Addie Grace and the Terrible Horrible Very Bad No Good Day

Yep, I'd say that title sums it up just perfectly.

But I first must say that I'm so thankful

that we're on this side of our adventure

and that we got a very happy ending.

But let's start at the beginning

and fill you in on the details of what happened to our sweet

Addie Grace.

On August 16, Addie, my mom and I went

out for a very quick shopping trip

before it was time to pick Crista up from school.

While we were shopping at Goody's

Addie had a dirty diaper so I took her to the restroom to change her.

I knew right away something was wrong

because I could see before I even took her diaper off

that the whole diaper was soaked with blood.

My knees went weak as I hurried up to change her

so I could get her to the Dr's office as quickly as I could.

I saved the diaper, grabbed Addie Grace and went to find my mom.

Within minutes we were in the car, calling the Dr

who just happened to be only a couple of blocks away.

The Dr saw us immediately

and the whole time I was praying it was just something she ate

or that red fruit punch I allowed her to have the night before.

But the Dr confirmed it was indeed blood

and sent us straight to the ER.

After several hours, an x-ray, and a blood draw,

we were sent home with the orders to have her hemoglobin checked in a couple of days.

Fast forward about 18 hours

and Addie had another massively bloody diaper,

even worse than the day's before.

Jake and I took off to the Dr's again,

not knowing we wouldn't be returning for another 6 days.

The Dr took one look at Addie,

said she looked pale and her eyes sunken

and sent us on to the ER...again.

We waited 3 hours in the waiting room,

while Addie Grace was internally bleeding,

before being called back.

The PA looked at Addie,

ordered a hemoglobin check

and an IV

and we waited for 4 hours

before being told that her hemoglobin had dropped over 2 points

in less than 24 hours

{which was NOT good for one so tiny}

and we were being transferred to a different hospital

that had pediatric specialists.

At this point we had NO idea of the ride we had just gotten on.

We got to Memorial Hospital around 10:45pm

and after an initial check, another blood draw, 

and lot and lots of questions,

we settled into our room for the first of many restless nights.

The next morning Addie had a scan done on her belly to confirm what the GI Dr

suspected was the problem.

The scan lasted an hour and Addie had to lay very still.

I must say she was so so good.

Jake and I sat on either side of her, holding her hand, and singing her favorite songs to her.

She eventually drifted off to sleep.

A few hours later the GI Dr came in and told us the scan did NOT confirm

his suspicions.

The test was negative.

But he was positive it was Meckel's Diverticulum.

 Absolutely positive.

But because the test came back negative,

he had to do a colonoscopy on Addie to rule out lower GI issues. 

The rest of the day we hung out in the hospital room,

loving on Addie Grace,

playing with her,

and trying to pass the time as best we could.

We had many friends and family

come to visit, send balloons, toys and cards.
Lots of calls and texts too.

It was great having so many distractions at that time.

We took many many walks around the halls of the 3rd flood.

They had a very nice playroom for the patients that Addie enjoyed that first day,

when she still had her energy.

We got lots of cuddle time with Addie.

She loved falling asleep in our arms

and having both of our undivided attention.

:-)

And this is where things took a turn.

And looking back,

this is where Jake and I started to become very very concerned.

To prep her for her colonoscopy in the morning,

they had to put an NG tube down her nose to give her the

medicine to clean out her colon.

She has a touchy gag reflex anyway

but this proved to be too much for her.

She cried and gaged and threw-up.

Over and over.

And every time she did,

the nurses would have to check to make sure the tube was still in her stomach

and hadn't repositioned in the lungs.

She also reacted to the tape (I guess) around her eye

and it turned red and started swelling.

It was all torture for her,

but also for us.

Talk about feeling helpless.

This is where I lost it.

She quickly went from being our talkative, energetic, ornery little fireball

to this... 

And that's when I put the camera down and

decided I wanted off of this ride.

That night was miserable.

They started feeding her the "Go-Light" medicine through her NG tube

and instead of it doing its job,

it just sat in her stomach.

Her belly became huge and hard and then she started

vomiting the medicine.

But she still hadn't had a dirty diaper...after 7 hours of that medicine being in her body.

We tried everything...a warm bath, a long walk.

But nothing seemed to work.

Addie was just so pitiful at this time.

Finally around 7am the meds worked but it was nothing but blood

and it had soaked through her diaper, two of my shirts and my pants

(she was laying on me at the time),

the blanket on the bed as well as the sheet.

I didn't know a little one could loose that much blood and still be ok.

Addie went in for her colonoscopy that morning

and the GI Dr found that the bleeding was coming from above the colon.

He said she had lost so much blood that her colon was white.

She had zero color on her body.

So he turned us over to the Pediatric surgeon.

He came over to us and didn't beat around the bush.

She had to have exploratory surgery.

NOW.

She was loosing too much blood to wait another day.

And they needed to find the source of the bleed quickly.

But first she had to have a blood transfusion...they wouldn't be able to do surgery until then.

But there was a problem,

her IV had a clot in it and they had to start another one.

Unfortunately, she had been stuck so much in the past4 days

that she didn't have a vein that hadn't been blown.

Both hands, both elbows, both tops of her feet.  All blown.

An anesthesiologist came by to try to get a new IV in

but he got angry with Addie because she was fighting against him.

{ha..imagine that.  19 month old, just waking up from anesthesia, being pricked...and fighting back}

So he gave up and walked away.

But then a really incredible thing happened. 

Another anesthesiologist came over and noticed Addie's Florida Gator Pacifier.

Made a comment that he's a huge Gator fan too,

and got curious about Addie Grace.

Wanted to know what was going on.

So I told him that she had to have surgery because she was internally bleeding

but she had to have a blood transfusion first

but no one could get an IV in

so in the meantime, Addie was slowly bleeding to death.

So he gave his next two patients to another anesthesiologist

and decided to take over for Addie.

He looked and looked on Addie's body for any vein that would work.

He looked on her neck, ankles, wrists.

But he said she had lost too much blood and was too dehydrated to get a vein.

But he persevered

and I prayed

and found out later Addie's nurse had prayed.

And this miracle Dr got the IV in.

And Addie Grace got her transfusion

and for the second time in one day

Addie Grace went under anesthesia

and was rushed into surgery.

1 1/2 hours later, the surgeon came out and gave us the diagnosis.

Meckel's Diverticulum.

The GI Dr was right all along...even though the original test came back negative!

The surgeon had to take out part of her intestines and an ulcer that was causing the bleed.

He also took out her appendix

and put in a central line

{so we wouldn't have to worry about the pesky IV's anymore.}

But all in all...

she was going to be just fine!

A few hours after her surgery, resting.

We called this her "Glow Toe".

Addie woke up from her anesthesia, pointed to her toe and said,

"I'm glowing!"

After sleeping almost 24 hours straight, Addie Grace woke up and wanted to play.

Her color had returned to normal

and she looked so good to me!

Our first walk around the halls.

We were all ready to get out of the room!

But it wore Addie out.

Poor baby girl!

Good thing Daddy was there to hold her!

Every day Addie got stronger and started

looking and acting like her old self,

wanting to play,

and laughing too!

But she still tired easily.

But there was always plenty of people around

ready to hold her when needed.

Its just so amazing how quickly children bounce back

when they were just so sick!

A week after her first bloody diaper,

Addie Grace was given the OK to eat ice and drink juice.

She handled it so well,

they lifted her eating restrictions and

she had lunch for the first time in 5 days.

And boy did she make up for lost time!

Just one of our amazing nurses!

And everyone's so happy in this picture because we were just told...

we were going HOME!!

I know this was extremely long

but I wanted to document every detail

before I forgot them.

This whole experience has humbled me,

made me realize how quickly life can change

and how each moment really is a gift.

Our seemingly "perfect" life

turned upside down

in the time it took me to change one diaper.

I'm so very thankful that God wrote a happy ending to our story,

it could've been so different.

We're thankful that Addie's issue,

as serious as it was,

was actually an "easy" fix

with no lasting effects.

On our last day at the hospital,

8 children started chemotherapy for the first time.

Eight.

And we all know that many of their endings will be very different than Addie Grace's.

So today, hug your children tight.

And be thankful for the little blessings in your life.

Because we just don't know what tomorrow holds.