Monday, January 21, 2008

Another Homecoming for Emily

For the most part, Emily has been adjusting quite nicely to life at home, and has been eating and sleeping well. However, as some of you already know, we had an unexpected trip back to the hospital this past Thursday. During a long night of fussiness, we noticed that Emily's left arm was strangely limp, especially compared to her right. Concerned about this and her unusually high crankiness, we took her in to the pediatrician early Thursday morning. Two pediatricians quickly became concerned about her arm, since this was a new condition, and were worried about possible central nervous system problems or bleeding in the brain. We burned rubber to the hospital downtown and quickly got a CT of her head. After some very anxious waiting and praying, we learned that it was negative (praise the Lord!). The rest of the day and part of the next was spent ruling out arm or clavicle fractures and any central nervous system problems. Fortunately, Emily's arm function began to improve dramatically around midday (almost like she had been playing possum), and the pediatric neurologist eventually decided that based on Emily's arm function and the normal MRI results, she probably just had an unusual presentation of Erb's palsy, and would likely return to normal over the next few weeks. Exhausted but greatly relieved and in good spirits, we left the hospital for Emily's second homecoming, exactly two weeks after her first. Since then, she has been busy eating, sleeping, staring at various objects (new!), and of course being cute.





3 comments:

  1. Praise God -- again and again! Don and I rushed to GR, spent many anxious hours in the hospital, including escorting Emily to her first MRI (which she nicely dozed through with earplugs on). Grandmother Evonne spent Thursday night in Emily's hospital room so that Eric and Sarah could go home for some sleep. Great rejoicing at Emily's second homecoming later on Friday, Jan. 18.

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  2. She is so cute. I love her. :)

    S, are you using a different email account these days? Call me if you'd like to get together. We could mall-walk or Y-walk (we got a membership; anyone can come as a guest up to 2 times per year. Also, you can take strollers on the track during the day.) Or whatever.

    -Megan

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  3. Maybe the limp arm was caused because you two made her hold her bottle! :P Just kidding

    I don't like babies but Emily is certainly one of the cutest I've ever seen. You can tell from the pictures that she already has lots of character and personality! Congrats to the both of you on this wonderful addition to your family!

    Love Cousin Karen

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