Christmas at our house was good, except Keira was not feeling well. Friday evening, while we were at Wade and Pam's house, she began complaining of a belly ache and then climbed on the couch beside me and went to sleep. It was not long she was running a slight fever. So, Christmas morning we do our gifts and then she feels so bad, she gets on the couch. She really was not interested in playing with her toys. She complained of headache, belly, and fever. As the day went on, she was not improving. The fever began getting high and she kept complaining. At 9:30 that evening, Brandon loaded her up and took off to the ER at Children's. Due to the poor weather of snow, we decided it was better for him to drive. It broke my heart as I kissed her goodbye and she was asking for me to take her. I stayed home with Brock, waiting. By 10:15, they had been in triage and Brandon is texting me with every update. Thankfully, the ER was not busy. They tested for strep,flu, bladder infection, did xray, and a cat scan . The dr. assumed appendix and I began trying to mentally prepare myself for the possibility of surgery. Not an easy thing to do. She had many of the symptoms of appendix at this time. The night goes on and I could not sleep. Of course, all kinds of possibilities run thru your mind at this point. What if's began to come. Finally, morning comes and we are no closer to an answer. My dad comes up and stays with Brock, while Papaw and Mamaw Leffew take me to to the hospital. We arrive just as they are about to take her to a room. I see my little girl, hooked up to an IV, looking so sick, and it brings the tears. We go to the surgery floor, waiting on a surgeon. Mid-morning she arrives and she doesn't think it is appendix. So, more waiting. We see a dr. and she thinks it may be something viral. They noticed something on the xray or scan in her GI tract. So, we are eventually moved to another floor, more testing, etc. . Long story short, we ended up spending 3 nights in the hospital, with a final diagnosis of adenovirus. They told us this is contagious, but thankfully, no one else has come down with this. We are so thankful no surgery or anything else was wrong. Things like this put into perspective for me just how quickly our lives can change. Thank you, Lord for your protection on my child and for guiding the dr. to the correct diagnosis.
My grandfather, 88 yrs old, cracked his hip over a week ago and is having to stay and rehab at a facility. He was not able to make it home, so the staff let us use a room close to his room inorder to celebrate Christmas. We had a good evening, despite not being at home. Just being together makes it all better. 
Some of the grandkids and great-grandkids
