Going home

The dr said that the RSV test was negative, so that is good. The chest x-rays didn't show she swallowed anything, or if she did she passed it already. He said she has a lung viral infection called bronchiolitis, similar to bronchitis but a different airway infection, smaller airway. He said to just get her fluids and rest. He said it could take another 3-5 days before she is better. They are giving her an anti-nausea medication to help her not vomit. The dr said that bronchiolitis is contagious through saliva contact only, but it can survive like on our hands etc for a bit of time, not sure how long. Thank you all for your concern, prayers, and help.

Megan update

Megan has been not eating real well or drinking again, but wasn't very dehydrated. For 5 days she has been throwing up basically everything we've been giving her. A couple days before that Emily said the Megan had swallowed one of the glass rock half marble looking thingys that people use in pots for fake plants. They are about the size of a penny but rounded and about 1/4" tall. Crystal took her to our Dr on Friday afternoon and he said it was probably just a fever. She has since been in pain at random times for short periods of time and has been painful to toot and go #2. This morning a neighbor offered to come take a look at Megan, he use to be a pediatrician in the military. He said he thought it was pneumonia so Crystal called our Dr which only had an opening at 4pm. So she went to instacare where they took her blood oxygen level, and it was actually at 83. That is when they said she needs to go to the ER and offered an ambulance ride. Here at the hospital her Oxygen levels have been hovering between 90 and 97, so they don't have her on Oxygen. Every now and then for about 30 seconds she'll drop to the low 80s but it jumps back up again. The Dr here is thinking it is RSV. They also have taken two x-rays to look at the lungs and to check and see if there is anything that she has swallowed. We are waiting on the results of the x-rays and the RSV test right now. I did manage to get a picture of the x-ray. It looks like torture to a kid. They put her in a contraption that makes her arms stay straight up and tighten it up snug but not squeezing. Then they rotate it to the angle they want and take the x-ray. She did not like that to say the least.

December 2008

It has been quite an exciting year for us at the Allred home. A year ago we welcomed Megan Belle into our family. She was 7lbs 6 oz and as bald as Emily was. That has been the biggest adventure of the year; she has brought so much joy into our home!

In June of this year we were able to go to Denver on vacation. None of us had been to Denver but had heard good things about it. We were able to go for 3 days and it was a blast. We hit most of the major sites like the Denver mint, the Butterfly Pavilion, the Museum of Science and Natural History, and we drove around to see some other landmarks like the state capital, some stadiums, and some parks. Of course Crystal’s favorite part was eating at the Cheesecake Factory. Emily thoroughly enjoyed the Butterfly Pavilion where they have thousands of butterflies in a controlled rain forest type greenhouse. There was also some bugs and spiders on display and you could hold a tarantula. Ryan was the only one brave enough to do that. Whenever anyone asked Emily about our trip she would always tell them about her floor-bed; she slept on the floor in the hotel, and loved it!

Ryan is enjoying working as a property manager for Fresh Start Management and currently manages over 50 units. He is working on getting a new online software system up and running for the company. He always loves coming home and playing with ‘his girls’. He is also officiating high school basketball again this year and loves getting paid to exercise !

As for me, being a mother is taking up most of my time, and I love it. I love to see how our girls play together. I have developed a love for cooking over the last year, it only took me 4 years of marriage. I have really enjoyed making beautiful, delicious food for my family, unfortunately for my diet my absolute favorite is baking desserts. Luckily for me though I have started a regular exercise routine with my sister-in-law Lori which has been so great!

Emily is our busy busy girl. She loves to organize and help out especially when I make cookies. She always enjoys rearranging her room, reading books, painting, and being a ‘mother’ to her dolls. She LOVES her baby sister and is so proud of her. She introduces Megan to everyone she meets by putting her arm around Megan and saying ‘this is Megan,” and then tells them how old she is. It is so cute. Whenever I tell Emily that she is cute or my little angel she says “no mom I’m the big sister.”

Our “little Megsy” is a big flirt. She loves to get others attention and while they are looking she will give them the biggest smile you will ever see, but if they try to hold her she will hold on to me like her life depended on it. She is quite the ‘mama’s girl’ which is okay but just really opposite from Emily. Megan got her first tooth at 7 months and was crawling before she was 8 months old. She doesn’t have any interest in walking yet so I am happy about that. Megan gave us a scare the day after Thanksgiving, she was not acting herself so I took her into the doctor and he had her admitted to the hospital because she was extremely dehydrated. She had to be in the hospital on an IV for a day and a half. She is happy and healthy now and just had her 1st birthday a few days ago.

From all of us we want to wish everyone a happy holiday and best wishes for the year to come.

We have our Megan Back

Well it has been a long 10 days. Megan wasn't doing very good after we got her home from the hospital and we were really worried that she was going to end up back there. We took her to the doctor on Monday afternoon, and he told us that she had the nasty stomach flu that has been going around and that it usually passes within 7-10 days. We finally hit the 10th day and she is almost 100% better. She is smiling and laughing again and she will actually go to someone besides me and Ryan, which is awesome. She is teething right now so she is drueling like crazy and has a runny nose but she is so much better!!!

Megan's Update

Megan was able to come home yesterday at about 5:00 pm. That made 17 hours in the hospital for Megs. Her inital blood test showed a viral infection, they think rotavirus. Her urine test was just fine. And her second blood test came back normal. Since she has been home we feel like we are walking on pins and needles. It has been really nerve racking. Sunday morning and afternoon were really bad, she had diarrhea really bad and she was throwing up almost everything. I tried to nurse her and she took to that really well and nursed for an hour and didn't throw that up so I am trying to get my milk supply back. It is Sunday night 10:00 and she has been in bed since 8 and she hasn't thrown up or had a blow out since 2 this afternoon, which is definately an improvement but she still is hardly drinking anything. If any of you have expierienced anything like this with your kids we would love some suggestions of what worked for you. We are out of ideas as to how to get her to drink. Thankyou for all of your concern and prayers for our little Megs, we really appreciate everything. We will probably be taking her to the doctor tomorrow so we will keep you updated.

Megan Hospital Status

Megan has had a temperature for the last couple of days and has been refusing to drink anything. Crystal weened Megan off of nursing about 10 days ago so we thought she just didn't like regular milk. Finally, this morning Crystal was determined to get her to drink, so we bought a new different bottle and put some formula and basically forced it into her mouth. She wouldn't drink but she would leave it in and just fall asleep. She did get about 1/2 ounce and then threw it all up and her skin was getting vary pale and splotchy. Crystal then decided to take her to the doctor at 10 am this morning and he said he thought it was pnemonia and saw how dehydrated she was. He had her admitted into the hospital for an IV to get her hydrated and get some tests to figure out what it is.

She was admitted at about noon today. They took a chest xray and sent that up to radiology and then hooked her up to monitor heart rate, oxygen levels, and respitory stuff. Then she had to get an IV and have a catheter to get a urine sample. The IV was a pretty big problem. She was so dehydrated they could not find a good vein. They had her legs and arms wrapped in hot packs to get some circulation and turned off the lights and had a light on her arms etc shining through it to try and see veins. Crystal, of course, can't take needles or blood so she was waiting outside. They weren't finding anything all that great but tried on the top part of her right hand. They couldn't get it in the vein because it was too flat, and then you couldn't see it anymore so they pulled out the needle. They then tried in the top of the other hand and they got it into the vein but the vein collapsed. That sounded really bad to me, but it isn't that serious, it just means the vein constricts so blood won't flow out, and the IV won't flow in. They said it happens a lot with babies and even more when they are this dehydrated. After another 20 minutes of trying to warm her up some more with hot packs and rubbing her arms and legs and using the light to try and find a vein. They then put the needle in the upper arm and got in the vein again and it collapsed again. They said the only place she has good enough veins is in her head. It has been about an hour from when they first brought her in to put in the IV. So the first attempt in the head started out really well but just at the wrong time Megan jerked her head which made that vein collapse as well. Poor little Megan, she was screaming and crying through most of this but was just so out of energy she was calm through some of it. The second try in the head finally worked, but when it is in the head they have to tape it quite a lot so it doesn't move around or get pulled out. They then put stuff on it to harden up so it's basically like paper mache blob on her head with a tube sticking out. Just a few minutes after they got that in her color started to get better. They then had to do the cathetar and a heal prick to get some blood for some tests.

As soon as she was done she went to sleep real fast. She is just resting now. The nurse did come in and tell us that the chest x-rays came back pretty good and they don't think it is pnemonia. We are still waiting for the blood & urine test results.

The nurse said she will need to stay at least overnight now to get enough fluids back in her. Depending on how she reacts to the IV and things it could be longer. They said if she throws up again, she will need to get more tests and probably stay longer.

The diagnosis as of right now is that she has an ear infection and something else that is either a bacteria or virus and the effects of that irritated her throat so much that any fluids would hurt it. So, since she wasn't drinking she got extremely dehydrated. The nurse said whatever she has, she is probably contageous, but won't exactly what until we get the results.

Thank you all for your prayers, it was right after Crystal texted several people that the IV wasn't going in and to pray that they got it in.

Here is a couple pictures of her, one right after they finally got the IV in and while they are trying to draw blood for the blood tests and another of Crystal calming her down right after all that.

We are in room 246 at American Fork Hospital on the second floor of pediatrics. Our home phone is forwarded to my cell that Crystal is carrying and I have my work cell which is 801 . 652 . 3793. You are welcome to visit or call or email, but since we don't know exactly what it is and it is probably flu like, it is contageous, so I wouldn't bring kids.

Powell / Grand Canyon cancelled

Well, we were going to go to the Grand Canyon & Lake Powell last weekend but Jodi hurt her ankle pretty bad so we were going to reschedule but we all couldn't get work off at the same time again. So, alas, we are planning on going to Denver this next weekend. I was on my mission when the Fam went and neither of us have been so that is what we are doing. We would appreciate any input on what or what not to go see. We will post pictures and stuff when we get back.



Also, Megan and Emily have been a little sick and are almost better now too. Here is a video of Megan and Emily taking care of her like a good big sister.