Return from the seventh level of Hades

Above are signs that I hope to never see again on the outside of my door or above my my bed!! What a crazy ride this has been but thankfully both Eammon and I are home and feeling better and stronger each day.

I was asked by numerous people if Eammon and I were in the hospital for the same thing and the answer is no. Between us we had three hospital stays for three different reasons. My first ten days in the hospital was for pneumonia. Then Eammon was admitted for three days with a viral G.I. infection that had gone on too long and too far, causing him to be severely dehydrated and having all of his blood levels out of whack. A day after Eammon was admitted I was taken back to the hospital and admitted with C. difficile where I was in an isolation room for four days. Crazy, crazy, crazy I'm telling you, having both of us so very sick at the same time but amazingly and thankfully, Maisie didn't get any of it!!

We are also so very thankful for all the help we received from friends, neighbors, Moms in my Mom group and from my parents. We honestly wouldn't have made it through without all their help so a big thank you to all of them.

Now for some cute Maisie piccies because this blog has focused way too much on me and on Eammon and I being sick so now back to regularly scheduled programming. Maisie loves snuggling with her Grandma.

Below are pictures of Maisie with our neighbor Mary. The two of them had a fun afternoon together baking and decorating cookies and by the smile on Maisie's face you can see she had a great time.

And finally a Maisie fashionista photo.Maisie dressed for school Tuesday morning because well, she's just so stinking cute.

Thanks again for all the good wishes, prayers, flowers, cards, calls, emails, blog and facebook comments they really helped make being sick that much easier but now it's back to Maisie, Maisie and more Maisie!!

Home

I was released from the hospital this afternoon so now both Eammon and I are home!! More details later. Thanks for all the good wishes, prayers, flowers, cards, calls, emails, blog and facebook comments, everyone helped to brighten my days. It feels great to be home!!

Stop this horrific ride I want off NOW!!

The escapades of my first day home from the hospital followed by an easy day with Maisie proved to be much more than I was capable of handling. By Wednesday night I was running a fever again and just felt myself spiraling down. Eammon too was still so sick and getting weaker as he still couldn't keep food or liquids in him. Since returning from the hospital I too couldn't keep even water in me so we knew it was time to call in the reserves. Thankfully my parents had offered to come up from Florida to help us and so Wednesday night I called them to take them up on their offer. They arrived Thursday morning and after feeding Maisie something decent for brekkie (I had barely been able to make my way into the kitchen to hand her a bag of cookies) their first order of business was to take Eammon to the ER.

Once at the ER, Eammon was so dehydrated that drawing blood was nearly impossible and in addition his heart rate was off so he was admitted to the hospital that afternoon. By Friday morning unable to keep even sips of water in me, in major pain and after blacking out, I knew that I needed help, so that ambulance we avoided on Tuesday arrived for me early Friday afternoon. Now Eammon and I are both at the hospital down the hall from one another both trying to recover from this horrible sickness. My poor parents walked into a house that was barely being kept together after me being sick for so long. They went right to work taking care of Maisie, tackling the piles of laundry, taking on a couple of minor repairs and finding the kitchen again for which I'm very appreciative. I think too that Maisie is having a good time being with her grandparents and all the attention she is receiving from them. I'm so thankful that they are at our house taking care of Maisie and everything else so that Eammon and I can focus on getting better.

Still neither Eammon nor I can keep even fluids in us and until we can they won't release us. Hopefully though our time in the hospital will be short and that life will return to normal very soon. Hopefully my next post will have us all home healthy and with lots of cute Maisie piccies.

If you don't laugh you'll cry

I want to first thank everyone who sent along good thoughts, prayers, cards, messages, emails and flowers as they all really helped to make being so sick somewhat easier. I'm happy to report that after 9 nights in the hospital I'm finally home but oh the stories I could tell. Five totally crazy roommates and total days lost because I was so sick and out of it. I still have a tremendous amount of recovery to do with the pneumonia as it was/is so extensive and I am still quite sick. Also, a few other medical issues were discovered whilst I was in the hospital but those are things I'll have to deal with in the near future. All-in-all it's good to be home and especially to have Maisie back in my arms. Going a week without seeing her was rough and I hope to never have to do that again.

Yesterday I had Maisie scheduled to be at a drop-off care facility in the morning so that Eammon could go into work for a few hours. He dropped her off and headed to work only to be sick on the way there having to stop to throw-up a few times. Gets to work and shortly after they sent him home because he was so sick. He heads back to pick-up Maisie and when he goes into get her he sort of passes away in a cold sweat with shivers. They lay him out in the lounge for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours until he's ready to drive again and bring Maisie home. He gets home and calls me at the hospital to tell me that he thinks he has the flu with things coming out of both ends. I tried to make some arrangements but it was late already and I knew that I'd be out of the hospital this morning and so I told him to suck-it-up (nice wife that I am) and just make due because honestly there was nothing that I could have done.

This morning he calls to tell me about his horrific night and how sick he was and how Maisie really did okay, was very protective of him and that he was too sick to come out to get me. My neighbors had offered help so when it was time to leave the hospital they came to get me and brought me home along with some homemade chicken soups and cookies (Big thanks Gene & Mary!!). I came home to find not only a total disaster in the house where Maisie had ravaged the cabinets of cookies, fruity jelly and granola bars but that Eammon did have stuff spewing out of both ends and couldn't even keep water in him. I called the doctor and they told us to come over.

So there I was fresh out of the hospital, supposed to be on as much bed rest as possible for the next week or two, driving Eammon to the doc only to be pulled over in a school zone for speeding. So I pulled over for the officer and was in the middle of a chest rattling coughing fit with black and blue puncture marks up and down my arms, only to have Eammon sort of pour himself out of the car on to the grass to start throwing up again. Then there's Maisie in the back seat sound asleep in her car seat. I then totally lost it breaking down crying because...well I'm fresh out of the hospital, still quite sick, exhausted and run down and it was just all too much for me. The officer didn't want to touch my license or anything else I would hand him but they did want to call an ambulance for us which in the end we didn't get and thankfully I didn't get a ticket either. I finally got Eammon to the doc where they ran all sort of tests and even took xrays checking him for pneumonia and hopefully we'll have some results and info tomorrow.

We're now all home now and have all the meds necessary (hopefully) to get us through the next few days. We have offers of meals to come over the next week which is so appreciated and not having to worry about shopping, cooking or getting everyone fed is a great relief. Hopefully too, fluids will start staying in Eammon and he won't have to be hospitalized. Maisie is not 100% as this has been traumatic on her and though she did SO much better than I could have imagined, she has regressed some. Most noticeably Maisie's wanting to sleep in her crib again, has had a few wetting accidents and of course she's being super clingy but I know she'll bounce back once we can get our lives back on a normal schedule and I know that soon life will return to normal.

Thanks again for all the good thoughts, wishes, prayers, help, meals and everything else as it's all truly appreciated.

bloggy break

I've received a number of emails asking if I'm okay and requests for more Maisie fashionista piccies. Sorry to say though, there won't be any posts or piccies for a bit. I thought that I had been suffering with the flu for an entire week, having all the classic symptoms. On Sunday I finally went to the ER where I was admitted to the hospital with severe pneumonia in all lobes of my lungs. The doctors are estimating that I'll be here for another 4-5 days with a lung biopsy scheduled for Thursday. The village of Trixie, WaWa & Andrew along with Theresa, Brad & Ava Grace are watching over my little girl as business has Eammon away. I'm very thankful to have such good friends who just stepped right up and are keeping my girl happy and I'm happy and surprised at how well Maisie is going with the flow.

I love having my iphone because when I'm not totally drugged (really good pain meds), hacking up a lung or sleeping, I can at least check emails. Hopefully normal postings will resume soon.