When Life Gives You Lemons...

...You make lemonade and put lots of sugar in it. Where am I getting at? Read on (if you are patient) and you will know what I am talking about…

As some of you may have noticed, I have been absent from the blogging world for about a week and a half. No new posts, no comments, no link-ups, nothing. Unfortunately during this time my sweet little girl Vivian was hospitalized. We were at the children’s hospital for 10 days and I was with her 24/7 but I will tell you she is stronger and more resilient than me. We only got home, yesterday afternoon.

As I have mentioned a couple of times before, including a couple of weeks ago, Vivian has had a tough Winter and even tougher Spring, health-wise. She has been to the doctors more times that I can count and has tried different medicines and antibiotics. It all started last December when she got a little cold and the flu altogether. She took antibiotics for 6 days straight and got much better quickly. Even her appetite started getting better and she even started gaining a little bit of weight. Plus, finally after almost 3 months of being at her newer daycare (since October 2014), she started eating all of her meals there, in early January. She refused the food there for 3 months straight though her sleep, socializing skills, playing with the other kids and her friendliness towards the other kids was great.

Back in December we were told she had a cold and her cough was horrible. As a matter of fact she has had this terrible cough on and off since January 2014 when she got sick for the first time right after she turned one. The cough would stop at times and during bad colds and/or bad weather and when Vivian would get a little virus or a little cold, the cough would pick up roughly, again. It was awful. The cough did improve during last Summer and in August last year she never coughed one day. Last Fall we even went to a an allergy specialist and found out the cough was a little bit due to allergies too, but Vivian was still very young for them to determine more. Her bloodwork came out well, too. Flash forward to March 2015 and her coughing was so heavy and it would cause her to throw up often, made her mad and she would even wake up crying a lot since the cough would wake her up and it would take a long time for Vivian to get back to sleep. Her appetite went down-hill, she started losing even more weight and she is a little thin for her age to begin with. The cough was the result of another cold and bronchitis as we discovered after seeing the doctor.  The bronchitis and cold were accompanied by fever on and off, sometimes the fever would be very high. The doc put her on more antibiotics and a cough syrup. 5 straight days of antibiotics kept her cough a little lower and her fever went away mostly. She got better but then about 10 days later, I get a phone call from the daycare that she woke up from her afternoon nap with high fever. I kept getting that same call a couple more times, the following week, as well. After a few more visits at her pediatrician, who has been Vivian’s doctor since she was 9 months old and knows her health history well, we put Vivian once again on 7 straight days of the same antibiotics and even started a new cough syrup. But it didn’t work. Nothing worked completely or nothing really resulted on much improvement. Her health wasn’t improving, not at all. As a matter of fact, it seems things got worse. She was barely eating and sleeping and her coughing was so heavy and at times made her hard to breathe and kept her nose stuffed up.

Two weeks ago we took Vivian to a new doctor who is also a pediatrician who specializes in colds and allergies. She came very highly recommended to us . She told us that Vivian had a strong case of Bronchitis and we would try to fight it off with a couple of bio syrups since her body had already taken a lot of antibiotics to begin with. Then, about two weeks ago on Thursday, I ended up picking Vivian up earlier from daycare, after another little fever episode and was told by her teachers she had been coughing all day. Her cough was horrible on Friday and she threw up twice because of it. That day we were supposed to do an X-ray for her at the hospital. We decided to do the X-ray at the children’s hospital where the new doctor (who specializes in colds and allergies) works, also. The X-ray results were really bad and after several doctors discussed Vivian’s case among them, we were told she would be submitted to the hospital for some fast, good medical care. Vivian was diagnosed with Broncho-pneumonia and her blood work showed she was highly allergic too. Thankfully, so far from what we can tell none of it is food allergies. She is mostly allergic to changes in the weather, air, pollution, dust, certain flowers, trees and plants and other natural things like these.

Sweet Vivian spent 10 days at the children’s hospital next to me who shared the same bed with her every night. She got such excellent care from all the nurses and doctors and after a final x-ray and a scanner and ultra-sound, the doctors could see about 70% improvement from her first day in. The new antibiotics which she took during her hospital stay 5 times a day, worked fast and most of her blood testing came out really well. During our hospital stay my husband and other family members would visit us twice a day bringing both of us food and clean clothes when needed, also. This whole experience was so scary and very difficult on all of us, especially on me as her mamma. But hospitalization was the right step towards her recovery. Now we are back home and Vivian still has to take several meds for a while longer, especially since the doctors are trying to avoid a possible case of asthma for the future. I am spending every day with her and will not take her to daycare at least until June 1^st. All I need for her is to continue to be resilient, start get better and be her strong, sassy, brave self. Even-though Vivian has been through hell the last few months, especially the last couple of weeks, she never lost her feisty attitude and her energy impressed us all, especially all the nurses that saw her several times a day. You have to understand she is only two years and a 4 months old (exactly on the dot today she turned 28 months) and still teething, so this hasn’t been easy at all on her.  We hope to continue to see much more improvement and for her to start to eat more. And hopefully we will go on a beach vacation soon in late June or early July, once Vivian is feeling much better. The salty water, sand and sun will do her well, also.

This was difficult for me to write and share with you all, but there are several of you who read my blog daily and several of you who I consider my blogging friends. There are many of you who have asked about her health too. So, I felt like I needed to share this with you. To all of you who have e-mailed me while I was at the hospital with my daughter and who have sent me your get well soon wishes and have prayed for Vivian to get well, thank you so very much. I appreciate it more than I could ever express it.  Before your child’s health, every other matter becomes minimal or non-existent. I love my daughter with every ounce of my body and will do anything for her to live a happy and healthy life. I planned on slowing down here on the blog this Summer (I thought about that way before Vivian’s hospital stay). At this point, I haven’t decided whether my leave of absence for work will be temporary or permanent either.  I do know that being by Vivian’s side is the most important thing to do. I will still blog - outfits and even some other non-fashion posts - but how often will I post I do not know. Thank you to all of you who read and follow my blog. Thank you to all of you who read this today (it was long I know).

Bottom line is that after even the most torrid of rains, the rainbow always comes in its bright, colorful glory. That’s what I meant about When Life Gives You Lemons... When life gives you lemons, you add a lot of sugar to it and make lemonade.  What else can you do!?