Hospital, fever, blood counts, and the airport

I'm finding that a new adventure happens everyday. On Monday, we had a clinic appt and noticed that Kade was a bit shaky and not feeling well, found out through her blood counts that her ANC (white blood cell) counts were down to 0. I also took Clay to the airport that day to fly o AZ to pick up the kids. Early Tuesday morning I woke up around 4:30 and Kade had spiked a fever and since she was Nutripenic (low white blood cells / no immune system ) we went to the ER. We were admitted on Tuesday morning so that they could take blood cultures and give her antibiotics. Since this was a little bit expected, it hasn't been that big of deal to be here. The good news is that her counts started going up today and she hasn't had any fevers, but I also was told we would be discharged once this happened. Well, no such luck. Because she is doing good and her counts are on the rise, they want to keep us here so that they can put a catheter into a vein on her groin so that they can take the stem cells from her blood while they are on the rise. This is another procedure done in the operating room and so we get to stay another few days post op. Looks like we'll be hanging out in the hospital until Monday, go home for a few days, then come back next Saturday for round two. I was a little bummed out when I found out we had to stay here through Easter.

Meanwhile, Clay was down in AZ picking up the kiddos. He spent an extra day there to play with his brothers and parents, then we were hoping he would come home on Wednesday. Well, he was flying stand-by because my sweet aunt let us use some of her buddy passes since she works for the airline. There were hardly any flights with open seats on Wednesday but Clay was anxious to get home and decided to chance it. He was at the airport for over 12 hours, hoping to get on the next flight... no such luck. The sad part is that Maizyn got food poisoning and was sooo soo sick the whole time they were waiting. I felt so helpless and felt so bad that I couldn't be there to take care of her. Clay was such a champ though and took great care of her. He met several other people who were waiting to fly standby and they became instant friends. One lady really helped Maizyn as she had to go in the women's bathroom an change her clothes several times. Turns out they didn't even get on a flight yesterday but then went back to his brothers house to sleep and finally made it on the early flight this morning. They are home!
But...I'm stuck in the hospital. I'm so sad. He's worried about bringing them because we don't know for sure if Maizyn was sick or had food poisoning so I don't even get to see them until tomorrow. 2.5 weeks is WAY too long to be without your babies. I miss them so much. I'm so glad Clay is such a good Dad and that they are such good kids though, taking everything one step at a time. I love my family.

My sweet Mother has been taking a lot of time off work to come keep me company at the hospital and give me breaks. I am so grateful for her and her willingness to help out so much. She has been a rock through all of this and I honestly don't know what I would do without her. I'm so glad we live close to her and close to the hospital.

The upside of being in the hospital so often is that the nurses are doing all the care taking for my baby while I just hold her and love on her. I'm taking advantage of that part.

I've started writing in my journal and making a list of all the little miracles that have happened, many too personal to share, and I am awestruck. God has blessed me so much. As Easter approaches this weekend and I think about the real reason for it and the sacrifice of my Savior I am amazed. There is a Mormon video going around called "Because of Him", it's touched me to the core as I think "Because of Him" I can endure this trial and feel comforted by his love and understanding of what I'm going through. Because of Him I am given strength to be here for my little girl and help her overcome this hardship as well. I love Springtime and the re-birth of life and the warmth in peace in the air. Easter is one of my favorite Holiday's. I wish you all the best.

Here is the link to the "Mormon Message"

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng