Once we were settled in her room, the reality of us staying hit us like a ton of bricks. My husband agreed to stay with Phoebe while she slept so I could run home to pack a bag of things I would need to be able to stay with her and to also grab a few things Phoebe might want to play with when she woke up. I knew we could potentially be in the hospital for a few days, and I wanted to make Phoebe as happy and comfortable as possible. I made it back to the hospital in time for the evening shift to come on.
During her first day in the hospital, Phoebe's face and the right side of her neck started to swell. Upon examining her, the doctor noticed that her tonsils were very enlarged and she had what appeared to be a enlarged lymoh node protruding out the right side of her neck. Her hematologist/oncologist called in an ENT to get a second opinion on what we should do. The ENT went over some history with me about Phoebe, and diagnosed her with sleep apnea. She suggested that once Phoebe was released and feeling better that we should look into removing her tonsils and adenoids. All I could think was great, another surgery and she is only 2. She also said that in regards to the lymph node, to follow it for a few weeks to see if it returned back down to normal size.
Another issue that arose during her hospitalization was Phoebe was diagnosed with a heart murmur. She wasn't born with it, and it hadn't been there before. It just came out of nowhere. The doctors ordered an ultrasound and EKG of her heart to check the function and structure.
The cardiologist said structurally her heart was perfect. They said what she had developed was a Still's murmur (or a flow murmur). She thought that all the blood issues Phoebe was experiencing were contributing to the murmur. She assured me there was nothing to worry about and that there was no cardiac risk to Phoebe.
We spent 5 days in the hospital. Phoebe was a fighter the whole time! Once her temperature had stayed down for 36 hours and all the other tests and doctors signed off, we were able to be discharged to go home. I was anxious to bring Phoebe, I had missed the comfort of home and my other daughters. (We had added to our family in September 2012) They weren't allowed to come and visit Phoebe in the hospital and I missed them so much!
So we received our discharge instructions, made our follow up appointment with the ENT, a second opinion appointment with Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia in the Vorhees location, and packed to go home.
It was only the beginning of the year and the medical issues were already starting to pile up!
Photos: Hospital Room January 2013