WEEKEND [2019]

by Whitney Pegram - Monday, July 29, 2019

Happy Monday, friends!

I wish I could say our weekend was a happy one but exhausting would be a better word to describe it.

I'm choosing to see the joy in it all but dang I'm tired.

Wednesday night, Ellie Joy started developing a croupy cough so on Thursday morning, we headed straight to the doctor. Typically I would have waited a day or so to see if it was just a virus & let it run its course BUT if you follow me on INSTAGRAM then you know why I took her to the doctor so soon. For those of you who don't ... which by the way you should totally be following me to keep up with our shenanigans 😉 ... here is the story.

We are no longer in our rental house.

Back in May, we started noticing mice droppings. Gross, right? With the house being as old as it is, we thought okay, no big deal but when we caught four mice in one week, one ran across Dan's leg while he was laying on the couch & then Dan opening the coat closet to see one running up the 2x4 to the attic, we knew there was a problem. I was cleaning up mice droppings every .. single .. day. And that was before I knew that you aren't supposed to sweep it up because of the dust particles & some may carry diseases .. or viruses. We even found a nest!! The first of June, I noticed what I thought was horse flies in Millie Jo & Ellie Joy's bedroom .. after research, they were not horse flies .. they were .. wait for it .. FLESH FLIES! They eat off rodents! Excuse me, what!?! You could sit in our living room & hear things running in the attic. And to top it off, there was a skunk living underneath the house. In case you do not know, skunk supposedly snack on rodents.

A mice infestation.

I didn't even mention this part on Instagram but y'all, they had been up in Cooper's box spring!!!

We knew we had to get out of there & fast. I do have to say that the realtor & landlord were so very understanding & didn't blame us one bit! We are so thankful for that!

So if you want to know anything about mice, I'm your girl because I now know more than I ever wanted to know.

Okay, back to this sweet baby.

One of the viruses that mice carry is the Hantavirus & it can be very deadly. Symptoms may not show up until 4-6 weeks AFTER being exposed. Guess how long we've been out?? Yep, you guessed it, that time frame. The first symptom is a cough & fever. When her cough came out of nowhere, Dan & I both were very worried. I mean, she was crawling all in the floor of the rental, everything goes in her mouth & I can't tell you how many times she drops her paci. Who knows how long the mice issue was going on before we actually discovered it! So Thursday morning, we were at the doctor. They sent us home with saying it was just a cold & not croup. Them saying it wasn't the croup did NOT make me feel better about the possibility of it being the hantavirus. Fast forward to a verrrrry long, sleepless night, Friday morning, her & I headed to Levine's Children's Hospital in Charlotte. They were phenomenal. They took us right back to triage where we stayed a while. They gave her Tylenol first thing because she was still running a high fever. By this time, Dan had made it there & we explained our concerns with the mice situation. The doctor could not believe it & admitted that she in no way specializes in that so she would have to call the Infectious Disease team to see what needed to be done. Someone ask me how sick to my stomach I was at this point! The answer is very! Time passed & the doctor came back in & said that the team encouraged us to observe her at home over the weekend, that the chances of her having the virus is very rare & only certain types of mice carry it. Her final diagnosis was a moderate-severe case of the croup & they gave her a strong steroid that would last 48 hours.

She broke my heart.

Yesterday morning, she was up playing so we thought for sure she was on the mend but later in the afternoon, she spiked another fever, now has all the congestion plus the cough is terrible. So, it looks like we will be making a trip to her doctor today. I just want my girl to feel better. She is pitiful!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for her. Please continue to do so. And I LOVE that everyone that has asked about her refers to her as Itty Bitty!! Y'all are my people!

Friday evening, when we got home, Dan took Cooper & Millie Jo out so I could focus on Itty Bitty & let her rest as much as possible.