in six weeks...

In six weeks Sidney turned our lives upside down! She has spent nearly half of her life in a hospital!

• 3 days when she was born
• then at 3 weeks old, she spent 3 more days at American Fork hospital for RSV
• after being immediately life-flighted to Primary Children's Medical Center, she ended up spending 13 days in the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit)
• finally, 4 days on the regular "floor" of the infant unit to fully recover

From bad to worse, first just on oxygen in American Fork hospital, then on EVERYTHING in Primary's. She had a total of 5 IVs, 10 tries for a PICC line, so many pokes in her heels they had to move on to toes and fingers to test her blood. She had to be intubated for the life-flight, and with that came the ventilator, and feeding tube, and of course oxygen for the duration. Honestly the worst thing we have ever gone through! Every neighbor, friend and especially family member has helped, prayed, and fasted for us and Sidney. THANK YOU!!!

They had to put her ID on her leg in the form of a sticker, since there was not an extra limb to put a bracelet around. All the machines they had on her, and the medical personnel were quite impressive. Not so impressive...when the alarms of all these high-tech machines go off! We had quite a few scares even in the hospital, from blockages in the tube, to bradycardia episodes where they were just about to start compressions! All in all a real nightmare!

Much better! This is after the scare of the PICU, on the "floor", she only had oxygen and some monitors on her. I could actually hold her and feed her and just had to wait around to be discharged (4 more days). At home, we are still on O2. I have a 50 foot long tube to watch wherever she goes. After everything we had been through, it's a relief to see her so much better! She is so cute and fun and even when she cries (hoarse still from being intubated), I LOVE to hold her, and smell her non-hospital smell, and kiss her still-soft skin (not on her face, and still using hand-sanitizer, but hold her still the same)!