Latest update

Hannah is still in the hospital after a restless night. Those of you reading this in our immediate area know that a "wintry mix" was coming into East Tennessee last night. I came home because of a presentation I was to do this morning, and because Zach was to be in a bowling tournament. Both our activities got canceled, so I am doing a little grading before heading back to the hospital.

Actual road conditions are not too bad here--activities were canceled because of the forecast, which was probably wise in light of potential liability. We're hearing from surrounding areas that the wintry mix turned very bad in some places. (The church's Youth director is stuck in Atlanta with several teachers. Restaurants are all closed, and the hotel manager is trying to find someone who will bring food in for them so they don't go hungry.)

Janet stayed at the hospital, and said Hannah was awake a lot--no real indication of why, either. I'll take the laptop with me and update more about Hannah from there. I've talked to Janet twice on the phone, but once a nurse was there, and another time Hannah's oxygen alarm went off, and Janet had to go, so I don't know much at this point. (For those who don't know, oxygen alarm 99% of the time is not a major problem, so don't worry.)

What we do know: Hannah has RSV again. Last year when she got it, she was hospitalized for 11 days. We hope for a shorter stay this time for two reasons:

1. She's been getting those expensive Synagis shots. Synagis doesn't totally prevent RSV, but rather boosts the body's ability to fight RSV, so she is not hit as hard.
2. She's a year older. Next year she probably won't even get the Synagis shots, because older children can fight it off on their own.

We shall see.

How did she wind up at the hospital? Ironically enough, she went to the pediatrician for a Synagis shot. She's been a little snottier than usual the last few days (so has Zach, but that's different), and they pretty routinely stick a pulse-ox meter on her anyway, which they did. Her oxygen was running in the mid-80s. So she had another ambulance ride. This is annoying, because I had her on a pulse-ox on Wednesday night, and she ran 97 to 100 the entire night, and after they got her to the hospital she came back up to that level on room air and has stayed there. She had been doing so well we didn't even put the oxygen tank in the trunk. I guess we will learn to just put the dang thing in there any time we go to the doctor's office.

So I don't think this one will be really hard on Hannah--harder, really, on everyone else because of the time disruption and the expense.

More later.

Gone again

Got behind again. Latest news: Janet is at the hospital at this moment with Hannah again. I'll update when I know something.

Janet's mom came home from the hospital last week, and Janet's aunt came home from rehab a couple of days ago. We don't know yet when they'll head back to Florida.

Keep us in your thoughts.

Just one big hacky family

Well, the fun just never stops. Now Janet's mom, Jo, is in the hospital—same one Marianna is in, Blount Memorial Hospital. They're treating her for pneumonia, and it sounds like they expect to keep her until at least Monday. More updates later—I guess it's at least good news that, for once, it's not Hannah in the hospital.

Late news: Hannah home

I'm tardy posting this, because we've been playing catchup. But Hannah is home from the hospital--came home on Wednesday, in fact, late in the afternoon. Thursday and Friday were spent catching up on what had to be taken care of at home, and that pattern continues into today.

Janet's aunt is still at Blount Memorial, but in a regular room now instead of the CCU. She seems to be getting better, but still needs special care. The airline (US Airways) folks at McGhee Tyson were extremely helpful in taking care of changing the tickets so that Jo and Marianna can return home after the medical stuff is taken care of. We are now concerned about Jo getting her stuff in Florida taken care of--there is a deadline for FEMA stuff following the hurricanes.

Faculty report back to the college on Monday. Fortunately, I am not far behind because I was able to take a laptop to the hospital with Hannah and keep working. It takes much longer, though, because of having to jump up every few minutes and, for instance, suction Hannah's lungs. But at least it is possible to get it done, as long as I don't mind giving up little things like sleeping. :) Seriously, compared to earlier hospital stays, keeping up with work hasn't been too bad. My online classes are almost completely ready to go, and the editing on the book has moved along quite a bit as well.

Hannah feels well enough to be mad. I can hear her through the monitor squealing right now--better go get her next feedbag going.

Hannah comes through bronchoscopy fine

The schedule changed. We learned about 7:30 this morning that Hannah could get her bronchoscopy done earlier than planned, which was good for us, but it meant there wasn't enough time for Janet to get back to the hospital. (She went home last night to try to finally get a little rest and take care of her mother.)

Hannah went in with Dr. John Rogers for her bronchoscopy about 8:30. Dr. Rogers came out and talked with me about 9:30 to show me pictures from deep inside Hannah's lungs (we'll probably post some later, after we get a chance to scan). The gist: she has a lot of saliva down in her lungs, not just mucus.

This is good news/bad news. Although no doubt the saliva carries germs down, the main effect seems to be irritation of the lung membranes (they're designed for mucus, not saliva). Dr. Rogers suctioned out as much as possible, and we can treat it by adding a medication along with the scopolamine patch to reduce her saliva output more and by giving her the Vital-Stim treatment we're already planning to help her learn to protect her airway.

As Dr. Rogers said, by this afternoon she could have a lungful of saliva again, because she's not protecting her airway, but we know what direction to go.

We're also still seeing some laryngomalacia in the form of some floppiness to her airway, but my impression is that it isn't as bad as it was, so she may be growing out of it. On balance, it's a very minor impact on what's happening with her now.

Hannah will go down later for her VUCG (or is it VCUG?), after she has fully awakened from her anesthetic. I'll post another update then.

Update on Auntie Marianna

Janet's aunt had a massive coronary this afternoon while they were doing a test connected with the small heart attack she had earlier in the day. She is stable at the moment, but is in serious condition in the cardiac care unit at Blount Memorial Hospital. We think she is responsive, but it's hard to say for sure. Please keep her, Jo, and us in your prayers.

Tomorrow the doctors will do a renal ultrasound, a VCUG, and a bronchoscopy on Hannah at East Tennessee Children's Hospital.

Keeping America's hospitals working

I can't remember if we posted earlier about having Janet's mom and aunt with us over Christmas and New Year's. (I'm writing this offline for later posting to reduce the amount of time I tie up the phone at the hospital.) If not, well, we have Janet's mom (Jo) and aunt (Marianna) with us over Christmas and New Year's. :)

Janet went home last night to be able to spend a little time with them. As it turns out, it was a good thing, because they had to take her aunt to the emergency room at 4:30 this morning. [sigh] She may have had a small heart attack; she has congestive heart failure, and was overstressed, so her breathing was difficult; and she may have aspiration pneumonia. Did I mention she is diabetic?

So Marianna is in the cardiac unit at Blount Memorial, while Hannah continues in East Tennessee Children's Hospital. As I write this, Hannah is in the treatment room getting a new IV put in. Her previous one worked its way out somehow.

Janet is exhausted. After all, she went home to get some rest, and wound up spending half the night at a different hospital. She is here now; I hope we can find a way to get her some relief.

Update on Hannah: Still in hospital, but better

Thanks for your e-mails. We just wanted to let interested folks know that Hannah remains in the hospital, but she is doing much better. She coughed up a huge mucus plug yesterday, and her oxygen immediately shot up and her pulse dropped--both very good things. She continues to produce a lot of , well, I suppose the technical term is "snot." But it's no longer the color of something you would expect to see on Nickelodeon.

Today she pooped her diaper, and needed a wheelbarrow to finish. I'm afraid it caused her quite some pain, but when she finished she conked out and slept for an hour and a half--quite a relief, evidently. Her pulse dropped yet again, so I think she solved another problem she was having that we didn't even know about. The nurse, who saw it and said, "Oh... my... God," just brought in some Benefiber to add to her formula to try to keep that from happening again. Bless her little narrow hiney, it was like passing an entire raw potato. No warning, either, because she's been having dirty diapers all along. We don't know where this one came from, unless she's been sneaking out and going to Krystal or something.

We expect her to be in the hospital until at least Monday, at which point she will have some urinary tract exams and possibly a bronchoscopy if she has not cleared up by tomorrow on some of her lung stuff.