Trends

Thursday was great; Friday the storm came in. Annie began Friday by dumping her breakfast on the living room floor. I had a brief thought that maybe she wasn't feeling well, but since Thursday was so great, I quickly dismissed it, and figured that maybe moving the G-tube rate up 1 point, from 105 an hour to 106 an hour was too big of a change--that's why she threw up, I thought.

So I packed her up for school, and off we went. She did look a bit droopy in the van, which I mentioned to Nurse Moira when I dropped her off. However, she didn't have a fever, because I had checked that at home. And there have been at least 156+ other school days when she looked droopy on the way to school after throwing up her breakfast, and nothing of import was wrong.

So when I picked her up in the afternoon to take her to her OT appointment, Nurse Moira said that Annie had spent most of the day snoozing on her lap. The change from Thursday was so dramatic, we were all pretty sad about it--but not alarmed. And since she was so lethargic, I cancelled her OT appointment, went home, and gave her 5 mg. of hydrocortisone.

Around 4 PM, I checked her temp. Great--it was 100+ under her arm. So I started running Pedialyte in her g-tube, and gave her 5 more mg. of hydrocortisone. She kept the hydro in for a decent amount of time, but gave me back the Pedialyte. So I gave her 5 MORE hydrocortisone.

When Bill came home, we put her in the van and started down to the ER. Since the hail, sleet and frozen ice was all over the road, it took us awhile to get down there. Somewhere on the way, it occurred to me to pray: "Lord, help us to know what to do, and please heal Annie." By the time we drove off the freeway exit, Annie started chattering, laughing, and otherwise perking up. We then began debating whether to take her home, and take her in to the pediatrician in the morning. But we didn't want to get back in line on the freeway, so we went to McDonald's drive-through to relieve our stress with carbs and salt. And as we're driving back to the freeway, we put 2 + 2 together and realized that God had answered our prayer!

I did take her in Saturday morning, just to be on the safe side, and the pediatrician couldn't find anything obvious that would cause her to spike a fever: no ear infection, lungs clear, no swollen glands. She is sneezing, and something may present itself, but as of this morning, nothing.

I do wish Annie could tell me when she's not feeling well, so I could give her more hydrocortisone right away, instead of waiting for obvious signs, like vomiting and fever. I always feel like I'm behind the 8-ball. And it's always a judgment call as to how much, and how long to give her the higher dose, because she can't TELL me what she's feeling. And a person with Addison's needs has an illness coming on, they need hydrocortisone right now.

Now, along with the sneezing/cold thing, came her seizures back. And as of tonight, she's running about 8+ a day again. It's such a one step forward, two back deal. But even with all this, I detect an upward trend. Tonight while I was sitting beside her on the floor, I noticed her attention switching easily from one thing to another. She was playing with her big Princess book, and looking at me from time to time. She also was leaning back on her bean bag chair, with her legs out straight and her ankles crossed, rubbing her feet together like her daddy does. She looked relaxed and natural.

I remember when we were first in the hospital in '07, our friend, Erik, who has some experience with disability, said to watch trends, not days. I know we've talked about that before on this blog--so here's another reminder to watch trends. And although this last week had some speed bumps, the trend is still up.

Jean

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7