3 strikes...

Last week Arianna got a cold - nothing new for her and it turned out to be not that bad. She was coughing alot (par for the course) and had alot of nasal congestion.

Getting a 2.5 year old to watch where she coughs is no small feat and as 'luck' would have it Daria caught it this week. You can imagine any parents scare when a newborn gets a cold. When it happened to Arianna just 2 weeks after she came home from the NICU she ended up in the PICU on oxygen for nearly a week - after doing a fully dramatic run through the emergency department for admission (we thought we were part of some wierd TV show as about 10 different doctors ran into the 'trauma room' to help her).

Daria is handling it much better than Arianna did - she's stuffed up and sneezing and coughing quite a bit. But we don't have to watch her for breathing trouble and retractions. I can continue to suction her nose and feed her when she wants and she'll probably pull through just fine...

2 nights ago she kept us up until 4 AM, but last night she slept the whole night. I'm trying to not jinx myself but I hope it wasn't the cold keeping her asleep because I could get used to getting more than 3 hours of straight sleep! I could have rivaled Linda Blair for her exorcist role yesterday morning...

What a nice change - just another preemie/full-term difference I guess...

Wednesday my mother had surgery on her jaw... again. I feel cursed as far as teeth are concerned. My mother has been battling dental osteomyelitis and other assorted teeth/jaw infections for a few months now and it finally came to head a few weeks ago when she nearly died during what should have been a routine teeth extraction. After more than a week in Boston Medical Center she was back there again on Wednesday as the infection is still in her jaw. She had it surgically irrigated again and now has a PICC line for at least 6 weeks for antibiotics. She'll eventually have all her teeth removed as she's had 4 root canals this year alone. My father had all his teeth removed at 18 for similar problems. Me? I've got tons of cavities since I was very young and very soft teeth - I should start saving up for dentures as I'm sure I won't see 40 with my own teeth considering my parents have had all these problems with theirs.

To top it off, yesterday my father took their beloved siamese cat, Baby, age 13, to the vet because she was vomiting alot. The vets office had been watching her for a few months for hypothyroidism and weight loss. So how is it the cat dies at their office? How is it that a cat who had supposedly been watched closely dies so suddenly? I talked to my dad last night and not only was he 'drunk as a skunk' and talking about how they'll never get another cat because this hurts so much, but also talking about how their other siamese cat "Little One" is missing her friend. I know how much it hurts to lose a feline friend suddenly and I'm sad for them - and more sad for my brother because he's in California for school for a few months and can't be here to say good bye to 'his cat'.

We're now awaiting news on my father's uncle who was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia, UTI and 'something wrong' with his pancreas. At 76 having 'something wrong' with your pancreas is not good news and if he was to pass away I know that my entire family will be devestated - he's the uncle everyone loves.

We're all praying hard here - lots to pray for unfortunately.