I Have Four Ulcers...

...in my right eye!  Last Wednesday my eye was red and irritated.  Thursday it was worse.  Friday I decided to change my contacts and put a brand new pair in.  I was hoping that my eyes would feel better but they didn't.  I should've changed them on New Year's but I didn't.  I would've cleaned them more frequently if I knew what was coming.  I could've done without the drama over the last couple days.  Should've, would've, could've, right?  

Anyway, I called my ophthamologist and they said that they could see me...in 45 mins.  Sigh.  I had to cut my visit short with Sophia and off I went.  I'm in the chair at the dr.'s office and she asked me to read the BIG letters on the first line.  I couldn't.  She examined my eye and told me that my vision was diminishing in my right eye AND that I had four ulcers AND I had to wear glasses for a week.  I literally laughed out loud!  I don't trust myself in the house with glasses let alone behind the wheel!  My depth perception is WAY off in my glasses.  Jeremiah graciously drove me around all weekend while I wore my glasses.

The ulcers were uncomfortable but the eye drops were unbearable.  I had/have to use some eye drops, that sting really bad mind you, for about a week.  I went for a follow up appt yesterday and I'm down to one ulcer AND I could read the big letters on the first line.  My vision has been restored!  By the end of the week I should be back to normal.  

The truth is that I am too tired and exhausted to deal with my contacts.  So I just leave them in and change the pair once a month.  At least I change them out.  I'll try to be more diligent in cleaning my contacts in a more timely manner.  

Code Blue

This is how my new year started.  On Wednesday when I arrived at the hospital, the charge nurse was standing at Sophia's bedside.  Then we had the following conversation:

Me:  Hey, how's it going?  How's our girl today.

Nurse:  She's being a stinker.

Me:  Why?

Nurse:  She's been up all morning.  She's been feisty.  She had a cat nap for ten minutes this morning and that's it.  She won't take a nap!

Me:  Well, if it's cool with you, we'll do tummy time.  That will put her sleep!

The nurse leaves and I started getting Sophia Lynette ready for tummy time.  I disconnected and reconnected everything just like I do everyday.  Seriously, I have done this hundreds of times by myself.  My next move was to lift her out of the crib.  The next thing I knew, the alarms on her monitors started going off.  She started desatting so I suctioned her trach twice.  That didn't work.  I suctioned her mouth and that didn't work.  She's now turning a blue grayish color.  I increased her oxygen and that didn't work.  Now she's blue, her lips are purple, she's crying her head off, and she's not coming back up.  She should have pinked up by now and she is getting worse...fast.

I ran into the hall to get help.  Then, I ran back to the room to check on baby.  She looked even worse then when I left her.  A respiratory therapist followed me in and started bagging her.  Another RT came in to assist.  They kept bagging her and made sure that her trach was in.  Suddenly, baby stopped breathing and stopped moving.  She was so limp and looked completely helpless.  Someone yelled out "she's coding...call a code!"  That code was a code blue.

Several people were working on her including myself.  One of the rt's performed a sternum rub.  No response.  No response.  No response.  Nothing was working.   The code team arrived and the crash cart was just about to enter the room when Sophia started to pink up.  There was a huge sigh of relief.  

When things started to settle, I recognized 95% of the people in her room.  There were two other doctors that I've never met before.  They told me that they work on the bigger kids in the other tower.  Everyone else was from NICU, PICU, TCU, administration, etc.  Seriously, I should not know this many people on a medical staff.  But I do.  They hated to see that it was Sophia but was relieved that she was okay.

Then I had a random thought.  "Check her diaper."  She was poopy!  WTH?!?!  All of this over a poopy diaper?!  A lot of times Sophia will bear down to poop and turn blue.  But she will turn pink again in a few short moments.  I think everything came to head when she had to poop.  Considering the day that she had had, maybe pooping pushed her over the edge.  Thankfully, her heart never stopped.  She simply stopped breathing.  She took a two hour nap and woke up like nothing happened!

Today I held her for the first time since Tuesday.  My chest finally stopped hurting this morning.  I'm sure it was the stress of the whole ordeal.  I'm just now feeling okay enough to blog about it.  Anyway, I made the following video of her to assure my mother that Sophia Lynette was okay.  

Christmas Day

Our first order of business on Christmas day was to go see Sophia at the hospital!  Since she wasn't coming home for Christmas, we took home to her.  We only stayed for two hours because we didn't wanted to risk getting stuck in the snow.

Sophia's Christmas decorations have been really mobile.  Remember when I decorated her room the first time?  Well, while she was in the PICU, a TCU nurse called and said that they needed our room.  Even though they helped me pack everything up, we had to haul it downstairs to the PICU.  I couldn't stand for the decorations to be sitting in a corner so I decorated her room.  At the time, it looked liked we would be in the PICU for Christmas so I didn't mind setting everything up.

Then on December 21st, baby was feeling well enough to go back to the TCU.  Once again, I had to pack everything up and decorate her new room.  I've had to decorate her rooms on three different occasions.  I didn't mind because it was a nice distraction when she got sick.

A few weeks ago I arrived at the hospital and there was this cute little craft.  The art lady made a reindeer out of Sophia's footprint.  I LOVE IT!

I hate snow on EVERY level.  But we drove through it to get to the hospital.

Merry Christmas and happy new year from the Pricketts!

I love picture!!!

After I got all of my pictures, it was time to open presents.

Sophia Lynette now has four teeth and weighs 19 pounds.  Her blood pressure is up and down and still being managed by drugs.  She laughs all of the time and loves sucking her fingers.  As far as her lungs are concerned, they are what they are but at least she's feeling better.