One year ago today........

One year ago today, we took our sweet princess home from a week long stay in the hospital. Katie has come a long way in the last year.

It was a Sunday night, my Mom had the kids. She called me and said Katie's fever was 106, what should she do? I said "no way, take it again." Sure enough, 106. I met her at the ER of Children's Hospital. This would be the beginning of a week long stay. Katie was immediately stripped and cool rags were placed all over her body. She had her choice of Popsicles too. Of course, she was miserable and wanted no part in any of it. Her fever finally decreased. Her white blood cell count came back super high! They said she had a bad ear infection, the worst she has ever had. Just a month earlier she had her tonsils and adenoids out and tubes put in. This was supposed to help her not get ear infections. Yet, here we were with the worst ear infections she had ever had. Katie was admitted overnight for observation.

The next day, we went home with instructions to come back if her fever started to rise again. We managed to sleep in our own beds that night. The next day, the fever was back. After calling the hospital, we made another trip to the ER. The were concerned she might have meningitis. So a CT scan was done to check for brain abscesses before the spinal tap. A severe sinus infection was discovered on the CT scan. Her brain was fine, so they did a spinal tap and admitted her for the night. The next day (Wednesday) the spinal tap came back normal. I remember being really relieved, Katie's spinal fluid was perfect. But, what was wrong with my baby girl?

Finally on Thursday, we got a doctor who just started running tests. Katie could no longer leave her room because of some of the tests they were running. She was very disappointed to not be able to go to the playroom anymore. Turns out Katie had mono on top of the ear infections and sinus infection. To this day, I believe she got the mono during her surgery. We finally got to go home on Friday with instructions to follow up with the pediatrician.

When we followed up with Dr. B, Katie was referred to an allergist. The surgeries were supposed to help her not get sick so often. Obviously, we were missing something. The allergist, Dr. M, started us on the path to Cystic Fibrosis. Several tests, medications, and treatment plans later and Katie is doing great today!

I am so very grateful that Katie does not have full blown Cystic Fibrosis. It is a very hard genetic disease. Katie now takes 8 - 12 prescriptions a day, but is doing wonderfully! She has finally lost the dark circles under her eyes and is finally gaining weight :) While this will be a lifelong journey for Katie, I feel we have passed a milestone being a year out from her hospitalization.

On another note, Andy has 2 weeks left of his restrictions from his broken arm. He cannot wait to be able to jump on the trampoline and play football again! Just in time for his birthday :)

At karate this week, everyone has been attempting to break boards. After 3 days of trying, Andy broke his yesterday. Yay! Katie is still trying, but we are very proud of her for trying her best! It took me about 6 attempts and a really sore hand, but I broke through my board last night too. Yay!

This weekend Jay had a baseball tournament. But the kids and I don't have much planned. I think we will be lazy and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Oh, and we got a new SUV last weekend! My old one was on its last legs. It was about to start costing us a lot of money! So, we got a newer model. I love it! The kids love it!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!!!