Friday, November 11, 2011

overwhelmed with gratitude

the past few days have been quite a whirl wind here in the reynolds house.

it all began on wednesday morning-  makenzie woke up her usual happy and excited self.  jake got her out of her crib and put her down.  she tried to stand up and walk, but stumbled and fell down.  we immediately thought maybe her leg was asleep.  why else would she be stumbling and unable to walk normal?  she was literally bumping into the walls.  a few hours go by and it's not getting better so i took her to the dr.  everything seemed normal except for her balance and stability was completely off.  it was so strange and unsettling.  she would try and walk, but would just stumble and sway and bump into things.   dr said watch her for 24 hrs and call us tomorrow.  

fast forward: thursday.
woke up thursday with the same issues.  dr said take her to emergency room.  3 hours of answering questions, having her walk for the dr, vitals checked, etc.  
finally, dr comes in, says, "we want to do an MRI and need to admit her right now and have her  stay over night here because she will be put under for the MRI".
what i heard, "your baby will have to sleep in this strange place and will be poked and stuck and scared and will cry and we can't tell you what's wrong with her."
cue tears. 

now let me add this little tidbit:  my girlfriend, carly, was currently arriving at the dc airport waiting for our fun girls weekend to begin.  

enter strong, unwavering husband/daddy of the year.  

plan was put into place and we went through the motions.  jake slept sat in makenzie's hospital room on a tiny little chair and i went home with carly.  friday, 6:45am, kenz is woken up to begin the anesthesia.    
i held her in my arms while they put it into her iv.  she immediately went limp and we laid her down and had to leave the room.  cue more tears.

fast forward 3 hours later.  we are given the best possible news- the MRI is normal.  she has Acute cerebellar ataxia.  too much to type, you can look it up.  but basically, it should work itself out within a week to a couple months.  and unless it gets worse or she has more symptoms appear, just keep her from hurting herself with all the clumsy, wobbly walking.  

the gratitude we felt in that moment cannot be put into words.  i have never prayed so frequently and so hard. 
we are so blessed and i'm so thankful.

                                      
toddler hospital gowns are the cutest/saddest things ever!
night before the MRI- still smiling.  the cage she is in is the hospital crib :(  saddest thing ever!
post MRI and anesthesia wearing off- relaxing with "melmo" in her cage crib

        
after returning home from the hospital and a 4 hour nap, she is loving life!! 

5 comments:

dede said...

I just made a big comment and there was an error and it got lost. Crap!
But, we are so glad to hear that little Mack is ok.
I know this must have been so hard for you guys. It is always so hard to have to watch your kids go through things like this. But it sounds like you guys handled it like rock starts!

ash said...

Ahhh! So glad "Kenzie Darling" is okay! We were so scared, sick, worried, sad, etc, etc. Dal was sure to include her in his prayers :) Love you guys and that little chicky!!!

Brady and Lindsay Wood said...

Em that is so sad/scary. I am super glad to hear that it is nothing permanent and that she is seeming more herself. I hope you and Jake are doing OK also. I can not even imagine what ya'll must have been going through.

Chrissi said...

I'm so happy that Mackenzie is going to be ok. Such a scary thing to go through, though. Thinking of you guys.

sfrancis said...

So thankful and relieved! I hate being so far away (always... but especially times like these). She is so adorable! I LOVE the picture of her at the bottom.