Family Vacation...Interrupted

"We have to take Emma back to the emergency room in Orlando" I called to tell my mom in tears on the second morning of our vacation.  She rushed off the golf course, leaving my dad, brother and brother-in-law, to help us figure out what to do.

We were so looking forward to five days away because it was the first time since Christmas 2009 that my whole immediate family would be together.  My sister, her husband and two kids, as well as my brother and his girlfriend were all going to Mom and Dad's place in Fort Myers for a fun-filled extended weekend.  When we scheduled Emma's surgery we mentioned this vacation and they said that it should be fine since we weren't going out of state.  When the swelling occurred and they said talk with us in a week, we knew that meant right before we would leave.  However, after calling several times, we never got to talk to the right person.  Based on what they'd told us previously, we thought it'd be okay to continue as planned.

Our time started great!

Silly cousin!

Happy Grandma and Grandpa with all their kids together

And then Friday morning we finally got to speak with Emma's surgeon's nurse.  We had sent her pictures of the swelling and she said, "We need you to bring Emma to the ER in Orlando."  They were concerned about the amount of swelling two weeks after the surgery and the dangerous possibility that there was spinal fluid leaking out of her incision.  We feared the worst (another surgery immediately?) but hoped for the best (they just need to check her out and she'll be fine and maybe we can come back?).  We made the difficult decision that Mark would make the three hour drive back with Emma and I would stay with Elsie.  

The good news...Emma was okay.  No leaking spinal fluid, no infection.  They stayed overnight in the hospital in order to see her surgeon the next day.  He basically said, we just need to wait another couple weeks to see how she's doing and whether or not the swelling is diminishing.   The bad news...they didn't get to come back to family time.  So, I got a lot of one on one time with this little one...

and Mark got a lot of one on one time with this little one...

On top of all of this, as my mom was driving Elsie and I to meet Mark this afternoon, Elsie had another seizure.  They're always scary.  We still haven't heard if the doctor has reviewed her MRI and what the results are.  So, please keep praying for both of our little ones.  Pray that Emma will continue to heal and get stronger and stronger...since her second little hospital stay, she's actually done great.  And pray that we have a diagnosis and treatment plan for Elsie in place soon.