The call in the night

Hannah is okay

One thing you never want to get when your child is in the hospital is a phone call in the middle of the night. That is what we got last night. I was up pumping and the phone rang. My heart sank because I knew what it had to be. "Emily, Hannah is not doing well at all. We think you should come in right away. Hannah is losing a lot of blood and we are doing chest compressions."

Adam and I scurried to get Ellie in the van and sped off to the hospital. Thankfully, his parents were in town and could stay with the boys.

When we got to her bedside, Hannah was already stable and the worst was over. She had been bleeding from her trach, mouth, and nose. She had lost so much blood that they were giving her blood from the blood bank. The bleeding had stopped though and they were now trying to find out from where it was coming.

The ENT came in and scoped her and found a "granuloma" inside her trach. It is a collection of tissue caused by irritation from a foreign object being in her body. They suspect the trach tube was rubbing against her trachea and caused this growth of tissue. Granulation tissue can bleed profusely-in this case they compared the amount of bleeding to that of an arterial wound.

The ENT was able to remove the granuloma and the bleeding is under control. Hannah is on the vent resting. Thankfully, she did not get a lot of blood in her lungs and we are optimistic that her breathing will get back to where it was before this incident.

We are so thankful that Hannah was not home when this bleeding occurred. It would have been very difficult for us to manage it at home. The outcome may not have been so good. We are also thankful that we have found a probable cause for the bleeding and that it seems to be under control.

Ultimately, we know the life of Hannah is in God's hands. As we were driving to the hospital we were preparing to say goodbye to our daughter-but again God had a different plan. We continue to rest in His loving and comforting arms.