Hammond Family

Moving forward, one day at a time.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Emily's Passing

It is with great saddness, but mostly great joy that I write this letter. Emily Hammond returned to her Heavenly Father last night at 9:15. She was in Robby's and my arms and died peacefully. We were surrounded by family, and the doctors and nurses were as kind as we could ask for. We know that Emily is happy and running all over the place, looking at everything she can. We have felt great peace since last night, and are hoping that feeling continues.
There will be two funeral services held. The first will be in San Antonio on Saturday, January 24, at 1:00 pm at 17151 Jones-Maltsberger Rd San Antonio, TX 78247. There will be a veiwing first at 12:00. Anyone who would like to come is more than welcome, including children. Emily was a child, and so we feel it's appropriate for anyone, of any age, to be there.

The 2nd service will be held on Tuesday, January 26, at 11:00 pm in Quincy, Washington. There will be a viewing at 10:00. The address is 1101 2nd Ave SE Quincy, WA 98848. We will be burying Emily there with her two grandmothers there.

If people would like, instead of flowers we're asking that contributions be made in Emily's name to The Chromosome 18 Registry and Research Society. Emily had a syndrome called Ring Chromsome 18. The email address is www.chromosome18.org. The mailing address is 7155 Oakridge Drive San Antonio, TX 78229.

Thank you all for your prayers and love and support. Emily has touched so many people and we are very grateful. Please feel free to let anyone else know of this information.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Emily's Day

I'm home with Robby and Lily right now, and Robby's sister is at the hospital with Emily. It's nice to be home together-it's the first time we have since Em went in Monday night/Tuesday morning. We tried
lily on rice cereal tonight, which was fun. She seemed to like it! Emily's day was okay. Her x-ray looked much better today, and she had a good night last night. She's up to full feedings through her g-tube. She was awake a few times and opened her eyes, and would move her mouth and eyebrows when I talked to her.
This afternoon they suctioned her quite a bit, and she then had another episode where her body became stressed-she was trying to breathe over what the ventilator was doing for her, and looked like she was struggling to breathe. Her CO2 levels increased and her blood pressure decreased. They increased the blood pressure medicine by quite a bit. They eventually (after several hours) increased her ventilator settings, and that helped her. They definitly think it was a pulminary hyper-tension related issue. This time, her oxygen dropped a little, but not like it did two days ago, so that was good. They also didn't have to put her back on the paralyzing medince. They feel like the oxygen didn't drop as much because they now have her on the nitric oxide, which helps pulminary hyper-tension.
I know that some people have asked/wondered if the doctors have given us any type of time line, or if they know what Emily's chances are of being able to go home. The answer is, no. The doctor today was fairly optomistic, and said maybe next week sometime she may be able to come of the ventillator, and felt like Emily's doing better than they expected her to do, but they really didn't expect her to do well at all. We do not talk much about if/when she may be able to come home, because she is still on life support, and things can change in a matter of seconds when you are in that type of situation in intensive care. I wish we had more answers, but we know that they can not give us a timeline because they can not know what Emily will do given less support. Thank you all for your prayers, both for Emily that she and her lungs will continue to heal, and for Robby and I, that we will have peace and know what is best for Emily.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Emily update

Thank you all for your kind words and love and support. They really mean a lot to us. Emily has done better than the doctors expected her to. She made it through the first 48 hours without getting worse, which they said is good. They did say that her x-ray looked a little better this morning. She does well as long as she is completely sedated and on the paralyzing medicine. yesterday when they tried to take her off the paralyzing med she didn't tolerate it well-she got very stressed and agitated (her oxygen levels dropped and blood pressure) and they had to put her back on it. They tried it again today and she lasted longer off it, but then after about 6 hours she started to try to breathe quite a bit on her own-take her own breaths, and got really stressed again. So they had to put her back on the paralyzing medicine, turn her oxygen up to 100%, turn her ventillator settings up, and put her back on the blood pressure medicine. it took her awhile to recover this time, but she is now about back to where she was early this morning. The doctors said it's not so much of a setback as it is not a step forward, if that makes sense. I think there's cause to be concerned, to me at least, because eventually she's going to have to come off the paralyzing medicine. But they'll continue to go by trial and error. They said with what she has, that's what they usually have to do. So we're trying to stay positive. The question isn't whether or not she can breathe on her own, but if her lungs will support her when she is breathing on her own. Thanks for the prayers. We're hoping for a miracle, but also praying that Robby and I will have guidance to know what is best for Emily, and that we'll all have peace, especially Em. Robby's sisters are coming, which will be a big support.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Emily's very sick

I know that many of you already know, that Emily was taken to the hospital early yesterday morning in critical condtion. She is currently on a ventilator at North Central Baptist Hospital, and has Acute Respitory Distress Syndrome. It happened very suddenly-I woke up to check on her at 2:00 AM and she was wheezing and her color wasn't good-at 11:00 PM she was fine. She had had an appointment earlier that day (monday) with the pulminologist who thought things sounded and looked good. We don't know what the outcome will be, but are trying to prepare ourselves for the fact that she may not be able to come home. She's never been this sick, since she was born. She is resting well, but if the medicine wears off she will start moving her arms and legs. The good thing about that, is that she is mentally still able to respond. She is currently stable, and they've been able to wean her a little on her oxgen and ventilator settings. She has a high fever, which is cause for concern. Sometimes kids will get worse before they get better. Robby and i feel like if Emily is not able to come off the ventillator, we are not going to make her suffer. We will probably know more in the next 36 hours. We are praying that if it's the lord's will, that Emily will make a full recovery, that she'll have peace and comfort, and that we and the doctors will know what is in Emily's best intrest. Thanks for the prayers-that's all we can do right now.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Dodged a Bullet...

This is after we got home from Washington. Lily loves looking at Emily's hands, and putting them in her mouth!
This is both our girls sleeping on Christmas morning. Emily has the bi-pap on her nose. That's what helps her to breath when she's asleep-it pushes the air in to keep her airway open.

Emily is still sick, however...we didn't have to go to the hospital! She had an appointment today with the pulminologist, and Robby and I were both very afraid that he was going to send her to the hospital, but he actually happy with how she was doing! She's on oxygen, and I took her on oxygen to the doctor. He said that her airway sounded good, and that the congestion was more upper airway. So we just have to keep doing what we're doing. Thank goodness my friend went with me to help me with Lily and be my moral support. We're going to keep Emily home from school for the next month or so-they'll actually send a teacher to the house, which will be really good for her. We're keeping her on the bipap and on oxygen. The bipap and her new diet have made a lot of her hair fall out-hopefully it will grow back! We're crossing our fingers that she continues to be well enough to stay home!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Vacation and illness

It snowed over 2 feet over Christmas. Just us 6 kids went outside and played in the snow on Christmas day. We seemed so few in numbers! Parker had build the snowfort. I loved having a white Christmas-it's the first time since I was about 12.
Lily loved playing with Grammy, Robby's mom. They laughed and played a lot. Lily's baby pictures look a lot like hers.

The Grandkids-Braxton (3) Ryan (5) and McKinnley(2) are on the top. Mom is holding Akaila (9 months) and Kylee (4 months) and Dad is holding Lily (4 months) and Emily (4).


My mom made all the girls matching dresses. It was quite an ordeal to get a picture of all of them.



This is my entire family. It was the first time we'd been home for Christmas in 7 years. We really had a great time together. I was so glad that we were able to make it home. Emily and Lily both did pretty well. We were snowed in for about 90% of our trip. We missed our first attempt to come back to San Antonio because we were over at Robby's house and both passes were closed. I didn't mind-it gave us 2 more days vacation! Plus, it was on the 1st, and I was so tired-we all got colds, I actually think it's RSV, and I had it the worst on the 1st, so I was happy I didn't have to fly that day. Emily seems to have it now. I've been putting her on the bi-pap and on oxygen, so hopefully we'll be able to avoid the hospital. She has a wicked cough and lots of congestion. Emily's doing okay with her seizures. They're still a lot better than before, but we have seen more the last few days. Hopefully it's just because she's sick. It's good to be back home, but I sure miss our family. I hope that someday we can live close enough that our kids can see their grandparents more often! We loved having them with their grandma's and grandpa's.
Lily loved all the attention she got over the break. She started sleeping through the night while at Robby's house-she was waking up at 3:00, even though I knew she didn't need to. One night Emily was up with a fever, so I was helping Robby take care of her when Lily woke up. So I had to let Lily cry while I helped Em, and when I came back downstairs she had put herself back asleep and hasn't woken up since! Merry Christmas to me!