Vada’s week with Swoosh

I miss Vada terribly and have enjoyed looking through the pictures from her daycare room. Even with all her GI and hydration issues she has still managed to have some fun with her friends this week.

Improvement

Vada made it back to daycare and is getting plenty of fluid, but is still fighting some GI issues. She’s been happy throughout her week though. She has enjoyed seeing Carmen on video chat too.

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Toban.

Carmen is never going to leave the house again

We’ve had a rough couple of days… Vada hasn’t been taking a bottle from me since Carmen left and hasn’t been taking many other fluids at daycare. On top of that she got some diarrhea and she had more fluids going out than coming in. I gave the doctor the rundown on her fluid intake this morning and she sent us straight to the ER. They tried to take blood and give her an IV in her hand, but she was too dehydrated to find a vein. So I left the room, four nurses came in and they put it in her forehead. We’ve gotten some meds and an IV and watched Lady and the Tramp. Vada got in a good rest and has been walking the halls making friends. We are just waiting to get discharged now.

And then there were two

Carmen left for Asia a couple hours ago. She is headed to Sri Lanka and then on to China. Vada and I are on our own for the next 10 days.

Mark the time

Vada just rolled her eyes at me for the first time.

Happy Halloween!

Happy 1st Birthday Vada!

We officially celebrated Vada’s first birthday on Saturday. We served her favorite meal (Mexican food) and the cake of my choice (carrot cake). She loved the rice and black beans and shredded cheese. She didn’t eat much cake. Since she turned one, she had one friend over – Mary. She got her one dollar from Grandma Joan. And we got her one present – the tunnel. Vada had fun crawling through it with toys and with Dad!

1 year old!

Tubed

Everything went smoothly with Vada’s ear tube procedure this morning. We were at the hospital from 7am to almost 11am but the procedure itself took less than 15 minutes. She was given little hospital scrubs to wear and we all had medical ID bracelets. We waited in the children’s play area until surgery was ready for us. Then she was given tylenol and “baby Valium” to keep her calm as we headed to the pre-op area. This is where it started to feel more serious as the pre-op area housed all of the patients lined up for whatever surgeries in that half hour or so. The doctor came out to review the procedure with us again and then the anesthesiologist and nurse took Vada away. We were sent to the family waiting area. Vada was sedated with gas for the procedure. 10 minutes later and the doctor came to let us know everything went well. And then a few minutes later a nurse came to let one of us into the post-op area to be with Vada as she woke up. Again this part felt fairly serious as it was a large open room housing many patients just transitioning out of surgery. Apparently my face went pale because I was put on fainting watch. They made me sit down and brought me orange juice to drink. I snuggled with Vada as they continued to check her vitals. She was angry as she woke up but I think mostly out of hunger. Then we picked up Toban from the waiting room and headed back to the lower key recovery rooms. The whole time the nurse was ordering me to stay in front of her where she could see me in case I passed out. I guess I am not cut out for hospital work. Vada slept for awhile in the recovery room and then once she had eaten and snapped out of it a bit more we were released. We have been resting some more here at home today.

Ears.

Tuesday morning Vada is getting tubes put in her ears. She has been struggling with ear infections all summer and fall. We opted to go ahead with the ear tubes before the winter cold and flu season starts. Everyone who has been through it is very positive about the experience and results. It should be a fairly quick and simple in and out procedure. We’ll let you know how it goes.