Wow......the past few days have definitely been some of the toughest we have experienced as parents thus far. Little Rylie has been very sick, with her temperature rising to 103.7 on Friday night. We had just gotten home from a great trip to Gadsden, visiting with family for Thanksgiving. We couldn't get her temp to come down, so we decided to go to the pediatric ER at Huntsville Hospital. Everything went smoothly at first, they got us into a room without delay & soon the Dr. came & checked her ears & throat & decided to order tests to check for pneumonia, etc. This entailed several chest xrays & a catheter to check her urine. Both were terrible for Rylie, because we had to basically pin her down, while she screamed, to endure these tests. She was so weak she wouldn't even drink anything & just layed her head on either mine or Stewart's chest. Soon, the Dr. returned & the first thing out of his mouth was "has she had any injuries lately?" We said no & he continued to ask us, then told us that she had a broken clavicle (collar bone). As we stood in disbelief, he said he would show us the xrays, so we followed him to see. Sure enough, he pointed to the alleged break on the film. Soon, he began grilling us & telling us DHR would be involved and that they would have to do full skeletal xrays to see if there was any additional damage. We began to think of any possible scenario that could have caused this, & we asked the Dr. how old the break was & he said at least 2 weeks to 3 months. Stewart tried to see if we could get the xrays done later, because Rylie had already been through so much & it was 1:00 am. The Dr. put his hands on his hips & began to lecture us & tell us (very accusingly)that we would have to do this for DHR & they would be there to make us answer questions & fill out paper work & began to tell us we weren't leaving until we did it. Stewart took Rylie to the xray department & I stayed in the room. I just sat there, wondering how we would get out of this & how this could have happened & why we were such bad parents for not knowing our baby girl had a broken bone. I prayed harder than I have in a long time & asked God to put his hedge of protection around us, protect us & deliver us from the situation. A few verses came to mind....one was on a card in my purse..."Do not be anxiuos about anything, but in everything, by prayer & petition, with Thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:3). Soon after, God filled my heart with a peace. I was still scared & unsure of what to do or say, but God filled me with his grace & let me know he was there. Stewart & Rylie came back (& Skip....he came to the hospital & was there with us through all of this) and we waited. They were both a bit shaken.....Stewart had to pin her down for the xrays & the technicians had done a terrible job, even at one point saying to one another that they messed up & didn't know what they were doing. We waited for another 30 min., & the Dr. came in. The first thing he said was"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Then he preceded to tell us that Rylie did not in fact have a broken bone, that the xray "tricked" them. Needless to say, we were extremely upset & proceeded to tell the Dr. exactly how we felt about the whole ordeal, from the 25+ unnecessary & potentially harmful xrays done to our 12 month old daughter, to the threats about the DHR case. The Dr. never really apologized, just continued to tell us very condescendingly how dangerous unexplained breaks were & how they had to follow procedure.....THERE WAS NO BROKEN BONE!!!!!! Then we had to ask him to get back to the reason we were there in the first place...her high temp. He blew it off & said she had a cold & for us to take her to her pediatrician on Monday. We got home around 2:30 am & were drained. After all was said & done, we had to stop & realize that God answered our prayers! He delivered us from a devestating situation....without him we can do nothing. (Thank you, Lord!)We were completely helpless & had to rely 100% on the Lord to see us through & he did! Please continue to remember us in your prayers. Rylie is still sick & we are supposed to take her to her pediatrician tomorrow. Also, we are not sure what is going to happen with this situation. We are supposed to talk to someone in admin. tomorrow. Please keep us in your prayers as we sort out this mess. Thanks for listening & for your prayers!
This picture is classic! We had just arrived at the circus & this is Rylie's first reaction. There was an elephant in the pre-show & a man was leading him around the floor. We got an up-close & personal look at the elephant....Rylie was a bit concerned!
Here he is....Rylie couldn't take her eyes off him. Stewart put her up on his shoulders to get a better look!
We hiked up to ours seats & the lights went down & the show began! This is Rylie cheering & clapping! We couldn't believe how excited she got. It was great to see her smiling & clapping & saying "yay!"
Here is a lovely shot of the three of us....We went with the Wilsons & the Carlisles....we all had a great time & the kids loved it!
I am not sure why this posted sideways...I apologize for the inconvenience! Anyway, this was at intermission! Such a little sweetie. She just couldn't quite hang in there after all the excitement. So we packed up & called it a night...on our way out we got to see the zebras eating backstage. They are my favorite!
