The List

My poor Sarah. She has seen more hospitals in her (almost) 21 months of life, than I have seen in my life time. She is so strong, and has shown that she can kick this aspiration thing in the rear bum backside behind. Here's a brief timeline of Sarah's hospital visits:

12/4/2008 - Sarah visits her first hospital when she was born. (OK, this one doesn't count because it's usually custom that a child is born in a hospital, so I'll let this one slide).

1/4/2009 - Jeremy and I (thanks to my friends Rachael & Molly) discover Sarah's horrendous, loud breathing/stridor (wheezy sounding), and thus begins the discovery of Sarah's Laryngomalacia. Sarah was rushed down to Boston Children's Hospital for 10 days. During these 10 days, Sarah had a Bronchoscopy and a Superglottoplasty. As a result of the Superglottoplasty, Sarah had a NG Tube (Nasal Gastric tube) inserted up her nose, and down her throat into her stomach so she can eat. (Fortunately, Sarah only had to use a NG Tube for a little over a month before her team of doctors at Children's said she could take bottle feedings as long as we put baby rice cereal to thicken the liquids. As long as her liquids were thickened, then she could take liquids orally through the mouth).

(Sarah also visits Boston Children's between 1/2009 and 1/2010 on several occasions for just regular checkups and a few Modified Barium Swallows in between. There's just so many, that I don't remember the exact dates).

1/13/2009 - The day after Sarah comes home from Children's Hospital, Sarah's NG Tube fell out and Jeremy ran her to the local hospital to have them re-insert it. Only to find out that this particular hospital doesn't have a pediatric wing, and then a huge insurance mess begins...but I digress.

1/25/2010 - Sarah has a second Bronchoscopy done at Children's Hospital to see if any improvements have been made since 1/2009. Thankfully, Sarah's specialist saw just a teeny tiny bit of improvement...which is all we needed to hear. We knew at that point that all we needed was just to take one day at a time...and have faith that Sarah would be better and pray for a lot of patience. Thank God for those small miracles...hope is a wonderful, valued thing.

4/2010 - Sarah visits the ER due to a reaction while we were at Texas Road House. She had issues breathing, and we assumed it was the peanuts. Although, when we had her tested for allergies, the peanut spectrum test came up negative....hmmm, odd. Either way, we're playing it safe and not bringing her back to Texas Roadhouse until she is old enough to date. (Don't tell Jeremy I said that though).

8/27/2010 - Sarah visits the ER due to a small laceration cut on her left eye lid. Poor girl was just playing with Samantha in the living room and fell over and hit the toy desk we have in there. She showed no signs of concussion thankfully. She only bled for a little bit, but Jeremy and I realized (and with the help and consultation of our good friend Molly) that the cut was too deep to heal with just a little bit of Neosporin and a band aid. So, Sarah and I traveled to the ER at Lawrence General Hospital around 9:30pm, were seen by the nurse at 10:00pm and the doctor at 10:30pm and were home by 11:30pm. Sarah kept entertained with her fruit snacks, lots of books, and rubber glove balloon animals (hopefully Lawrence General Hospital doesn't send us a bill for that part of the visit). The doctor came in and treated Miss Sarah with Dermabond (a.k.a liquid stitches) and could see an immediate improvement. Sarah was more annoyed with the fact that she had to stay still so the doctor could apply the Dermabond. The doctor and I sang several verses of "The Wheels On the Bus" while I was helping hold Sarah down so the doctor could do what he needed to do. It took about 60 seconds to complete, but it felt like the longest 60 seconds of all time. As soon as the doctor was all done, even in her tears, Sarah immediately said, "Bye!" as if she was throwing the doctor out of the room. It was pretty amusing. She was very excited when the doctor pulled out an Elmo sticker...from tears to smiles all in a spand of 5 seconds.

Sarah did very well today and has recovered 100%. She slept all night last night, woke up very happy. Had a great breakfast, and a great afternoon nap. So, Jere and I aren't worried...we're just happy that our little Madore-able is back to her old fun-loving, smiling self. Let's just hope we don't have anything to add to this "list" for a long time.

Here's a before and after photo of Miss Sarah.

The photo on the left was taken around 8pm on Friday night, and the photo on the right was taken at 10am on Saturday morning.