December 1 Update

Thank you for the many emails and prayers sent our way for Taylor.

For those of you who didn't know, she was just briefly hospitalized (about 24 hours) for a nasty respiratory infection. Started as nasal congestion and then quickly overwhelmed her chest. After 2 days of working hard at home with her nebulizers, etc. to try to clear it, we saw her pediatrician and he had her admitted. Once at Fairfax Hospital the team quickly conferred and checked her heart and Glenn function. All looked great. Once they started her on some new meds, she bounced right back to herself and her breathing cleared within 12 hours. Wow! Only a one night stay and well worth it!!!

She came home last night and is doing much, much better. The respiratory infection was not RSV or flu, but bronchiolitis (inflammation of the small airways) and she just couldn’t clear the mucus. The oral steroids and new nebulizers really have done the trick!

However, we never seem to escape the hospital without some unusual complication and this time it was an IV infiltration. Essentially the needle slipped out of her vein when she was sleeping (babies roll around you know!) and all the fluid pumped into her left arm and puffed it up like a balloon.

Once she felt better and was home last evening crawling around, the fluid pooled and formed blisters in her hand and wrist that burst and essentially caused a burn like effect to her skin. Definitely nominate me for the “mother of the year” award. We saw her pediatrician this morning and just have to put an anti-bacterial cream on the wound and keep it covered. No small feat as Taylor figured out how to unwrap the dressing on the car ride home! Anyway, we have to go back Friday afternoon to have the wound checked and watch for infection.

All in all this is just a bump in the road. She is so tough, barely cries when dealing with this kind of crud, and is generally super happy. Every doctor and nurse who saw her (of course they all know her at Fairfax) commented on how strong she looked and her overall development and growth. She now weighs 21 pounds. Emileigh was 23 at her one year check up which for Taylor is just one week away. So much for cardiac babies being small!!!

We look forward to celebrating Taylor's first birthday on December 11. Wishing you all healthy holidays.

Love,
The Goodloes