A Trip To The Hospital

Fresh off a trip to the hospital, Peyton is bouncing back and feeling like her old self. She had been sick for two weeks, with the past week spent at Children’s Hospital in Springfield, IL. It’s a place very familiar to my family, since we spent nearly half of 2013 there due to my pregnancy and the premature birth of the triplets.
As her doctors kept reminding us, we’re pretty lucky that it took this long for Miss P to come down with an illness. We’ve been home from the Nicu for 10 months and Peyton has stayed healthy. That’s because we stayed in isolation through winter and much of spring. We started taking her out this summer, but only once or twice a week. I honestly think that I brought home germs from the TV station. There were a lot of sick people around the newsroom, so I’m sure I brought it home with me!
Two weeks ago, Peyton came down with a fever. It then progressed to a little cough, and after three days, we went to see her doctor. Because of her being “high risk”, they sent us for an X-ray. That’s where they found out she had pneumonia. We tried treating it at home with antibiotics and a nebulizer, but a few days later, she was admitted to the hospital. Is it scary? Of course! But, it was also a relief for Ryan and me. As I say time and time again, a little cold or cough means so much more for Peyton than most other kids. She has very little and weak lungs and a weak immune system. So, we expected her to end up in the hospital.
The staff at St. John’s were wonderful! Peyton made herself at home and was instantly “Miss Popular” among the staff. We had made a home out of each floor of that hospital–the only missing piece was the pedi-floor, which was her lovely hotel for a week. Peyton had a lot of trouble with her oxygen levels, which isn’t a surprise since she spent the first 7 months of her life with a nose cannula covering her face. Doctors treated her with an IV of drugs and lots of oxygen support. It took several days, but our little girl turned a corner and came home oxygen free on Tuesday!
Her Nicu doctor thinks she most likely came down with the enterovirus. That’s the nasty bug running rampant throughout the Midwest. They didn’t test her for it because she was sick two weeks ago, but all of the symptoms were things Peyton experienced. We are crossing our fingers that she did contract it because that would mean should wouldn’t get it again. It’s so scary to think that she came down with a terrible illness in August/September. We’re not even into the winter cold/flu season!
Needless to say, Ryan and I are EXHAUSTED! We slept at the hospital for the week, which meant a few cat naps each night. My mom came to town over the weekend and is helping out so I could return to work. I took a leave of absence for several months, so I don’t have much time to take off these days. We are so grateful that Peyton is on the road to recovery and are counting our blessings. It’s a good reminder that while she looks so strong and sturdy on the outside, Peyton is a 22 week micro-preemie on the inside. We know that she will most likely have more hospital visits in the future, but we look forward to the coming years when she hopefully grows out of it!
No tears on the blog this week, but next week grab a tissue. It was an extremely emotional hospital stay for our family. Not because of the illness, but because of the memories it brought back. Peyton is very well known at that hospital and we ran into many people who cared for me and all three triplets. I’ll share what it was like to revisit and the rush of emotions that came with it.
Ok, off to catch up on sleep for the next several days!!
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