At Last

I come bearing good news! We are on the mend. Friday night was very scary here. Emmelia was having a terrible time breathing Friday afternoon between the croup and respiratory flu. She was just gasping for air and could barely breathe and her lips were turning blue. So when Josh left for Children's, I was worried sicker than I already was. I turned to everyone I knew for prayer, and man, did we get it!! Shortly after Josh got to Children's with her, I got a text from him that read like this, "They took her back immediately. She is NOT doing well. She can't breathe, I can't stop crying. My phone is dead. I will call later." Uuuuummmmmmmmmmmm, me = cardiac arrest. Who takes a sick kid to Children's, leaves a sick wife at home, sends that text message, and has a DEAD PHONE?! My hubby. So, a big shout out to the Blosser family for helping us out on Friday night. Mike came and picked up the freshly sanitized phone charger that I laid out on the sidewalk and took it into Josh. And Alisha sent in a stuffed dog for Emmelia that reminds us of Jerry because it doesn't have eyes ;) and Emmelia has fondly named that stuffed animal "Lisha Dog" (we don't give extra credit for creativity in the Eldridge household). Emmelia got steroids at Children's, which has immensely increased her breathing capacity. We also found out Friday night that she also has pink eye. What?! Whoever was stirrin' the germ pot just threw that one in there for fun, I think. Emmelia is still raspy and has a cough, but isn't gasping for air like she was on Friday. She broke her fever yesterday afternoon and has been fever free for 24 hours! Woohoo! Me = jealous.

I am doing better as well. For the majority of the week, I have gotten v.e.r.y. little sleep. I have actually been too miserable to sleep. I was unaware that was actually possible, until this week. However, when I saw the doctor on Friday, he prescribed codeine for me. And that folks, is what we like to call a Christmas miracle ;) So, for all of Christmas day, I was probably only awake for about 3 hours....and it was awesome. When I woke up this morning, my fever was down to 100 (also a Christmas miracle). My fever continued to go down during the day and Josh and I started Operation Sanitization (nope, no extra credit). I must say that this operation involved alot more of Josh and alot less of me because my input involved about 2 minutes of energy followed by 2 hours of laying down. But I still claim credit for the name. Anywho, I ate my first meal tonight for the first time in 5 days. I am proud to report that I did not overeat during the Christmas holiday! I am still coughing up both my lungs and sound like I have been taking testosterone pills, but I am on the mend!!!!

And one last news bulletin - Lily came home tonight in time for bed. She has been on the same medication that Emmelia has been on (while still not showing any signs of sickness) and we did everything we could to sanitize the house, so we felt comfortable with her coming back home. And, Josh has been in the war zone with us the entire time and never got it. So, that is my overall good report. Thank you everyone for keeping us in your prayers during this busy, fun, family-filled weekend of yours. We utterly appreciate your concern, your support, your prayers, your texts, and every single minute of this weekend that you took to pray for us that you could have been spending with your new Christmas toy. We are humbled by your love.

Short and Sweet

I want to update you, but I am emotionally and physically exhausted. So I am gonna make this short and sweet. Emmelia is doing better. She responded well to the meds that they were giving her at the hospital and the doctor said she doesn't have the fluid and gunk in her lungs that I do. She was sent home with more/new meds and we feel much better about her physical well being. Now we have several rough days of recovery ahead of us. Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for your overabundance of prayers and support. We have amazing family and friends. I don't know how other people make it through struggles without the support system that I have. Enjoy your Christmas morning with your family and be thankful for good health!

Update 2

Josh is rushing off to Children's with Emmelia. She was gasping for air and wasn't able to breathe. I know this sounds silly on Christmas Eve, but I ask that you directly pray that Emmelia be admitted to the hospital. I am scared silly about her medical outcome here at home, but I know that she will get round the clock quality care that she so desperately needs right now. She NEEDS to be constantly watched through medical care at this point and I hope that Children's recognizes that. Also, please pray for my broken heart as she was sobbing "Momma!" as Josh drug her out the door. I can't go or even visit her if the admit her because of myself being contagious. Daddy is there, but as you all know, that is just not the same!!!

Update

Alright everyone, I know that I have been asking for prayer and updating as much as I can on facebook, but here is a better outlet to explain what is going on and how you can help us.

Tuesday night, I rapidly got sick and miserably made it through the night in hopes of getting in to see my doctor Wednesday morning. Well, my doctor didn't have any openings, so I grudgingly went to the hospital. They told me I had pneumonia and to come back Monday for a chest x-ray to make sure I'm doing better and sent me home with meds. I know medicine doesn't work instantly, but this medicine was doing NOTHING to make me feel better. I have been taking 3-4 ibuprofen or tylenol every 3-4 hours in attempt to get my fever down (I know, total overdosing). Well, with that amount of fever reducing drugs, I was only getting my fever down to 103 for an hour or two and then it would spike right back up. I have been having terrible chills, wretching gagging constant coughing, terrible chest pain, and pretty much no ability to breathe. I don't have the energy or lung capacity to walk any further than the five steps to the bathroom. This is the worst sickness I have ever had and wouldn't wish this upon anyone!!

Now, my parents graciously came at 7:45 Wednesday morning to take the girls to their house for 3 days in effort to keep them healthy. But last night (Thursday) my mom called and Emmelia had spiked a high fever and was coughing. So, Josh immediately went to pick her up and brought her home. She seemed to react well to the ibuprofen and we decided to wait her sickness out til this morning, which was a total blessing that I will explain in a little bit.

Last night and through the night I was not keeping my fever down and was begging God to take me home. So, first thing this morning I called my regular doctor, knowing that if I didn't see him, back to the hospital I would be going. Emmelia woke up several times during the night crying and barking like a seal and had a high fever this morning. So, first thing this morning Josh called the pediatrician, knowing that if they couldn't see him, off to Children's Hospital they would be going.

My appointment was first and the doctor tested me for Influenza A and I tested positive. My doctor was extremely concerned about Emmelia and told us to tell the pediatrician that I tested positive for Influenza A and get her tested. Now, let me quickly explain Influenza A. This is not just your regular old seasonal flu. Oh how I wish that it was. Influenza A has several different strains and the popular outbreak strain last year was H1N1. My doctor said the strain has not broken out yet this year yet like H1N1 did last year. But as you all know, I like to be first to accomplish things and spreading a plague is really on my list of "to-dos" and now I am well on my way. If this influenza is caught within the first 24-36 hours, there are anti-virals that can help, but I am too late for that. So, I get to ride out this misery train all the way through Christmas and am contagious as long as I have a fever, which is 5-7 days.

So, onto Emmelia's appointment. The reaction from the pediatrician was actually a bit comical in this situation. Emmelia was first and obviously diagnosed with croup. Without my appointment this morning, the diagnosis would have been left at that and they never would have tested her for the Influenza A and gotten her the right medicine immediately for that. Praise God! They tested her for the Influenza A and when he came in to tell Josh the test was positive, he and all the nurses were wearing gloves and masks and very quickly ushered them out the back door of the pediatrician's office. He sent us home for the anti-virals for Emmelia and prescribed some to be sent to Lily down at my parent's house. Unfortunately, the croup medicine would cut down on the effectiveness of the influenza medicine and the pediatrician was much more concerned about the strain of Influenza being life threatening than the croup. So, we have to watch Emmelia carefully through the night and any signs of labored breathing or gasping for air, we get to rush her to Children's. Otherwise, Emmelia and I are on house quarantine and we are not going to be celebrating Christmas tomorrow. Lily will stay at my parent's through Sunday night when we figure out where she will be going next.

So, many of you have asked what you can do to help. Please pray for us. This has been the most miserable sickness ever and I know what is in store for Emmelia. Pray that I will start my recovery at day 5 instead of day 7 and pray that Emmelia will experience the lightest of symptoms. Pray that Emmelia's croup will heal on it's own and we won't be rushing to Children's during the night. Pray that Josh (who is staying at the house with us!!), Lily, and my parents will not get this. Pray for Josh as he is acting as mommy, nurse, chef, launderer, and all around domestic goddess which he is NOT used to and this is taxing on him as well. Pray that I can realize that the least important thing in this whole situation is that Josh dressed Emmelia in bright pink pants and an orange shirt this morning and took her out in public ;) And please pray for our spirits as we will not be able to partake in or spend Christmas together. This is our first Christmas in our new house and the girls have very excitedly been counting down to Jesus's birthday on their VeggieTales advent calendar and I'm really struggling with the emotional side of all this. We covet all of your prayers and wish you and your families a healthy and Merry Christmas. I am thankful that Jesus was born a healthy baby and I can therefore spend eternity in heaven with my family with no sickness to pull us apart.

Procrastinate....

I found out in college that I am the master of all procrastination efforts. And now that I am back to taking some classes, those skills have come back in full swing. I have a 9 page paper due tonight by midnight, I have yet to start it, and instead I am writing another blog post and doing some online browsing. But, I do have a funny story for you....and then a rant. I will share my funny story first, so that if you don't want to read my rant, you can easily check out. You're welcome.

Funny story - I have somehow developed a food allergy to eggs. Which is interesting because I never knew that you could develop allergies to foods this late in life. And this is also tragic because my favorite meal to eat out is breakfast....and that always includes eggs. But within the past 6 months to a year, whenever I have eaten straight-up eggs, I have become violently ill - for several days. Not pretty. Anywho, I have really been missing eggs lately and decided to try some eggbeaters and see if that would fill my void. So, I purchased a carton of eggbeaters at the grocery store last night to try sometime this week. My hubby finished his breakfast of sausage gravy and biscuits this morning and was looking for a nice big drink to wash it all down. So, he grabbed the carton of eggbeaters, poured himself a cup, and took a big giant swig. He then proceeded to gag and make puking sounds and yell "You tricked me! You tricked me!" In awe of what was going on in front of me, I wondered how on earth I was involved in any trickery that would force my husband to take a big (disgusting) drink of eggbeaters! Well, my hubby had taken one look at the carton and read egg, refused to read the next line of equally large font (because he is a man) and then just assumed that I bought a carton of egg nog because it is the holiday season. And obviously because I bought a carton of eggbeaters, I therefore tricked my husband into thinking that it was egg nog and sneakily gave him a dry breakfast to have him only desire to wash it all down by a glass of egg nog. So to all you ladies out there that were going to try this same "trickery" on your husbands, you better do it fast.....my husband is out spreading the word.

Rant - I am T.I.R.E.D. of people whining about not having enough money for this or that or life in general, but they A.L.W.A.Y.S. have enough money to do what they want to do. I am T.I.R.E.D. of people not making selfless sacrifices to do something that is right. People that complain about money, but make selfish decisions with their money over and over and over again have now fallen on deaf ear. Really, my suggestion is this: stop making excuses. How you live your life, what you spend your money on, and how you spend your time shows every single priority to you. I really don't care anymore if those are the priorities that you choose, BUT stop pretending that you don't have enough money to make something else your priority. Your life is an obvious representation of what matters to you.

I'm done now. Should I start my 9 page paper now? :)

Perfect Couple

My hubby and I are perfect for each other. I know most people don't see that at first. It really takes a LONG time to break into my hubby's circle of trust, but once you get there, you will see why we are a perfect match. Yes, he seems much quieter than I am, but deep down he is sassy, sarcastic, and hysterical. Let me tell you about a little conversation we had the other day. I found these super cute flip flops that had velcro on the straps so you could buy cute little straps and switch them out to go with different outfits. Genius, I thought. How great would it be to buy this ONE pair of cute little flip flops and then get all these different straps and be able to change them up all the time, but still only have one pair. I was ridiculously excited about these (and still am). So, I went to tell this whole story to my hubby about finding them and how cool they were and what some of the different straps looked like and how much I loved them......and his reaction was nothing close to what I was wanting from him at the time. It was nothing short of a blank stare and total disinterest. So, I sulkingly said to him, "You know, sometimes I wish you were a girl so conversations with you would be waaaay more fun!". To which he immediately replied, "You know, sometimes I wish you were a guy so you would stop talking." And then I burst out laughing. That wit, ladies and gentleman, is one of the hundreds of reasons why I love my husband.

It's Official

I have a blog. The internet world is a better place now. Come to laugh, come to cry, come to question, come to get mad, come to giggle, come to empathize, and if you don't like it.....leave. But, you'll love me. I have the courage to say what others won't, and whether you agree with what I say or not, it's a breath of fresh air. I am going to try to stay away from all mundane posts (such as, we played with friends today and had lunch and it was fun and we all smiled). BORING! So, pour yourself a drink, kick your feet up, read my blog, and somehow be changed. Welcome to the dark side - we have cookies.