My ER baby!

Little miss Emily has seen more ER docs and nurses then I care to see in my lifetime and she is only 20 months old. As many of you know we had a nice scare happen this weekend and for you that didn't let me share in that story. You know the snow blog, well that is were it all began. We are up in the mountains in 4 feet of snow at a nice lodge just outside of Lincoln, MT when my daughter woke up with a raspy voice. I thought oh! with my expertise in toddler illnesses...she sounds a little congested I hope she isn't getting sick! Gave her Tylenol and kept up with the retreat. After her first nap in turned into raspy breaths, after not eating any lunch which is not like her at all; for you that know the size and stature of my daughter, I knew in my heart something was wrong. I got all sorts of advice, give her caffeine, take her into the cold air, make her sleep, take her home. Which in turn I thought about each one and after many trips outside and one more not so productive nap, my daughter was turning purple and loosing any eye focus that she could of had. Since it was a blizzard and we were 2 hours from any doctor, I knew that a decision had to be made. ( An hour before this my gut was telling me to leave with a friend that was going back to Great Falls, who actually talked me into staying, and at the time seemed like a good decision. We were sent to Lincoln to be in charge of 52 leaders and kids from our church. So needless to say we were kind of needed.)

After calling an ambulance because we wanted to see if this was as dire as it looked to be. We found out that our little sweetie was really on her last breath. After she was working so hard for so long to breath her little body just couldn't take it any more. Before we knew it we were leaving the camp and kids behind and starting on a journey that has yet to end with my daughter Emily Madison having a really bad case of Croup. That if you did not know was the #1 killer of children under the age of 4 in the twenties and thirties. Thank God for modern civilization that saved my daughter's life.
IV's, breathing treatments, and oxygen were swimming around in my head as we spent many hours in the hospital with my daughter holding tightly to me listening to every wees that came threw that tiny throat. We had a really nice room and great nurses and doctors that loved Emily's good nature, in spite of all the treatments, pokes, and jello they tried to give her. Emily was very brave through it all. But I am even more happy that my daughter has made it home safely, and will continue to get better as the days go along. She is finally eating again and starting to enjoy kid hood since air is getting to her body and back with more ease. I actually stayed really calm in and out of it all, until they let her out of the hospital and she seemed to have gotten worse again. And my strong mom self went into an emotional, sleepless and delusional, prego with an attitude pretty quick Thursday night, until Emily went to sleeping that night 6 hours instead of the 1 to 2 hours the nights before. WOW! My heart goes out to those that have the burden of dealing with terminally ill children, I would have to pray for more strength, cause this gal doesn't know how much more I could have taken.