Good news

Thank you everyone for your prayers and kind words of encouragement. Matthew is okay, Meghan is okay, Joseph is okay, the bala shark is okay. Details below....

Matthew is feeling much, much better. He came into my room this morning already dressed and asking for breakfast. Thanks be to God for antibiotics!! He finishes the steroids tomorrow and also changes to only 3 times a day for albuterol. (Hooray! no more 4 a.m. "breathing medicine.")

Meghan had a rough night last night. She was extremely congested and hadn't nursed well all day because of it. This meant she was a bit dehydrated. When I put her down to sleep at 10, she slept, but her breathing was very ragged. I dozed off beside her and awoke at 11:30 or so to a gagging, choking sound. She was really struggling. I picked her up thinking getting her vertical would help. It did; she started crying, which helped her clear her airway. Phew! But she kept trying to breathe through her nose and couldn't, would panic, cry again, and be able to breathe. Because when she cries, she breathes through her mouth. She couldn't breathe through her nose at all.

So there I was, alone at midnight, trying to decide just how sick she was. She kept gasping for breath. Finally, I decided that if I didn't make sure her lungs were okay, neither she nor I would be able to sleep all night because she would keep gagging, I would keep panicking every time she gagged, waking her up and starting the crying again. So I woke Patrick and we took her to the doctor. Again.

After we were there awhile, her nasal passages finally cleared and could breathe normally and fell asleep. They were very concerned about how dehydrated she was, but thankfully, did not insist on an IV when I said I would wake her every two hours to nurse if they would let us do that instead. They sent us home with saline to try to clear her sinuses and strict instructions to bring her back if she wasn't better today. I propped myself up in bed with her and we slept and nursed all night. And she was better today. Phew!! She's asleep right now in her car seat. It keeps her head elevated ;-)

Joseph was looking much better today: less pale and the deep circles under his eyes are fading. Until Matthew, feeling unreasonably energetic, sat on him. Hard. And knocked the wind out of him. Poor Joseph, with pale face and sore side, went back to bed for an hour after that. But he got up for lunch and was in better spirits this afternoon.

Until the bala shark jumped out of the fish tank and Joseph was the only one in the room.

Patrick and I were about to leave for the base to see if he had cross country practice, but Patrick had come back into the house for something. Joseph was crying and called for Patrick, who came and found Katie peeking around the corner, but not helping and the shark on the floor under the computer chair. He grabbed the net and returned the shark to the tank. Then he put a couple of cookie sheets over the top of the tank. We're still awaiting the arrival of the new cover and light.

Now we need to do some research about bala sharks and see what's making him want to jump out. He and the catfish have been fighting over the floor of the tank a bit lately so maybe it's a territorial issue, or maybe he's sick? Joseph didn't see what happened, just heard a couple of bumps and a splash then saw the shark land on the floor.

Incidentally, my case of pinkeye is improving.