Thursday, August 23, 2007

we're practically in the clear!!

It's all coming to an end! God has really blessed my family this week and I couldn't be more thankful and relaxed and relieved and happy... The complete opposite of how I felt the last time I posted a blog here. I was absolutely frightened.



Picking up where I left off... The good news; One of Emmalee's test results DID come back positive: Strep. So although she exhibited NO signs of strep (her throat was totally clear, not sore or red or inflamed at all) the strep infection might have just traveled through her lymphatic system and settled in her left lymph nodes. She completed a new medication, felt better right away and we were off to the beach (the well needed getaway after the week we had!). The weekend at the beach was fantastic. Weather was supposed to be a bummer; rainy, cloudy, not too warm. But God kept turning miracles for us and it was SUNNY and WARM with little wind, it was beautiful and a blast!! It didn't rain until we were heading home (more on the coast trip in another blog).



So, Emmalee went back to the doctors on Tuesday after our weekend coast getaway and if the lump had NOT gone down in size by that afternoon they were going to run the cat scan, but the swelling DID go down, so we call it a bizarre case of strep and move on with our lives!!! YAY! We are so lucky - we feel like we won the lottery!



Next step...



So now that Emmalee's in the clear after her bizarre atypical strep medical scare, the doctor wanted to run one last xray on her back/abdomen because Emmalee has complained of back pain ever since she COULD complain. Turns out, the most likely cause? Constipation. She's been on meds for constipation for a while now too, but she's obviously not getting caught up. But her spinal cord has no abnormalities! So we're going to keep pushing the meds for a couple of weeks and if she doesn't get rid of all this backed up (excuse my language) stool, then we'll figure something else to do. All in all, things are calming down and she's been a wonderful fun sweet little girl to spend my "vacation" with this week (the family I work for is across the country right now).
Loving life and praising God! My little girl is OKAY!!!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Emmalee's health scare

I cried myself to sleep last night as Tylor rubbed my back. We've had to take Emmalee in to see the doctor every day this week. We've been going through a little health scare with her ever since Monday morning when I noticed a big lump on the side of her neck. Both of her lymph nodes on the LEFT side only (above the collar) are enlarged (about 4cm by 4cm). So Monday was a joy, she had tons of tests and swabbing and blood drawn, it was a little traumatic for us all. Especially when we found out that two of the possibilities we're dealing with here is leukemia and lymphoma. Monday night the doctor said that some of the tests reveal that her chance of having leukemia has dropped to almost zero percent. So the more likely possibilities (that we are HOPING for) are atypical tuberculosis, cat scratch disease, mono or some kind of staph infection.

Then she spiked a fever ( 104.3) which we kept it under control with motrin. She slept almost 15 hours that night. We went back to the doctor yesterday to hear that more tests came out negative, which sounds like great news, right? Well it isn't. In fact, the more tests that come out negative, the more new tests she'll have to endure. One of which being a CT scan, for which she'll have to be sedated for.

Yesterday was such a great day though, I was really hopeful and confident that this is something 'silly' because she appeared so healthy and happy. Her energy and appetite was up, she was fun and adorable and silly and happy, it was just a wonderful day. Which made it all the more difficult and emotional for me. Last night after doctors and dinner, we went home and turned off all the lights and all 3 of us sat on the couch together under blankets to watch Shrek 2. (Yes, we've seen all 3 Shrek's and they're her favorite; Emmalee just idolizes Princess Fiona). Anyway, thoughout the movie, probably every 2 minutes Emmalee would grab my head towards hers and kiss me and say "I love you too, Mommy". Over and over and over she did this, and that is why I cried myself to sleep. I told Tylor it seems like this could be a little bit easier on us if she wasn't such a beautiful sweetheart. Truly. A beautiful sweetheart. It breaks our hearts.
So if we're lucky, this is all coming to an end real soon. The doctor just called a few minutes ago to check on Emmalee, to see if there's any new symptoms or if the lump has changed in size. She said she was going to call to check on the cultures and then call me back in a few minutes. We also go in at 2:30 today. So it appears that if nothing comes up positive, then we will have to sedate her right away for a CT scan to see if it's a tumor. Doctor says if it's any kind of mass/tumor they do not biopsy it, they will just remove it all together.


Please pray something comes out positive. We'll take ANYTHING!!