Mercedes and Mia...

Mercedes' allergy appointment was a little different than I had expected it to be! Instead of being there for about 45 minutes tops, we were there for 3 1/3 HOURS! If any of you know Mercedes at all, you'd know she's always been deathly freaked out of doctors and nurses and anything they do to HER. If the appointment is for anybody else and she's there, she's perfectly fine. Also, when she gets worked up (crying), she usually tosses her cookies.

All that to say that she was SUCH a trooper!!! She did have a fit when the gal was trying to get her temp in her ear, and when the doctor was trying to see in her ears, but other than that, she did great!

That morning, I had to stop by her doctors' office to get the flu vaccine to take to the allergist's so he can inject it - in case of a bad reaction. I didn't realize he was going to retest her for milk, egg, and the flu vaccine to see how strong she's allergic. She was allergic to all three. They also tested her for shellfish and she wasn't allergic to that, so that's good to know! =) I was always scared to give it to her, so I never had. The good news is that last time her egg reaction was about 2-3'' in diameter and this time it was about the size of a time, so it looks like it's cleared up some! Her milk allergy was about the same size, so that's also decreased (according to the size).

Anyway... since she was allergic to the flu vaccine, they had to give it to her in TINY doses, then wait 15 minutes, check her reaction, then give another shot. Thankfully, after the 3rd shot in her shoulder, I agreed that they should double the dose so it'd go faster. She ended up getting 5 shots in her shoulders as well as 9 pokes on her back!!! She did such a great job!! We bought Mia a little media player and we put a bunch of movies on it for her, so Mercedes borrowed "Mia's Laptop", as she calls it. =) Boy, was THAT a good idea!! =)

Today the ENT came to CRC (where Mia is at) to evaluate the children. After looking in Mia's ears, they didn't bother examining her trach or mouth, because she has a lot of fluid in her ears that it requires surgery to place tubes to drain the fluid. =( So, when they do that, since she'll be under anesthesia, they'll examine everything else they wanted to do today, as well as an official hearing test. If they don't do the surgery, there's a very high risk that she can lose her hearing altogether, because there's so much fluid, they said.

I was bummed when I heard that, of course I was sad and disappointed, I guess. It's always hard to hear that your child is going to need to have yet another surgery. When I put her back in bed, her eyes rolled back, her alarm went off - she was desating quickly, and her lips went totally pale. Mia had another short seizure. It only lasted about 90 seconds, but it seemed like forever. Especially when everybody is busy with normal everyday things, and helping with the ENT clinic... I couldn't find an RT to help the Charge Nurse and Nurse Practitioner. They had to bag Mia back up and once she seizure ended, she was fine. It was so strange. I felt so totally helpless and defeated. As a mother, it's so hard not being able to fix whatever is going on in her body. It's even harder not knowing what the problem is to begin with.

Continue to pray for our baby girl! Mia is getting stronger daily and so much more alert, but we know she has SO much farther to go! Also pray for Mercedes' food allergies to clear up. Next week sometime, she needs to get some blood work done (that one definitely will not be fun!) to test for her milk, egg and nut allergies - to see just how strong they are.

I drive up to Sacramento in the morning, then when Robert comes home from work, we'll head out for Las Vegas until the day before Thanksgiving. Pray for travel safety for us and that we can get everything accomplished that we need to!

My Mom has been fighting a really bad cold, so she's not going to be able to see Mia much at all while we'll be gone and my Dad works nights and sleeps during the day, so he won't have much time to visit Mia, either. Robert's parents aren't close enough to come by daily (they could, but it'd be a LONG trip back and forth!) and since Grandparents are the only people allowed to visit at this time (aside from parents), pray Mia will get enough company, love and touch while we're away. Pray that my Mom will get better, too, so she can visit with Mia.

Yesterday, Mom, Mercedes and I were able to meet Danny Gokey (2009 American Idol finalist - Top 3 - totally deserved to win, but he didn't need to!) Our local country station hosted a private concert and signing at Armadillo Willy's, so it was a great honor to meet this wonderful man of God! (www.sophiasheart.org)

Blessings to you all,
Rachael <3