Some Easter! A very long Easter story.

Well Easter day was fun. We had an Egg Hunt after Church and then we were invited to the Fordham's for Easter Dinner. After dinner is when it turned from fun to scary, when we ended up in the ER.

So to better tell the tale you need a little background info on Little A. About 2 yrs ago we were told she has Asthmatic tendencies. So basically sometimes when she gets sick and gets a cough, the cough never goes away until we start the breathing treatments with her nebulizer. We used it a bit that first half year. Since then we haven't used it once until about 2 weeks ago when she got a cold. I did a few treatments on her and she was fine. A couple days later Little D got a cold and naturally gave it to his sister.

So this time I started giving her treatments only one day after her getting the cold, when normally I wait a week or so to see if it will go away on its own. (for the last year it had been) Anyway, Saturday night was bad in terms of her coughing. So Sunday morning we decided to keep her home from church so she wouldn't be coughing all through Sacrament. I gave her a treatment before I left for church and when I got home Big J said that he didn't hear her cough once. So we were glad that she was ok and we could still go to the Fordham's for Dinner. All day we didn't hear her cough or anything. While at the Fordham's the kids had a little Egg Hunt just for fun and had a great time. When we got in the car to go home I looked at Little A and thought that she looked funny but I didn't give it a second thought until we had gotten home and where outside playing with the Egg Chalk that I made for them. I looked at her and noticed that her Neck was all swollen. I immediately hooked her up to her nebulizer just in case her throat was closing! I thought that maybe she was having an allergic reaction to something.

While she was doing her treatment I took this picture of her neck. I wish that I had taken one with her shirt off because it was much more noticeable with it off.

I told Big J to come and look at it and he wasn't too worried and thought that she was allergic to something too. Then we gave her a bath to wash off whatever she could have touched. In the bath I noticed that her arm was "crunchy". (by "crunchy" I mean that when you would squeeze it, it would crackle like rice crispies.) Her neck would do the same thing. That was when I thought that we really needed to take her in. I'd never felt that before in something that was swollen. I almost gave her some benadryl but then Big J said that if I was going to take her in I probably shoul'd give her anything. So I took her to the urgent care at the hospital (at 7:30pm) and he stayed at home with the other kids.

After waiting for about 45 min. we were taken back to the nurse and she immeadiatly went and got a Doctor. He was like "Yep, she has sub dermal blah blah blah(thats medical jargon)". And I was thinking "WHAT IS THAT!" So we were taken back to the ER. At this point I was starting to worry a little and realized I wasn't just going to get sent home with Benadryl. They took her for an X-ray and hooked her up to oxygen. Now I was worrying. The Doctor came back and told me that her air was leaking from her lungs I don't remember all what he said but it was about being admitted and seeing a lung specialist. Then I called Big J and told him that he should probably come down here. (Mostly because I knew that they were gonna tell me a whole bunch of stuff and that I would never remember what it was when Big J asked what they said.)

By the time Big J got there, they had drawn blood and tried to insert an IV in her arm with no success. (veins were too small I guess) So with all the crying and coughing her neck size had doubled since when I had brought her in. So you can imagine Big J's shock. Anyway they called an NICU nurse to come down and get the IV in and he was able to do it. Then the doctor told us that she would need to go to the Children's Hospital in Fresno. And they would get an Ambulance as soon as one was available. I told Big J, in between tears that she wasn't leaving without a blessing. After the Blessing I felt so much better. It said that she was going to get better and be her old self again. So now I just had to have faith that she would be ok. Minutes after her blessing the Ambulance arrived. I rode up with her and Big J followed in the Car. (It was 1am) We got to the Children's Hospital at about 3am. We waited, took x-rays, waited and were admitted.

They told us that her lungs had a leak in them and that it was going into the space between her lungs (where the heart is) and traveling up to her neck and that the swelling was trapped air. They told us that she was really lucky because it usually will stay either in that cavity and compress the heart or it would travel to one side and collapse a lung. Most everyone there said that they never see this in children unless they have received some sort of trauma to the chest like a car accident or something like that. They were also surprised at how much trapped air she had considering both her lungs were still inflated. They said that it was most likely from her wheezing and coughing. (which we find odd since she didn't cough all day Sunday)

So they needed to keep her for a few days to monitor her and make sure that it went down and didn't start effecting her heart or lungs.. They said that they needed to get rid of the wheezing cough and that if they could do that then it would likely heal itself. So after 3 days it is almost gone, there is only a small area that I can still feel the crackling. We still have to keep up with her treatments for a while until we can be sure that her lungs have healed. But otherwise she is going to be just fine.

I am so grateful that even though we don't have immediate family here we have a huge family of friends that are so willing to help. I am so grateful to have the power of the Priesthood in my life. I know that without the power of the Priesthood it would have been a lot worse. And I am definitely grateful that my Little Girl is home and well. Thank You for all of your prayers and support.