got to ride with her and Jesse followed behind us. Alli was so scared and worried but put on a brave face, she smiled whenever I took a picture but if the camera wasn’t on she was frowning and almost in tears. She was worried about her daddy and kept asking where he was. The EMTs were very nice and tried to keep her mind off of things. I was surprised at how bumpy and shaky the ride was. Her oxygen level dropped a bit on the ride but not enough to hook her up to anything. Her heart rate also went up due to lack of oxygen and also being very scared.

We got to Sierra Vista about 8:15am and they took her straight to the pediatric department. She seemed happy with her room, #212, it had a seascape painted on her walls with turtles and little creatures and a tv so she could watch playhouse Disney. My sister Christine and her husband Tom came by right when we got there (Christine works there and was on duty that morning!) Christine had brought a big bag of food and magazines for Jesse and me!

Alli had another treatment right away, they checked all her vitals, hooked her up to all the equipment and the Doctor came in pretty quickly. We went over family history and possible things that could be wrong. He ordered breathing treatments every 2 hours and that the oxygen be kept on. He also ordered the flu test and the H1N1 test be done as soon as possible. He said he thought that it was probably an asthma attack though triggered by a cold. He said that with her numbers and how she was doing that she would be kept overnight and at least most the day Monday. We were of course disappointed but wanted her to be taken care of. Alli doesn’t miss a thing and was of course listening to everything that was said but was very quiet until everyone left. More on that later.

So to take the flu tests they had to do a nasal thing, they squirted water up her nose then sucked it out. She was not as cooperative as they thought she would be and I ended up having to lay on top of her, my entire body, and holding her hands under us with a nurse holding her head and another one trying to get the sample they needed. They had to try 3 times. I was crying by the end of it as well as Alli. Poor Jesse just had to stand and watch. They said it would be a few hours untill we got any results and to try and rest. I told Jesse to go ahead and go home to be with Katie and Jack and relieve my parents who were both at our house with them. I told him I would of course call as soon as anything changed or we got results. He had a very long work week then being up all night I knew he was drained. Tom took him home for me (so I could have a car if I needed it) and Jesse spent the day with the little ones, his parent s helped as well. They came later that day to visit.

It was hard for Alli to rest and be still, she was tired but a lot was going on, the nurses came in a lot to check her, she as hungry and thirsty or she had to use the bathroom. She was into math that afternoon. She would lay there a minute then sit up and say “look mom 3+3=6!” a few minutes later she would pop back up and say look mom “4+2=6 too!” it was really cute watching her lay there thinking then her popping up so excited with another addition problem she figured out in her head! A lady came up at one point carry a gift bag with a balloon on it asking for a Miss Alli Hesch! Her face lit up and she raised her hand with a grin! Her friend Gabe came to visit (no kids were allowed in the hospital though unless they were patients) and brought her a bag full of goodies!! He made her a card and she had things to play with all day after that, what a thoughtful little boy and sweet family for driving over the hill to make her so happy, we were disappointed we didn’t get to see him. Throughout the morning my brother and fiancé Allan and Susee (they brought me a laptop but I couldn’t get the internet to work) and my other sister Corina and hubby Timmy came to visit (they brought her a stuffed monkey)! Christine stopped by whenever she could. The test results came back about 11am and everything was negative. So the Doctor came back just to let us know that since her results were negative that he determined she just had a mild asthma attack. He said that it doesn’t mean she has asthma but that we needed to watch her when she was sick a little closer than normal. He again said to plan on staying the night and that her numbers were all still too high for him to be comfortable sending her home.

After everyone was gone and we were just resting she started to cry and asking to go home. I was in bed with her and told her she would be fine and the safest place for her was at the hospital. I knew her head was spinning and that she had heard all that was said but I didn’t want to push her to talk. We just laid there awhile and she finally started to ask questions which I answered the best I could. “Why was she sick?”, “How did she get sick?”, “Was I going to leave her alone?”, “Where are you going to sleep mom?”, “What if we have to go potty?”, “When will Katie and Jack get to see her?”, “Why did she have to have tubes in her nose?”, “What is the normal heart rate and oxygen level? What hers were and how long they would be that way?”, “Why every treatment was different?”, “How was asthma related to excima?”, “If her peanut allergy had to do with her breathing?”, “Was Dr. Patterson going to see her?”, “Did she have to have a shot?”And those are just a few I could think of again. It was so hard watching her lay there with all these questions and being scared and worried. We prayed a lot together and she got lots of snuggles.

Lunch came about 12:30pm and she was SO happy. She tried eating with the tubes in her nose but they really bothered her so the nurse said she could take them out. She took her time eating (knowing she had to put them back in) but amazingly her oxygen level didn’t drop as it had before. She asked to eat my dessert as well as her own! I said yes.

She had had 2 treatments by this point already (5 total for the day) and got another right after lunch. The nurse said she can keep the tubes out but if the level changed at all they would put them back in. We made lots of bathroom trips probably because she knew they would unhook her other monitor! She also loved making her own bed move up and down! She did it often. We tried to get her to sleep several times but she just wouldn’t rest or it was time for a treatment or for her to be checked. 2pm she had a few more visitors, Alysha and Nancy Hart came by, she got another balloon and a card! They stayed only for a minute but it cheered her up so much! I finally told her that I was going to sit outside of her room and she had to nap. I explained that she had to sleep in order for them to see how she breaths otherwise we for sure had to stay the night. So I set up camp outside her curtain. We got another surprise visitor Bob Joslin! He brought her a stuffed panda and snuck in to say hi for a minute, she wasn’t asleep of course, she was very shy but loved her new panda and the nurse gave it an id bracelet to match hers. We let her rest again and he got me a comfy rocking chair and made sure I was doing ok. It was very special to see him.

Alli did end up falling asleep and slept for a little over an hour! She didn’t have the oxygen on at all, her level stayed at 93% and her heart rate was down to 143!! After naps the nurse said she seemed to be doing really well. Will, Kathy, Jesse and the kids came by about 4pm. They brought me a bag of stuff in case we did stay the night. Jesse came up to the room while she had another treatment and I went out to see Katie and Jack! I nursed Jack and played with Katie for about 30min then they all had to head home again.

When I got back to the room I asked for an update on how she did with her treatment and when the Doctor might be back to look at her. The nurse called him and she came back a few minutes later saying the Doctor would release her even without seeing her again! She said he was amazed with how quickly she turned around (oxygen was up to 95% and heart rate below 125). I told her that a lot of people were praying and God chose to answer “Yes I will heal my daughter today”! She smiled and said “you are very blessed”!

Within 30min of telling us we would be released we were walking out the door!!!! It’s crazy how much stuff you have after just a day in the hospital so 2 stuffed bags, my purse and Alli’s gift bag we both walked out to the car!!! On our way home Alli said “I miss Katie and Jack so much”.

Jesse was at his gig and Katie and Jack were spending the night at Will and Kathy’s so we came home to a quite house, unloaded, took a shower, got dinner and sat for a little bit. At 7pm we drove over to the Hesch’s so I could nurse Jack and Alli and Katie could see each other! We were only there about 20min then came back home for bed. I am still nursing so it was a bit of a struggle juggling that all day but Jack takes a bottle great, I was able to nurse him twice and use the hospital pump the other times.

Alli did her inhaler at 8pm then lay in bed for a bit before falling asleep. She slept in bed with me again and we had made up Alli’s bed for Jesse to sleep in. Jesse got home and she woke up. When she woke up she was bouncing off the walls hyper. CRAZY! Alli and Jesse had fun talking in our bed for a little while though. We were all finally sound asleep again about 9pm!

I woke up several times throughout the night worried and checked her breathing and heart but she was always fine! She had to do her inhaler at 12am and 4am. She hates being woken up and was mad at me when I told her I would be getting her up twice but she did a good job and fell right back to sleep. She is on steroids for 2 more days. They give her incredible mood swings. She is happy, sweet and funny then in a snap will bite your head off for sneezing then be in tears and want a hug because her nose is running. It’s been an emotional day for her. We are both looking forward to Wednesday when her body can regulate!

Jesse and I are both so happy she is fine. Honestly we were hoping for some sort of flu or virus that she could get treatment for and be done with rather than something she might have to live with everyday or every time she gets sick but of course it’s not in our hands and the Lord will always take care of us and provide. Alli does not necessarily have chronic asthma. She just might have asthma exacerbation which is asthma triggered by a cold (or sports or whatever), only time will tell.

We were moved so much by all the calls, visits, offers of help, prayers, facebook messages, comments and post, e-mails & texts. We felt at peace and were able to take care of Alli and the little ones without too much worry and stress. When I showed Jesse all my text (over 150 not including fb updates) and 97 facebook alerts he was blown away. So many people out there loving on us. Of course there was no way I was able to respond to everyone yesterday but I hope I can get to everyone in the next few days. THANK YOU all again. The body of Christ is so amazing. We were touched deeply. Of course we were scared and worried especially at the beginning but we know so many people go through so much worse every day and we were thankful for all the support we got through this small trial. We are truly blessed.

All the kids were so happy to see each other again on Monday morning!