This Was Not A Vacation

Before the hospital

Understatement of the year so far, this was not a vacation. We left for Disneyland with high immunity numbers and a blessing from our doctor team. We had a full day here before Disney to rest from the car ride. We played with grandparents and had breakfast with friends. It was dinner when we knew something was off with Emma. I took her temperature and gave Brad the look. He just sighed, we knew we would never make it to Disneyland. An hour later we were at Children's Hospital of Orange County.

A couple hours later we were being admitted which started three days and two nights at CHOC. They ran all sorts of tests and checked vitals every two hours. The tests all came back negative and her ANC (blood count that represents immune response) kept declining. For me it was also concerning to see very labored breathing and low blood pressure. All we really knew was she was fighting something viral and had no immune system to fight it off.

Not happy :(

Daddy stayed with her in the hospital since baby sister needed mommy at night and she could not stay past 8pm. Neither of us got any sleep. On the third day her ANC numbers mysteriously quadrupled into the safe range. Who knows why, our team was baffled. They ran a few more tests then let us go home.

This was not a good start to 2015. I had so much hope starting a new year off right and on New Years Day we land in the inpatient wing...oh the irony. I'm disheartened, grumpy, and ready to throw an adult tantrum about missing my family vacation. Not cool.

Sleeping in the cot

The name of the game now is house arrest. We will be staying home with Emma until Hawaii. Hopefully this allows her numbers to go up and prevents her from catching anything new before our trip. If we do leave the house it will be in masks or for doctor visits. I said on the facebook page the other day that we could use meals this week. If anyone is willing to help with meals that would be amazing. We will be limiting visitors as well so please be understanding if you stop by and only I come out on the porch to chat. This will be hard for me this week because I tend to get cabin fever easily so please keep chatting online with us!

Cora in the Disney wing of CHOC, as close as we got to Disney

We also really need prayer, this was depressing. I told my sister yesterday that at least we were down here with help. Emma was going to be sick here or at home so I would rather have been hospitalized down here where Grandma and Grandpa could help us with Gracie. But it does feel like every time we try to do something normal we get pulled back into cancerland. It is a constant reminder that our child is sick, don't try to have fun because your kid will not be able to do it. One day we will get to Disneyland but it will be unplanned. I put the tickets in the car and next LA visit we will have one day with no plans, if everyone wakes up bright eyed then we will surprise them with Disneyland. I just can't do the let down again!

Leaving the hospital!