Day One at Primary Children's Hospital

On Friday August 1, just after putting the girls to bed, I began to feel stomach aches. The next morning it became clear that Paisley and I were both sick with some sort of stomach illness, making her puke and giving me diarrhea.

We still aren't completely sure how we both got the specific strain of shiga-toxin producing E-coli that caused Paisley's serious illness, but we have a pretty good guess. That same Friday before I began feeling ill Paisley and I went to the store together and ate some of the samples they were serving. I remember one particular chicken item tasted a little funny. Paisley and I were the only ones who went to the store and we were the only ones in the house to get sick. Turns out, other outbreaks of E-coli have come from this store's samples. Our best guess is that the E-coli came from eating these samples.

On Monday the 4th, after enduring a few day of Paisley puking and at the point where Paisley couldn't keep any food down, Paisley was acting pretty weak and tired. This makes sense because she had been sick for a few days, it seemed like normal stomach bug symptoms. As we were sitting on the couch watching The Goofy Movie, Paisley suddenly slouched over and went unresponsive. Her arms were contracted but the rest of her body was limp. She sort of flopped over away from me and at first I thought she was just weakly trying to get her drink. When I saw her foaming at the mouth I knew something was wrong, and turns out I was right. She was having a mild seizure.

As quickly as we could we got everything together and went off to the urgent care. Myles gave her a Preisthood blessing in the car, and blessed her that her body would recover completely. When we arrived the doctors checked all of Paisleys vitals and discovered her oxygen was dangerously low. They gave her an oxygen mask and the problem was quickly resolved, but she was still in very serious condition and the urgent care doctors recommended she ride in an ambulance to the ER just next door. Myles went with Paisley in the ambulance and I drove the car over.

At the ER they gave her an IV to help with her dehydration and took many samples for lab tests. She also had a CT scan to help unravel clues about her neurological symptoms. The doctors asked us many questions about her symptoms and events leading up to our arrival. They confirmed that she probably did experience a seizure and later informed us that their working diagnosis was HUS (Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome).

This is when I sent out a text to immediate family asking for prayers and we continued praying more fervently. I was still sort of in shock and it hadn't hit me how serious this was. I kept replaying all the details in my head, trying to think of any clues that might be helpful to the doctors, and help them heal my little girl. Next they recommended that we have Paisley Life-Flighted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City.

Myles rode in the helicopter with Paisley and I went home to pick up Laurel from the babysitter and get together everything we would need for an overnight stay at the hospital. I dropped off Laurel with my sister to stay overnight and I made the 51-minute drive to Primary Children's Hospital for the very first time.

When I first arrived, everything was pretty calm. Paisley was unconscious on the bed, hooked up to a few wires, and a nurse was caring for her. Sometimes she would start to cry out, but not really come back to consciousness, but she mostly looked really peaceful.

However, it wasn't long before her room was busy with doctors performing procedures and hooking her up to all kinds of medications and monitors. With all the IV fluids she was getting she started to look puffy and swollen. Soon she looked so ill that it was very difficult for me to look at her without getting emotional.

We settled in for our first night in the hospital, holding each other close trying to get some sleep on a tiny fold out couch-bed.

Update 8/4/2015 - One year later: Looking back on this day, it is amazing how much God was in the details, helping us along the way. Myles felt like staying home from work that day, and because of that the car was home when we needed to drive Paisley to urgent care, and Myles was there to be the level-headed hero while I was in shock. Coral was there to take care of Laurel when we left the house. Priesthood blessings were given (even before her seizure, thanks to inspiration) which brought us faith and hope. She was able to get all the care she needed in time, and we had great insurance through Myles' job. Our family, friends, and church community were there for us the whole way. God had prepared us in advance to be able to face this struggle with all the tools we would need to get through it, and I am so grateful for that.