Another Stint At The ACH

I hope this entry doesn't come across in an overly negative way, but we had a discouraging bunch of days a couple of weeks back that I wanted to write about. We had to re-admit Ashley to the Children's Hospital a couple of weekends ago, when it was discovered that her blood oxygen levels were dangerously low during one of her visits from the home care nurses. We had suspicions that something was not right with her for about a week, but during that time she had seen the home care nurse, our family doctor, and had a visit to the Children's Hospital to get an RSV shot, and no one seemed concerned about the way she looked or anything, so we figured everything was fine.

It wasn't until a respiratory therapist came to the house with a little device that measures her oxygen saturation levels and her heart rate, that we realized that Ashley was having troubles. The respiratory therapist knew something wasn't right just by looking at her, and after her device confirmed that her levels were low, she said we needed to get to the hospital immediately. I got a little frustrated with everything at that point. We had been asking about Ashley's oxygen levels at every appointment and visit we had since we were discharged from the ACH, as that was the biggest thing she struggled with, and no one seemed all that worried about it, or even had the means to measure it until our home care nurse finally brought the respiratory therapist along with her, after we had asked her to 3 weeks before. We don't know how long Ashley's levels were low, but they were low enough for long enough to cause some more complications with her heart function.

Ashley had been on 1/4 litre of oxygen per minute at home, and they increased her to 2 litres per minute at the hospital, and she was still having troubles maintaining her saturation levels. I brought Emma back home when Gramma was off of work, and then came back to spend the rest of the day in emergency where they did another echo cardiogram and a brutal chest X-ray on Ashley. It's a brutal X-ray because Tammy had to sit Ashley up, holding her arms above her head while the nurses slid her into a glass tube that keeps her fixed in that position while they take the pictures. Needless to say, Ashley wasn't happy with that procedure. She and Tammy ended up spending the rest of the night there, as there were no beds available in the unit we had been in previously. They had a big leather recliner for Tammy to sleep in, but they only had a big stretcher for Ashley, which wasn't going to work very well as a crib the way it was. I asked the staff if they had a crib or something for her to sleep in, and they said they really weren't "set up" for little ones there in emergency (this is the CHILDREN'S hospital, right?), so we'd have to make do. I raided the linen closet and fashioned a suitable bed for Ashley on the stretcher and tried to settle her down so she could get a bit of rest. She'd been up for about 8 hours strait at that point, screaming most of that time from all the poking and prodding, so she was pretty tuckered out.

We had forgotten to bring Ashley's medication along with us, and they didn't have the type she was taking there in emergency, so I made a quick trip home again and brought them back, along with a couple of items to help make Tammy's stay a little more comfortable. It was pretty late by then, so I went back home to sleep a bit and to be with Emma. We thought it would be best to not bring Emma back to the hospital until Ashley had been transferred to unit 2, because there's not a lot to do for a 2 year old in the emergency room. Tammy called late in the afternoon to say that they had been transferred upstairs to a room in unit 2, so Emma and I, along with Gramma and Grampa went up to spend the rest of the evening there. We also brought along a surprise visitor - Great Gramma Bourne had just come home from her mission in Salt Lake City, and hadn't met baby Ashley yet, so she really wanted to come too.

The room they were now in was a lot better than the emergency room, and even a bit better than the room we were in the first time we stayed at the ACH. This one was completely private, so you could close the door, and it was in a hallway where there are only rooms on one side, so it was pretty quiet anyways. We had found out the results of her chest X-ray and the echo by then, and they showed that Ashley had developed some fluid in her lungs and that now the function of the right side of her heart was deteriorating. Grampa assisted me in administering another priesthood blessing to both Ashley and Tammy, the doctors made some adjustments to Ashley's oxygen levels and her medications, and we all prayed and hoped that all of it would make a big difference for our baby girl.

Tammy and Ashley spent 5 days in the ACH while the doctors and nurses monitored Ashley closely to try and discern what levels of oxygen, and what medications would serve her best in her recovery. In the end, she was sent home on 1/2 a litre of oxygen per minute, and with an increase dosage of the medications she was previously on, as well as 2 new medications to enjoy. I've arranged for the respiratory therapist to visit every week now, and so far, Ashley's oxygen levels have been great and she's still putting on weight, which keeps us happy. We had an appointment with our cardiologist the day after we were discharged, and there they did another echo on Ashley to see how her heart was taking to the new medications. There was some improvements in her function and her VSD's are trying really hard to close up. That's really good news as that could mean that she won't require open heart surgery in the future.

Well I hope that didn't sound too much like a rant. Ashley is doing much better now and we've put measures in place to ensure that she doesn't go unchecked for that length of time again. We love that little girl so much. She has a lot more smiles lately, and we're enjoying being able to do more and more fun activities with her every day, rather than just the medical stuff. She loves books especially, so here's a picture of her reading one with her big sister and her Mom. What a smart girl.

Zoo Trip

Emma and I joined Alison and Heather and their kids, along with Gramma Bourne, on an outing to the Zoo back on Easter Monday. A few pictures capture the highlights of the trip.

The little baby elephant is still so little. I don't know if it was the mother elephant, but one of the bigger ones kept making some pretty loud trumpeting noises, which the kids all enjoyed.

Right across from the elephants is a new stingray exhibit where they let you put your hands in the water so the rays can come along and brush up against your arm. Jilly was the only one of the kids brave enough to put her hand in there, and I pulled mine out when one of them started sucking on my knuckles. I guess I come from the generation who still believe that stingrays are our enemies.

One of the hippos kept swimming by where everyone could get a good look at it underwater. Emma didn't notice this one quickly enough to run for cover before I could take a picture.

Some lucky folks got to feed the hippos, and while they were at it, the young giraffe snuck up from behind and started chewing on the blonde ladies hair. She freaked out a bit, and after her and her friends got out of the way, the giraffe and the hippo just stared at each other for a while. Everyone was chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!", but nothing came of it.

Easter Weekend 2008

Three things happened in rapid succession this year. The Vernal Equinox, a full moon, and a Sunday. Because of this, we had an early Easter (March 23). It won't be this early again for another 200 years, and can sometimes be as late as early May. We've been getting used to things happening in rapid succession these days, so it seemed fitting.

The Ganchars hosted the Bourne side of the family down in Turner Valley for a delicious ham dinner and an Easter egg hunt. The main attraction for Emma however, was the trampoline out back. She spent several hours out there with her cousins, and would still be there if we hadn't tranquilized her and brought her home.

The Williamson's had Max's first birthday party the next day out in Cochrane, and to Emma's extreme joy, they had a new trampoline set up outside for the party. Again she spent most of the day out there (bouncing around until she wet her pants a bit), and had to be dragged back into the house for cake and presents.

On Sunday, we ate a turkey dinner with the Olsen side of the family over at the Dykes's house. A couple of Tammy's siblings hadn't met Ashley yet, so it was a good opportunity for her to get to know some more aunts and uncles. There was no trampoline there, but Gramma and Grampa Olsen have one in their backyard, so we'll have to make a trip out there sometime soon to complete the circuit.

Our time at each event was restricted by the amount of oxygen in Ashley's portable tank, so we couldn't stay too long at any location, but we had some good food, folks, and fun while it lasted, and Emma got in enough trampolining to last her until her trampoline themed birthday party that she now wants to have this summer.

In The Meantime...

A couple of days after Ashley was transferred back to Calgary, I turned 30. I had too much on my mind to even give it much thought, and we spent the day at the hospital visiting with Mom and Ashley, like any other day, and that was just fine by me. I think 31 is the new 30 anyways.

We also moved during this whole ordeal. We had the moving truck and everything lined up for Wednesday, but once we found out that Ashley was going to be having surgery in Edmonton on Tuesday, we had to drop everything and just get up there. Our families and our ward took over and did an amazing job getting the house all packed up and cleaned for us. We feel so indebted to so many people for helping us during that time, and I pray the Lord will bless them all for their kindness.

Most of our belongings are in storage now, and we're still staying with my parents as our deal in Lethbridge fell through, and we haven't had a much time to look for another place just yet. Now that my parents are back from Hawaii, I'm helping my Dad finish their basement so Great Gramma Bourne can move in too, as she is home from serving her mission in Salt Lake. There will be 4 generations of Bournes living in this house for a little while, but we're all pretty easy going people, so I think it will work out fine.

Once we took Ashley in to the hospital that first Sunday morning, we never spent another night in our old house. I went back a couple of times during the move process, but Tammy never saw the inside of it again. That's been hard on her, since she was expecting to have a little more closure when we moved, and never really had a chance to say goodbye. Her and Emma have a lot of memories together in that house, and we'll always remember it as the house we brought both our daughters home to after they were born.

Trying to organize a move during Ashley's ordeal made for some stressful moments, but the timing of everything actually ended up working out in our favor. If we hadn't planned on moving to Lethbridge and selling our house at the the time we did, I probably wouldn't have been able to take parental leave, as we wouldn't have been able to afford our monthly bills on a reduced income. It's also fortunate that the place we had lined up in Lethbridge fell through, as moving all the way down there, with Ashley up in Edmonton, would have been a nightmare. Basically everything lined itself up in a way that we managed to be almost entirely free of payments and obligations during this time in our lives, allowing us, with the help of our families, to be able to focus solely on being with Ashley.

Moving out of town is still on the horizon for us, even if exactly where we'll end up is still a mystery. For now we'll stay as close to the Children's Hospital as we can, as our business there isn't finished yet.

March Madness: Part 4

When we first got to Edmonton, the doctors told us that Ashley would need to be there for 10 days to 2 weeks to recover from her surgery. Well, after I spent most of Friday wrapping up the business of selling our home, I got a call from Tammy saying that the doctors were thinking of sending Ashley back to Calgary the next day, only 4 days after her surgery. A bed had become available at the Children's Hospital, and a transport team was scheduled to arrive in Edmonton with another patient from Calgary, so they decided that Ashley was stable enough for that same transport team to take her back with them. We were excited that our whole family would at least be in the same city again, but at the same time, we were a bit concerned that they were moving her along too quickly, and that she might not react well to the move. It turns out she didn't react well, and had a pretty traumatic 3 hour ambulance ride.

The ambulance didn't get in to Calgary until after 10pm, and I met up with Tammy and her Mom in Airdrie sometime after that, but we headed to the hospital right away, and stayed until the wee hours of the night. There wasn't room for us to stay the night in the ICU, but Ashley had stabilized again by Monday, and a private room had become available, so they moved her to Unit 2, and this new room came equipped with a bed and a private bathroom. Once she was there, Tammy set up camp and stayed there 24 hours a day until Ashley was discharged. Emma and I would make daily trips to go and visit, play in the awesome playroom they had down the hall, ride on the seesaw at the "strange park", and bring clean clothes and food for Tammy. It was such a nice set up that we even manged to have a family pizza night one time while we watched 101 Dalmatians. Ashley kept on doing better and better, relying less and less on medications, feeding normally again and gaining weight, so after about a week and half at the Children's Hospital, we were sent home.

It was a scary feeling at first as we had become accustomed to having Ashley hooked up to monitors that told us exactly what her heart rate and oxygen levels were at all times. We were also going to miss having a nurse on hand whenever we had questions or concerns about anything and everything. We were back to relying on good judgment and parental instincts, and after what we had been through, that seemed scarier than it ever had before. When we told Dr. Harder (the cardiologist at the Children's Hospital who was looking after Ashley) our concerns, she arranged for another ultrasound to help put our minds at ease as to how Ashley's recovery was going. It was all good news when we went over the pictures with her, so after we met with some dietitians and the oxygen people, and dealt with a prescription fiasco that encompassed the rest of the evening, we were all back home living under the same roof again.

Ashley will be considered a cardiac patient for the rest of her life, even if she never has another heart issue as long as she lives. That means regular checkups and probably a bit of priority status in hospital waiting rooms, but it will probably also mean that we'll always wonder if every little sniffle she gets could be something more serious than what it actually is. She's on oxygen here at home, as well as some medication to help her get rid of fluids she built up during surgery and to help keep her blood pressure down, but that is all very temporary, and she should be running on her own steam soon enough.

Our schedule is pretty full of doctors visits for the next while, but we're slowly getting back to a normal, sleepless, newborn baby lifestyle as the days go by. Ashley will have to have another surgery down the road, and the seriousness of that surgery will depend on how well her heart is able to strengthen itself over the next few months. We continue to pray for her, and hope that she will be able to live a life unencumbered by the tough start she has had. She's so young that she'll never remember any of the events that transpired over the past month, and thank goodness for that, but Tammy and I will never forget, and will never be able to thank the Lord, and everyone who had a hand in her recovery, enough for what they have done for us.

March Madness: Part 3

Our original plan was to drive up to Edmonton that same night (it was already about 8pm), but after having next to no sleep for a few days, we were talked in to getting some rest at my parents house and then leaving early the next morning. It was good to spend a little more time with Emma as well, mostly for our sakes I think as she was enjoying her extended sleepover at Gramma's house. One of the doctors that flew up to Edmonton with Ashley called us late in the night to say that the flight and the transport had gone well, and that Ashley was all settled in at the ICU there, so we were able to rest a bit easier after hearing that.

Ashley's surgery was originally scheduled for sometime Tuesday evening, but as we were getting ready to leave, we got a call from the hospital in Edmonton saying that they had an opening, and Ashley was stable enough, so they were going to go ahead with the surgery right away. We instantly regretted not leaving the night before and got up there as fast as we could. Her surgery was done by the time we got there, but everything had gone well, and she was resting peacefully in her bed when we arrived.

Tammy had been sick for a few days at this point, and though she seemed to be coming out of the woods with it, she still had a pretty persistent cough. My body decided to shut down on the drive up to Edmonton, and I had a really nice case of the flu by that afternoon. After spending the rest of the day in masks by Ashley's bed, we made a trip to the emergency room, and there it was confirmed that we were both very sick people, and that we should probably stay away from the ICU until we got better. That was a hard pill to swallow, but unlike the Children's Hospital, there are no private rooms in the ICU in Edmonton, just rows of babies on beds with a chair next to each one for a parent. We didn't want to risk getting Ashley sick in her frail condition, let alone any of the other babies, or the hospital staff for that matter, so we stayed away, and worried ourselves even more sick the entire time.

The Ronald McDonald House is the traditional place for parents to stay when their baby is in the hospital, but it was full, so the next option is a motel close by. It turns out that we know too many good people to have to stay in a motel. May Way, who is the wife of Kevin Way (one of my young men's leaders who passed away back in January), called Kevin's sister Karen, who lives minutes away from the hospital, and despite warnings of our sickly condition, she insisted that her family be allowed to put us up in their basement for as long as we would need. It was an amazingly generous offer, considering we had never met them before, and it was the sort of offer we couldn't refuse. Karen even met us at the hospital with some sandwiches not long after we arrived, and the whole Davis family were incredibly supportive the entire time we stayed with them. We can't thank them enough for their hospitality, and they will always be remembered as an integral part of Ashley's recovery.

We stayed away from the hospital for a whole Wednesday, and though we called the unit every few hours to find out how Ashley was doing, it was just too hard to not be there. We got a couple of phone calls ourselves from both sets of grandparents that day. My parents called to say that Emma had come down with a double ear infection, and Tammy's parents called to say that they were coming up to Edmonton the next day to be with us. We decided that since I was still pretty sick, I should go back to Calgary with Grandpa Olsen to be with Emma and finalize the sale of our home, and Tammy, who was starting to feel much better, would stay in Edmonton with her Mom at her Auntie Anne's, who lives across town.

Early Thursday morning, we met with a lawyer I had called the night before who was kind enough to act as a witness for us as we signed the papers for the sale of our home, and then we headed for the hospital. Tammy's parent's arrived there around noon, just before the nurses took Ashley off her respirator. It was so good to see her without that huge tube taped to her face, and it was just another great step for her to make. The staff at the Stollery were weening her off most of her medications and IV's at that point, and she was handling it all quite well to their surprise. After a short visit with Gramma and Grampa Olsen, and of course some photos, Jim and I left for Calgary. It was another tough departure, but I'm glad I didn't have to make the trip alone.

March Madness: Part 2

It was hard to stand there in the trauma room and watch everything that the doctors were doing to try and save Ashley's life. We were both sobbing and saying silent prayers that everything was going to be alright for our baby girl. The staff did an amazing job, and Ashley, now heavily sedated, was breathing again with the help of a respirator.

They moved Tammy and I into a more comfortable room adjacent to the trauma room, from which we could still see Ashley, and from there we called the grandparents to let them know what was going on. The doctors had told us that they were pretty sure Ashley was having heart problems, so they were going to do an echo cardiogram to try and find out exactly what the problem was. They moved her to the ICU, and we waited in a waiting room until they were finished doing the ultrasound. While we waited, my parents and my brother Trevor came to the hospital to help me administer, and to administer to me, some much needed priesthood blessings.

After some time, a cardiologist came in to the waiting room and told us that there were several issues with Ashley's heart, and he was pretty sure it was a case of myocarditis. He went on to say that they needed to take another look in the morning, but that the best case scenario would be treatment through medication, and that the worst case scenario would be a heart transplant. The worst case scenario for a heart transplant would be that a heart wouldn't become available, and Ashley wouldn't make it. We were all pretty stunned by what he was telling us, since it had barely been 12 hours since we brought her in thinking she might have the flu.

He left us after answering all of our questions, and then we were allowed to go in and see Ashley again. She was unconscious, and connected to a lot of tubes, but she was resting finally, and her vital signs, which were largely being controlled at this point, all seemed really good. There was room for one of us to stay the night, so after a long time standing beside Ashley's bed, I left with my family, and Tammy stayed there with her through the night. It was hard to leave, but she was pretty stabilized at that point, and one of us needed to get back to Emma, who was at my parents house with her Auntie Sam.

The next morning, I got a call from Tammy saying that another cardiologist had come in, and that she had done another echo cardiogram on Ashley, and that they had discovered a coarctation along her aorta, which was the apparent cause of all the problems she was having with her heart. It was operable, but she was going to have to be flown up to Edmonton to have the surgery done there. I dropped what I was doing (packing as we were moving the next day - more on that later), and got to the hospital just in time to meet with Dr. Harder, the cardiologist, as she explained the issues Ashley was having with her heart as well as the procedure they were going to perform in Edmonton to help correct them.

I could tell as she explained everything, that she was being very careful not to try and frighten us, but truth be told, finding out that the problem could be fixed, and that it was a fairly routine procedure, was the best news we had heard since we came to hospital, so we became very happy and hopeful people. Tammy's Mom and her sister's Kelly and Kimberly came by the hospital to see Ashley before she was to leave, and my brother Trevor, along with my brother in-law Tyler came to help me give her another blessing as well. We stayed there with Ashley as they moved her from her bed to the stretcher, and walked with the ambulance drivers and the transport team down to the ambulance that would take her to the airport. Watching that ambulance drive away was heart breaking, but we knew she was in good hands, and under the Lord's watchful eye, so we took comfort in that and got out of there as fast as we could.

March Madness: Part 1

I should get to writing everything that has happened in our family over the past month, before it becomes even more of a blur. I've told the story dozens of times already, so most of the fat is trimmed off the spoken version, but I'll elaborate here for posterity's sake, probably over several posts.

The most important news to report on, would be that Ashley is home from the hospital and doing really well. She's on a little bit of oxygen and a couple of other medications, and she will be for the next while, but she's gaining weight and doing all the other things babies do, and we couldn't be happier about that. She had us pretty scared for a while there, and now that she'll be considered a cardiac patient for the rest of her life, I don't suppose that those feelings will ever fully go away.

As the story goes, we brought Ashley back to the Children's Hospital, on Sunday the 24th of February, because she had thrown up that morning, and that had caused her to go somewhat pale and limp afterwards. She didn't seem too troubled by it at all, and we had already had some experience with bringing her in for issues that turned out to be nothing, but we had a really strong feeling that we should be bringing her in, so we did.

Tammy and Emma were both sick with flu symptoms at the time, so initially, we all thought that Ashley must have caught the bug too. That was ruled out, and her vital signs seemed on par, but she was breathing really fast - over 100 breaths a minute, and she kept that up for more than a few hours, so there was still something going on. The tests they performed on her at the hospital got more invasive as the day went on, and it only seemed to aggravate and worsen her condition, so we started wondering if we had done the right thing by bringing her in. They asked us if they could do a lumbar puncture on her to test for meningitis, and after all the risks inherent in that procedure were explained to us, we became very worried people. Our concerns were that this was starting to sound more and more serious as the day went on, but at the same time we wondered if the trauma of all the tests they were doing to her could be causing her vitals to decline, and that we might be subjecting her to all of this for nothing again. It was hard to know what to do, but we trusted the professionals, and they went ahead with the lumbar puncture.

Everything went really well with the procedure, and Ashley was laying on her tummy and resting when they let us back into the room. It was going to take 48 hours for the lab to get any readings on the fluid they took from her spine, so we got settled in and began the waiting game. After a little while, Ashley began crying again, so I went to her bed and picked her up to try and settle her down a bit. She started dry heaving as she had been on an I.V. all day and had nothing in her tummy to bring up. During this, she also started going blue, and just as I was about to yell for the nurses, they all came running in, along with several other doctor's and respiratory therapists. They couldn't get her colour back with what they had in that room, and then she stopped breathing altogether, turning from blue to gray, so she was rushed to the trauma room, and that's when things started getting really serious.

Visitor 5000

I added a free counter to the blog that tells us how many visitors we are getting. I started the counter at 4500 because according to Google Analytics, that's about how many visitors we've had since we started the site. One of the downsides of the counter is that it doesn't filter out visits made by us, so the numbers do get a bit fudged.

As you can see, the number is fast approaching 5000, and that's a bit of a milestone, so I'd like to celebrate the person who becomes "Visitor 5000". If anyone visits the site and notices that the counter reads 5000, please let me know, and you will be publicly heralded, with your name and fame becoming a part of "Them Bournes" history, for ages to come.

Great Big Sister

Not only does Emma look bigger now that we have a tiny baby in the home, she's sure acting bigger too. She loves being a big sister, and she's doing such a great job at it. She loves to help out wherever she can, especially during diaper changes and bath time.

One of the sweetest things she does is sing Ashley a little song to help calm her down when she's crying. Sometimes it really does the trick. We love to hear her include "A-shuh-ley" in her bedtime prayers, and we're just so proud of how well she's handling all the changes going on in our family right now. Ashley gives her the same blank stare that she gives everyone else for now, but I'm sure she'll be laughing and following her big sister around everywhere she goes soon enough.