The day after Thanksgiving, I felt like Matilda turned a corner and was finally over her cold/strep and was on the mend. But the next day, her cough kicked back up and she was miserable. Getting sick with something new, one right after the other, wears on all of us. She hardly leaves the house, we clean the it top to bottom every night, and yet we can't keep her healthy.
It turns out this time she hit the bad luck jackpot with a diagnosis of RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus). Right away, we talked with her pediatrician and the transplant team about where she should be admitted if she needs hospitalization, what signs we should watch for in her breathing, and how much liquid we needed to keep in her to avoid dehydration.
Watching Matilda endure test after test, procedure after procedure, and hour after hour with such grace, cooperation, and humor put a smile on my face despite the exhaustion I felt. Even while getting a chest X-ray, she smiled and sat so still.
We got home that night and, tucked in our mailbox, was a beautiful gold foiled print that Minted sent us with the message c'est la vie - that's life. It brought everything into perspective. This is Matilda's life. This is all she has known and boy are we blessed to have her in our arms.
As for Matilda, she is again on the mend. When she wouldn't drink, I put juice in a syringe and told her it was medicine (which she took without complaint). Breathing treatments aren't her favorite, but with a few breaks and an iPad in her lap, she does okay. And her little raspy voice might just be the cutest thing I have ever heard. We feel confident she has avoided hospitalization, which is such a huge accomplishment and more proof that Matilda is mighty indeed.
C'est la vie.
