A Week in the Hospital

In January, Ellie spent 5 days at the Alberta Children's Hospital with pneumonia. I had strep throat, and Mark had strep throat, pink eye and then mid-way through the week, came down with the stomach flu as well.

We were in rough shape that week, and in retrospect, it was probably a blessing that Ellie was at the hospital as Mark and I were in no form to take care of her!

Ellie was admitted on January 17 because her blood oxygen levels were in the 80%'s - not good. She was quite lethargic and was having difficulty breathing, her naturally "wheezy" state added an element of difficulty. On our way from Emerg to Unit 2, we stopped for a chest x-ray, all the while, attached to a portable oxygen tank. It was quite surreal, walking the halls while Mark held Ellie and the nurse pushed the oxygen tank - I don't think it really sunk in that we were leaving Ellie at the hospital. Perhaps it was exhaustion at this point since it was after 1 o'clock in the morning!!

Ellie bounced back fairly quickly, though she wasn't taken off oxygen until Friday, she had a few hours without it on Wednesday and Thursday. Our nurses were AMAZING - I don't think we were ever really afraid of leaving Ellie, just purely tired.

We brought our girl home again on January 22, 2010 and by the next day, she was running around and laughing and you would never have guessed she'd just spent a week in the hospital. It took Mark and I much longer to recover from the week!!