Not so fun way to spend a Friday night...

I was looking forward to spending a quiet Friday evening with Riley as so she decided not to take a nap for my mom. Instead I spent the evening riding in an ambulance and in the ER.

Riley has become a climbing, crawling machine. Which is awesome but comes with it own challenges. She is not very coordinated so she falls down a lot and when she pulls herself up on to things she will just let go and go falling backwards.

On Friday the 22nd she was crawling around on the floor while we were watching Sprout and she decided that she wanted to get closer to the TV. We have a TV cabinet that has door was glass windows on the front.

She has been climbing up it for weeks she will be in her knees in front of it and put her hands up on the glass. I have been nervous that she is going to put her hands through the glass, lucky that has not happened. However that night she was wearing velour type pants and as she climbed up her knees slipped out from underneath of her and down she went. She has done this before but unfortunately this time her head caught the corner. I ran over and picked her up she started crying.  I went and got or booboo bunny out the freezer and a binky.  We went and sat on the couch.  She was not a big fan of the ice pack, but I able to get in on for a short period of time.  She did end up calming down, unfortantely it was right around bedtime but after a fall like that I did not want to just put her down.  So we relaxed on the couch for about 15 minutes playing on the iPad and watching Sprout.  After that she seemed to be fine and started to crawl around on the couch not wanting her to fall off the couch and hit her head again I put her on the ground to play.  She started coughing, but it was not a normal cough so I was keeping a close watch in her to make sure her coloring stayed ok. 

She pulled her self up to stand make to the couch and had another cough episode expect this one ended with her vomiting a little onto the couch. I jumped up and sat her down as she threw up again.  As I got her shirt off her she threw up a third time. I had called my mom to let her know that I was going to take her to the ER.  My mom told me to just call 911.  After getting the ambulance on the way I took her upstairs and put her in the empty tub in case she got sick again.  I tried to get in touch with Kyle but of course he was in the middle of a call and didn't answer.

She sounded a bit like she was having breathing issues so I grabbed her oxygen tank but she would not let me out the nasal cannula on her. The paramedics had arrived.  Of course by now Riley is acting more like her normally self, but I still wanted to have her check out since she was vomiting and she hit her head on the same side as her shunt.

I am been calm up until the paramedics got there and I had to explain what happened.  That is when I felt like i was having a panic attack.  The wonderful paramedic kept me calm and helped me gather everything that I needed to get out the door.  They even locked my front door for me.  As we are loading into the ambulance Kyle called me back.  I told him what was going on and that he should come home.

We check into the ER and were seen relative quickly.  My parent came down and Kyle rushed home from work.  Riley was acting pretty normal at this point and had not vomited again.  The doctors order a CT scan.  These are always fun with her.  She has to sit still to get a good picture and she hates laying on that table.  So she ends up wrapped up like a burrito with my hold her head still.  It is a workout in and of it self.  The tech tells me that it should be read 20 minutes and they they read them remotely.  Which is nice for the radiologist.

It is then the waiting game for the CT to read, that was the longest 20 minutes I have ever been through.  Mostly because it was actually like 45 minutes before they told us that the scan was clean.

They discharge us home, but tells us that we need to wake her up every 2 HOURS.  Grrr!  It was a long night.

Update on Riley

I have not done a Riley post in awhile.  

Riley has made some big progress recently she is pulling up on anything and everything that she can get her hands on.  She has also started doing a really hands and knees crawl.  She has been army crawling and rolling for a long time now, but just within the last week or so she has started really crawling.  It is awesome.

She also got her wheelchair because ...SHE STARTED SCHOOL YESTERDAY!!  You heard right my baby is in school.  Riley turned 3 in December and that meant that she aged out of the Infant and Toddlers Program.  In order for her to still receive services she needed to start going to school.

We had our 1st IEP (Individual Education Program) meeting at the end of November and it went very smoothly.  Through Infant and Toddlers Riley was getting PT once a week, OT twice a month, speech twice a month, and the developmental specialist twice a month.  With her IEP she is still getting PT once a week, but she is also getting OT once a week now.  She is still getting speech twice a month.  Plus she is in school 5 days a week for 2.5 hours a day so they are working on PT, OT, speech, and developmental stuff through out her time in the classroom.  But someone is coming to work specifically with her according to the schedule above.

My husband and I dropped her off yesterday and as soon as another child walked in the room it was like we did not exist.  I think she is going to be fine.  Mommy's on the other hand we a bit sad to see her go. I was proud of myself though because I did not cry like I thought I would.  It was a bit to hectic getting out the door and into class for me to get upset.  I think school is going to be a great thing for her.  I can't want to see how much progress she makes between now and summertime. 

We have switched to a new orthopedic doctor because we were unhappy with the one we were seeing before   He put Ri in a cast on her right foot to try to straighten it out more and it worked well.  So she in now in new AFOs that are higher then the ones she had before.  They now come up to just below her knees.  We are going next Friday to meet with the doctor again to discuss the surgery that he wants to do on her knees.  Riley is missing about 20 degrees of flex in both of her knees.  Think about trying to walk with your knees bent at at 20 degree angle, and how tired you would be.  That is what she is dealing with now.  I don't have more information at this point but will after next Friday.  I will post after that meeting.

Here is a picture from Riley's 1st day of school.

New Milestone

I know that I have not posted in awhile.  Life has been a bit crazy.  I hope to have a longer blog written soon so I can post it.  But I had to share.....

 

 

Riley stood holding on the couch tonight for several minutes by herself.  She had done it for a few second last week, but did it for ALMOST 6 MINUTES TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!