Day 15: Check out this little rockstar! Shes laying almost completely flat, breathing quietly, and keeping her levels within nice ranges. When we met with our Oncology team, earlier, they said theyd like to see Audrey just be here for a couple more days and not need any interventions from the staff. Then they would feel comfortable enough to send us home. I know her airway still makes everyone nervous. It makes me nervous, but shes almost back to our original baseline, before we came in, and that was noisy breathing during exertion (laughing, crying, exercise). We were living the ignorance is bliss life at that point. Which brings me to, how did we end up here, anyway? Its hard to know how fast back to go, since hindsight is 20/20. Shes had symptoms for a long time, but they could usually be explained by illnesses. Ive had her treated for croup and other respiratory illnesses many times over the last 18 months or so. Then this summer, we were at the pool, and as she was playing, her breathing got very audible, alarmingly so. So I took her in for an asthma evaluation. I was told it was definitely not asthma, but was alerted to possible vocal cord dysfunction (which we now know is a paralyzed vocal cord from the tumor). I was to schedule a follow up visit with a pulmonologist. Im an idiot, and put this off. Then, as a few weeks went by, it stated eating at me, so i went ahead and scheduled the follow up which was supposed to be this month on 10/30. Fast forward to Friday, 10/3. I asked a friend to watch the kiddos in the morning while I got caught up on some work, and after I picked them up Audrey seemed to wilt as the day progressed. She started running a fever, and coughing a lot. By bed time, I thought she had croup. I put her in the shower with me, to give her a house dose of steam. By 11:00 pm, she sounded like a chainsaw with every breath. I spent the next couple of hours consulting with Dr. Google while i tried to determine if I should take her in, or just wait until morning. Finally the voice screaming at me inside my head won, and we headed to the ER. Once at the ER, I told the nurse that we just wanted a nebulizer treatment, and wed be on our way. Four hours, two nebulizer treatments, and a dose of steroids later, and there was no improvement to her breathing. They started talking about admitting us. I of course, had forgotten my cell phone at home, and had been unsuccessful getting ahold of Eric. Then they ordered a chest x-ray just to check for possessible pneumonia. 10 minutes later, when I was asked to come out of the room to view the x-ray, my world stopped. It was an out of body experience. There was no way that the film i was looking at was my Audrey, impossible! A police offside had to be dispatched to my house to get Eric, Audrey and I ride in the flight for life ambulance to Childrens Hospital. Two exits from the hospital, our ambulance ends up being the first responder to a four car crash that completely closed the highway! I lost my crew for about 20 minutes, while they helped pull people from the wreckage! Then we finally made it to the hospital, and that is when the medical side of Audreys Army started instantly forming. It was around 5:15am, and I was speaking to oncologists, radiologists, nurses, and pediatricians. There were about 10 people in the small exam room. I knew right then, that we were in the best possible place to treat whatever this was. Each and every day has brought with it progress, prayers, and positive news. Thank you all for coming with us on this journey. We couldnt bear to do it alone.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 21:08:13 +0000
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