There has been a lot going on for our family in the month of February. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have time to blog about it all this week--- as I sit with Greta at Primary Children's Hospital while she recovers from the emergency surgery she had in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, February 24th.
Here's the story.
Thursday afternoon I could tell that Greta was feeling poorly. Around 3:30 she threw up all over me. I cleaned myself up and hopped in the car to take Cannon to dance. Cannon and I joked that not even baby puke can mess up our beautiful schedule. That night she kept throwing up and I thought, "Darn it! This stomach bug is probably going to pass through our whole family." By Friday morning she was still in bad shape-- throwing up everything and sleepy and lethargic. I took her into the pediatrician. She thought it was the stomach flu and she sent us home with instructions to keep her hydrated.
By Saturday afternoon/evening she was even more sleepy and out of it and she was doing a worrisome breathing pattern. I took her in to the Riverton Hospital Insta-care. They tested for strep, and a bladder infection. Negative. They tested her glucose. Just fine. But she was so lethargic and breathing weird. The Dr. was going to send us home with instructions to watch her and try to hydrate her, but decided we should just go up to Primary Children's Hospital. We are so glad she did.
I swung home to pick up Abe and we headed up. She ate a purple popsicle on the way there. We got checked into the emergency room and the Dr. immediately went to work. The Dr. suspected a possible head trauma-- because of the vomiting without a fever. They did a CT scan. They did blood tests. They did a GT and chest scan... and lo and behold. The culprit.
She had swallowed a bunch of small magnetic balls-- sometimes called bucky balls. They are about the size of BB's. Faith got them last year for her birthday and they are really fun and cool to play with. And really very dangerous if swallowed. I thought we had done a good job of keeping them away from little ones, but apparently not good enough. These things reek havoc on innards when they are swallowed. They are quite powerful little magnets.
The Dr. called up the surgeons who got ready to do emergency surgery on poor little Greta. She was in pretty bad shape. She wasn't talking or really responding to us or anyone much at all. At one point, when they were trying to find out what was wrong, I asked her if she wanted me to hold her and she responded in a tiny little voice, "I'm fine." She is a pretty tough little thing.
Just before going back for surgery.
Abe's brother Daniel came up about 12:45 to help Abe give her a priesthood blessing before the surgery. They took her back about 1:15 and told us the surgery would be about an hour to an hour and a half. They could see how many magnets were in there, but they couldn't know where exactly they were or what damage they had done until they opened her up and looked around.
It ended up taking an hour and a half and when the surgeon returned he reported that she had done "okay". He said they removed 12 magnets and there were four holes in her small intestine. It is my understanding that the magnets were in two parts of her intestine and the magnets had pulled them together and made the holes. There was also one in her stomach that they left there, because one magnet is not a problem and she will eventually pass it. So they stitched up her little holes, washed out her innards and put everything back.
They took her directly to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) where they took amazing care of her. She has been on morphine and Tylenol. Her heart rate was higher than they liked for the first day or so, but that came down as they controlled her pain and rehydration.
The NG tube (I think that's what it's called) went through her nose down to her stomach to pump our all the yucky stomach juices (do you like how medically accurate I am?)
A little oxygen because when she was on morphine, her breathing would get much shallower.
On Sunday afternoon we were moved up to the 3rd floor to a regular surgical recovery room. And there we have been ever since.
She's had good steady improvement over the last couple of days. Our family at home has been taken such good care of. Bethany and Elinor got all the kids off to church Sunday morning and we have been flooded with offers of food and help driving kids around and watching kids. It makes the load so much lighter.
They removed her NG tube around 2:00 pm on Tuesday and she has perked up and is showing signs of her usual self again. She has been so quiet and still for so many days. She is the sweetest, most compliant little patient, but I'd kind of like to see a little more spunk!
She's been watching a lot of PJ Masks-- her most favorite show in the world.
Bethany and Elinor came up to visit Sunday evening and they brought her her "Cat Boy". Then a friend brought her Owlette and Rip. She was so happy!
She has had no energy to move hardly at all, but a PJ Mask coloring book inspired a 10 minute, uninterrupted artistic burst on Monday. I thought it was rather miraculous!
A partial family selfie on Sunday evening. It was tough for Beth and Els to see Greta like this.
A partial Foxy Ladies meeting.
The girls and I went to the cafeteria to get a bite to eat and had a nice visit. They've had a lot of responsibility this week. Abe and I are so grateful and proud of them.
We are so thankful for modern medicine and the medical team that when into action to figure out what was wrong and had the expertise to help Greta. We are grateful for the team of family and friends that mobilized so quickly to help and meet needs we didn't even know we had.
