Blogging Takes A Back Seat

I apologize for the gap in my blogs. We've been thrust into full time grand-parenting of our six year old granddaughter, Arya, after my daughter was admitted into hospital last week. She had been having a long-lasting, gastro-intestinal flue for a couple of weeks, and after a brief respite, some of the symptoms appeared to come back, only stronger. Finally, by Thursday of last week, her pains were so bad we took her into the Emergency Room. She had extremely low blood pressure, could barely stand up, high white blood cell count, and a high fever, along with pains that bent her double. After six hours in the ER, they rushed her into surgery for an appendectomy. Turns out that some stool had found their way into her appendix, which then further perforated and finally ruptured. The doctors then discovered a blockage in her gut, which they subsequently managed to unblock after suctioning out half a gallon (no, really!) of gastric juices, mucus and other sundry bodily fluids through her nose. She was very uncomfortable for a day or so with the tubes going down into her stomach, but after 18 hours of this, the tubes had done their job and they were removed during one of my recent visits.

Sunni is currently on three different kinds of IV antibiotics as they attempt to bring the infection under control, and she is additionally receiving IV pain killers. However, there is still widespread bacterial infection in her body so they won't release her until she's fever-free, able to get up by herself, and is without pain. She's likely to be in another 2-3 days at the current rate of progress.

Anyway, I'm relieved that after a very rough week in hospital, Sunni appears to have turned a corner. Walking is still difficult for her but she takes a few more steps each time. Her great excitement this morning was that she gets to have dry crackers!

Meanwhile, back at our house...we have been trading off dropping off and picking up Arya from school and after-school, chasing an active 6 year old around the house, fighting the fights that all parents have ("Yes, you do have to clean your teeth. No, you can't run your egg-covered fingers along Nana's painting. No, it's not possible that the cat let your hamster, Twinkle, out of the cage.") and falling into bed exhausted at the end of the day. In addition to working full time, I have been spending a lot of time at the hospital, and for the last two nights, we have had another puppy in the house, Ziggy's friend, Jack.

Once Sunni has been discharged from the hospital, she will stay with us until she's well enough to return home. I'll be on nursing duty for a while, but hope to be back to blogging soon.