the joys

of having a best friend...someone to look up to...someone to laugh with...someone to share your thoughts and feelings with...someone to cry with...someone to share life with...someone that loves you despite your flaws and insecurties...thank you Lord for our friends, especially our BFFs!

(as a side note, I did not realize Gracie's friend had on a "Friends" shirt until I was posting this entry...pretty cool!)

healing

After a few rotten days, Gracie is finally on the mend. She is beginning to eat and drink a bit more. That along with a few smiles and attempts at speaking makes us hopeful that we are moving in the right direction. She is already breathing much quieter at night; in fact I had a quick scare thinking something must be wrong with her the other morning because she was sleeping so soundly without snoring at all!! We go back Monday for a follow appointment with Dr. Hollier. But, all in all, things are a wee bit calmer around the Greer household. Thank you again for all of the prayers as we are so blessed to have such strong support from our brothers and sisters in Christ!

update on Gracie

Our little patient had a challenging night! She went to sleep pretty easily with Haley at 6:30 but both girls were up and in our bed by 11:00 pm. I was able to get Haley back to sleep in there bed, but Gracie stayed with us and me, Jason and Gracie had a very restless night. She didn't drink anything all day therefore she had an empty stomach and couldn't take her pain medication. She was in a great deal of pain and would sleep for 30 minutes to an hour then wake up crying for an equal amount of time. She would spit out her antibiotics and would barely tolerate the Tylenol. Finally about 5:00 am she took two sips of 7-up and that was it. I was greatly concerned about her dehydrating due to lack of fluids and contracting an infection since she would take her medicine. We talked to Dr. Hollier and had my mom, who is keeping her this week, give her small dropfuls of liquids and meds throughout the day and she how she would handle that. Mom gave her some water and some antibiotics through the dropper while she took a nap...small victory! By lunch, mom called to tell me she was eating several spoonfuls of mac and cheese along with sipping on some milk. She also got a full dose of Tylenol and a warm bath, which she was totally opposed to taking! So, even with small amounts of fluids in her body and small attempts as speaking, I'm hoping that we'll all get a little more rest tonight and she'll continue to improve.
Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers. Again, she can't see it right now, but this really was the best thing we could do for her and I hope she has no memories of the pain!

Gracie's surgery

Gracie had her tonsils and adenoids removed this morning. Dr. Hollier was a little stunned at the size of her adenoids. He said she must have been experiencing a great deal of sleep apnea but we're hopeful that her breathing and sleeping (and maybe hearing/speech!) will be much improved after the procedure. She is obviously in a great deal of pain but sleeping off a bit of the Demerol. She was quite agitated that they wrapped up her hand to keep her iv in place as it covered her left and and her sucking thumb. Once that was removed she felt a little better but she wakes up every now and again wincing in pain. I wasn't too worried about the actual surgery but it is quite difficult to watch your child hurting and there is not much me or Jason can do about it. Lots of hugs and liquids will be in order the next few days as she heals!

Thank you so much for all the thoughts and prayers...as we know, the power of prayer is unbelievable.

It was pretty funny before the surgery because they gave her some medicine to relax her and it made her all kinds of giddy and a big unbalanced, basically drunk! She would get the biggest grin on her face then tumble to the side as we all laughed. The pictures of her laughing are from pre surgery, certainly not post!

some oldies but goodies

My flash drive has been at work for months, but I finally brought it home and enjoyed browsing through some old photos. It is amazing how much my babies have changed over the weeks, months and years!

'tis the season...

for illnesses! Gracie had a low grade fever late Friday afternoon but with a little help from our friend tylenol, she was fine until today. The call came in around 11:00 am that she was running a low fever again. That coupled with some red dots on her face meant we would be rendez vous ing with Dr. K. this afternoon. Jason picked her up from school and by the time I got home a few hours later, she was running around the house and did not have fever. Alas, we had the doctor's appointment already so we went ahead. She didn't have fever (weighed in at a heavy 20.7 pounds) but her blood count was high and her lymph nodes were swollen. Bring on the strep test! Well, it was, of course, positive. She received a shot and antibiotics and should be feeling much better in the morning. Our next concerns are Haley & Sam...pray the God of healing lets this pass over them. Since we have a high deductible health insurance plan, this illness for one just set us back over $200; I certainly don't want to multiple that by two!!! Not to mention I'm not sure I can take two more of my babies having that shot. I know it is good for them to help fight the sickness, but it is so sad to see them cry out in pain like that!
C'est la vie...life with a trio!