Emma...Emma...Emma......

So all this started very minor and quickly...
Wednesday Emma had just a little runny nose and a tiny cough...no big deal. And nothing consistent. She was wheezing a tiny bit so I was giving her her breathing treatments which is also a stimulant. So afterwards she was just playing and playing. Not lethargic by any means. Thursday night I noticed her retracting a little bit - she had her shirt off and when she breathed her skin went in between her ribs. So I gave her another treatment and then another one in the morning. But it was still knawing at me. So I called the dr. and she wasn't going to be in til the afternoon so they told me to go to the ER. I didn't think she was that bad but I took her in. They did an x-ray and by that time she had a temp of 101. At that time, they told me she had pneumonia in both lungs and they were going to admit her. Later I was told that pneumonia is usually in a more concentrated area and Emma's was not. Emma's was all over both sides - very cloudy and wet. So they are now calling it broncialitis. The dr. explained to me that this is just a common cold to people but to Emma - with her lungs and history - not the case. I went in on Saturday and she was so much worse. I watched her work so hard to breathe...by far the scariest thing I've seen. Her oxygen went from 1/4 liter to 4 liters over the next couple of hours. It just kept getting worse and worse. They ordered another x-ray and it was showing parts of her lungs sticking together/collapsing. They wanted her to be under more critical watch so she got transferred to the PICU. That day just got worse. By the time Mike came Saturday night, he couldn't believe she had been like that all day. I was breaking down so Mike wanted me to eat dinner in the cafeteria with him. I could not leave her when she was struggling so much. But the nurses stepped up and said they would make sure she was o.k. We ate and I cried. The helpless feeling of not being able to fix it. No antibiotics were going to fix this. She just had to wait it out and hope for the best. When we got back, the nurse had spent a half an hour with her and couldn't believe how bad she had gotten. By the time we got back, they had made several changes. One of them was to put her on a high flow cannula. This forces the air much faster and would hopefully open her lungs back up. So she was moved up to 8 liters of oxygen and 50%. She was in better spirits. The down side is she can't eat with a high flow cannula. So that much needed weight is now melting off her body. It's now 3 days, no food or drink and she is not happy about that. If she does not improve enough to get off of the high flow cannula by tomorrow, they will put an NG tube in and feed her through that. She won't like it but it will make her feel full and she will be getting the nutrition and hopefully not loose too much more weight. So that is where we are now. She will be in the hospital at least this whole week. We need her to turn the corner and start getting better. Right now she is holding steady and not getting worse. Thank you for your prayers!!! Thank you for all the offers to watch my little ones. I'm so very tired and drained. I must get some sleep tonight. I'll try to update throughout the week. Love, Mom to Emma