Our Miracle

The McNiven Family Reunion was scheduled this year for July 11-14th. Before we went to the reunion we spent some time in Melstone, MT. The kids rode horses and four-wheelers, and looking back it's a wonder no one got hurt there! While driving back from Melstone, our Durango hit a pot-hole and all the sudden our muffler was REALLY loud. Like super loud. It sounded like a jet engine in the back. So we figured we had broken the muffler and needed to replace it. Once we got to Billings, Spencer found that the pot-hole had disconnected the muffler from the tailpipe. With a little work and some wire, the pipe was put bactoo to place to make it a little less noisy, however the tip had been knocked off of the back. We figured we would get it fixed when we got home to Connecticut.

We got to Huntley on Tuesday night, the 10th to help get things set up for the campout. On July 11th Madi was out playing with her cousins at grandpa and grandma's house and I was over at Jon and Tana's house. A gaggle of kids came running up to the house screaming and freaking out that Madi had been hit in the head with a golf club! "Blood is everywhere and she has a big old cut on her head!" So I call over to Spencer who is at his parent's house also. He says that she is fine, not bleeding all that bad, and his sister Heather (who is a nurse) has looked at the cut and thinks we can just super glue it. By the time I walked over to Grandma's house Madi was back up and playing with her cousins. Thankfully her injury didn't result in a concussion or stitches! After we got her cleaned up, Spencer said to the little cousin who had hit her (on accident), "It's okay, it's a reunion and things are bound to happen. I'm sure this won't be the last thing that happens to us." How true that turned out to be!!
On July 12, we had been out at Spencer's dad's camp where he does his Cowboy Cookouts and entertains tourists. We got our family pictures taken, ate lunch, and headed back to the trailer at his parents' house. When we got to the trailer we decided we could all use a good nap so everyone but me took a nap for a few hours. When Ashlyn woke up we went and sat outside and chatted for a bit. I noticed Ashlyn was breathing really shallow and was wheezing. She was also very lethargic. I was worried that she was having another problem like she did when she was hospitalized for her first birthday. She was whiney and just sat on me. Anyone who knows her knows that she does not sit still! She is normally a very active little girl and won't sit still on my lap for anything! So her lethargic behavior worried me, plus she was breathing really shallow and quickly. Her tummy was pulling and puffing and you could just tell she was working hard. I knew something was wrong, so I called the insurance company to find an urgent care center that we were covered with. Turns out the Billings Medical Clinic was covered, as was St. Vincent Hospital. So Spence and I headed up there with Ashlyn to have her checked out.
As we were driving I had to decide which place to take her to. It wasn't until I got about two minutes away that I decided we would probably have better luck in terms of waiting time if we went to the Clinic. So Spence dropped me off and I took Ashlyn in. I was right. There was zero wait. We walked right into a trauma room and they got her on oxygen. Her O2 level when we got there was in the high 70s. Not good. They did a chest xray and said it looked like she may have Pneumonia. So they came in and gave her two breathing treatments and as soon as they took her off those she began to dip way low. Like she got down to 50 percent oxygen. So they moved us to the next trauma room and got her back on a non-rebreather oxygen at a higher pressure. Her numbers came back up while she was on the oxygen and that was good.
By this time Spence had come back and was with us. So they came in and told us that they have beds at the clinic but because of her age she would be better treated at the hospital. Now this hospital was literally across the street. If they had a skywalk of some sort from one buildling to the other, they could have walked her there. I could have walked her there! But they insisted she take an ambulance because having her off oxygen for any amount of time could cause brain damage. Well Spence was not very happy about this. He knew what an ambulance would cost and he knew how close we were to the hospital. The nurses won out though and we took a short ambulance ride to St. Vincent's hosptial in Bilings, MT. Once they admitted her, the doctors put her in the ICU. They had her on a heated and pressurized oxygen to get her lungs healing faster. They looked at the xrays again and said that they didn't think it was Pneumonia but would check her out again in the morning.
Because Ash was in the ICU, I couldn't stay with her overnight. But they did let me sleep in her other room in the Pediatric wing and have a bed and room to myself. They even brought me some scrubs to sleep in. I was so impressed with the care she received there! The nurses were more concerned with her being calm and not freaked out and upset that they would wait a while to do her vitals instead of insisting they wake her up every hour for them. I was just so impressed with how considerate they were of her and myself.
So in the morning they let me hold her and told me that she was a little stinker in the night. She moved all around the crib and slept on her tummy in the corners. She didn't sleep well apparently. Also the head nurse was telling the new shift nurse that when Ashlyn was mad she would be all around the crib! All the nurses commented on Ashlyn's ability to give the stink-eye. If she didn't like what they had just done to her she would give them a look! It was funny. By noon the next day (July 13) she was up and running down the halls and playing in the play room. They released her around 4pm on Friday. So she was in the hospital about 20 hours is all. And they determined it was just an asthma attack, not pneumonia! Thank heaven!
While all this was playing out my parents happened to be in Idaho for a mini-vacation. As soon as they found out about Ashlyn they headed up to Billings. They got to the hospital right before she got released. Then they booked a hotel not too far from Spencer's parents house and I ended up dropping Ashlyn off with them for a night's sleep. She had a rough night sleeping, waking up coughing every few hours. But at least she was out of the heat and dust and wind that I am sure triggered her attack.
From this experience we learned that a patient has the right to refuse to be treated and the right to  know what the consequences are if they don't. Spence learned this in fighting with the hospital about the Ambulance. Little did we know that knowledge would come in handy not two days later!
I am grateful that the spirit urged me to get Ashlyn checked out. That I was given the feeling that something wasn't right and that I was able to know how to help her. In a sense I am glad that she had been in the hospital before so that I knew what signs to look for! We are so grateful that it was just asthma and not pneumonia! We are also grateful that Ashlyn was able to recover quickly and be released shortly! I am grateful my parents were able to come up and help out. I am also so grateful that this happened when we were surrounded with family. Spencer's family was able to keep an eye on Cole and Madi for us while we were taking care of Ashlyn. It was a scary experience but we had everything and everyone we needed around us so we could deal with it.
Also, I know that when I was not able to stay with Ashlyn in her ICU room, Staci was with her. I prayed that she could have someone watch over her since I couldn't be there and I know Staci was watching over her that night. I am grateful for the peace and comfort that came over me while I stayed with Ashlyn that night. I knew she was being cared for and I was able to sleep and be at peace with her care.


So we got Ashlyn from my parents on Saturday morning after we got our trailer all loaded and hooked up. The trailer was so heavy that it made the Durango squat, so Spencer inflated some bags that sit in the back above the tires and help with heavy loads so the vehicle doesn't squat so much. Once we got on the road, we noticed the muffler was still really loud going up hills and such, and we could only go about 60MPH because it was so dang hot outside we didn't want to overheat the engine. Somewhere around Sheridan WY we where having a conversation about prayer and realized we hadn't said a prayer before we left. We pulled over to the side of the road and offered a prayer asking for safety, that the driver would be alert and that we could arrive at our destination safely and then got back on the road. So it was S.L.O.W. going. Spence had to be back to CT by Wednesday, so we knew we would need to push it to make it there on time.
During the day on Saturday we stopped around 3 or 4 PM somewhere in Wyoming at a park to give the kids a break. When we got out of the vehicle we noticed that the exhaust fumes had literally melted away part of the bumper. I was sure that couldn't be a good thing but had no idea what it would mean down the road. Spencer was able to get a half hour nap or so while the kids played, but it was way too hot so we got back in the car and took off again.
Saturday night Spence took a 5 hour energy and decided he would drive through the night. I helped with the kids until they fell asleep and then I could not keep my eyes open. I know it is dangerous to sleep while Spencer drives through the night and I would wake up when he stopped for gas and then fall right back asleep. I just couldn't keep my eyes open. My head would droop and I would fall asleep quickly. Hindsight that probably was not so much because I was tired....
So around 3 AM we were a little ways outside Mitchell, South Dakota. Cole wakes up and is angry that he's in his car seat. He HATES sleeping in his carseat, always has. He rides okay in it all day but does not like to sleep in it.  So eventually we pull him out of his seat and bring him up front with me so I can calm him down. He kicks and squirms and cries and I am STILL trying to keep my eyes open through all that. After about five minutes he falls asleep so I lay him on a pillow that is sitting on the folded down seat between his and Ashlyn's car seats. Shortly after that Ashlyn starts making this weird noise. I can't even describe the sound. It was like a snore mixed with a wheeze and it was every time she tried to breath in AND out. Almost like she had something stuck in her airway and was trying to breath around it. So I said is that Ashlyn? Spencer looks at her and says her head is down on her chest so maybe she is just at a bad angle. So I turn around to move her head into a more comfortable position. I lift her head up and it is completely limp. No resistance whatsoever. Her face looks pale, even in the dark, and her stomach is barely moving with breaths. So I said, "Spencer she's not breathing!" He told me to take her out of the carseat and I did. I brought her up onto my lap while Spencer looked for her inhaler. We were thnking she was having an athsma attack or something. So I am pinching her cheeks, pushing on her tummy, watching her tummy try and breath and it is moving out maybe every 3 or 4 seconds. We get the inhaler on her but she isn't breathing in so it isn't doing any good. Spencer calls 911 and starts telling them about her trip to the hospital and how she isn't breathing. I keep trying to get her to take her inhaler, then abandon it completely and try doing CPR. Still no change. She is completely limp in my arms. I am screaming and crying and trying to get her to wake up. "Ash wake up baby! Breath!" The 911 dispatcher is telling us that we are coming up on an exit where there is a hospital and to keep heading there while the amublance comes to meet us. So finally the ambulance passes us and turns around and comes up along side us. All this time we were driving down the freeway in a construction zone with one lane driving each direction on the same road. So Spencer was plowing down traffic cones and speeding down the freeway trying to get to the hospital. Once we got off the freeway there was more construction on the roads as well. So the ambulance pulls up next to us and Spencer stops and hands Ashlyn out the door to the medics. We get back in the car to follow her and Spence says he remembers he felt dizzy when he got back in the car but thought it was just because he was so worried about Ashlyn. So we start driving again and have a police car behind us escorting us to the hospital. Not a minute later Madi wakes up from her sleep and says, "mommy I feel like I'm gonna throw up!" I remember thinking to myself, "why are all my kids freaking out at once??" Spencer then told me to check Cole and I said, "He's not breathing! Spencer he's not breathing either!" Then I looked at Madi and noticed she had passed back out and her hands were spasming. It looked like when you see someone with palsy or something. Her hands were twitching. I remember thinking, "that's not real. She's faking it or something, that's not really happening." Keep in mind I am out of it at this point. And from that point I really don't remember anything until getting out of the car, other than hearing Spencer say that it was carbon monoxide. He said once he heard Madi say she was going to throw up it came into his mind that it CO poisoning. So he rolled all the windows down and started driving with his door open, following the ambulance to the hospital. He was trying to flash down the ambulance but they weren't stopping. Finally he decided he didn't have time so he yanked the car over to the curb (popping the right rear tire off the rim and bending the rim in the process). He threw it in park and jumped out of the car to get the kids. He grabbed Cole from the middle and laid him on the road by the car. The police car following us stopped and the officer ran up and told Spencer to get him out of the road but he didn't pay any attention. He jumped back in the car and began untangling Madi from her seat belt and something else she was stuck on. Then he had to haul her limp form up and over the middle seat and out of the car. Then he and the officer carried the kids to the sidewalk a ways from the front of the car and laid them down. Spence began trying to do CPR on them. Cole was completely unresponsive and barely breathing at this point. Wouldn't open his eyes or anything. Madi was also unresponsive and breathing very slowly and shallow. I remember getting out of the car and trying to run to the kids and being so dizzy I could not walk straight. It was like someone drew a curvy line in my head and that was what I was trying to follow. Eventually I just got on my knees and crawled to them on the sidewalk. I laid down beside them crying and praying that they were alright. I was trying to talk to them and get them to wake up and they just kept sleeping. Spencer gave them each a quick blessing in which he commanded them to breath. Then he gave me a blessing and said that I would recover and have all my children with me. At that point he had the faith that we were going to be okay and the he needed to get to the hospital to give Ashlyn a blessing. He told the officers that he needed to get there and they said no, we aren't going to let you back in the vehicle. He said I know drive me! So as soon as the other police car got there they rushed him to the hospital. He ran in to the room with Ashlyn who was still unresponsive and breathing shallow. He went up in the middle of everyone and gave her a blessing. A few moments later she started screaming for mommy. The hospital had a hard time finding a vein to give her an IV so they ended up doing an Intraosseous infusion. Poor baby girl screamed and screamed when they did that!
Our carbon monoxide levels were off the charts. Your level should be zero. 25 is critical. Spencer was 28, I was 31, Madi was 33, Cole was 38, Ashlyn was 40.
So Madi, Cole, and I were left on the sidewalk while the ambulance dropped Ash off and came back to get us. It wasn't too long, the hospital was pretty close to where we had stopped. The medics got the kids in the ambulance and let me gather some things from the car. I grabbed their blankies and my purse and phones and then we were off. They put me and the kiddos on oxygen right away. During the ride, Madi woke up and was asking why she was in an ambulance. Cole however would only open his eyes but he wasn't able to focus on anything. His head was just rolling from side to side, not focusing on the medic or the bright toy he was trying to get him to look at. He was not responsive at all. We got to the hospital and met Spencer at the door. He told me Ashlyn was screaming and awake and then he went with the kids while I went to Ashlyn's room. I sat and held her while they worked on her. She already had the IO by the time I got there, and they had drawn some blood to check her blood gas levels. They put me on oxygen and started taking blood as well. I was able to hold Ash while they did the xrays of her lungs, and then they took xrays of mine as well.
This tiny hospital had three exam rooms. Ash and I were in one, the two kids in the others. Spencer refused to be treated because he wanted to be able to go from room to room as needed and he knew if he was admitted he would not be able to do that. I was mad at him because the doctors were scaring me with all the possibilities of side effects if he wasn't treated. But he stood his ground saying he didn't want to be a patient. So while I am sitting with Ashlyn Spencer was going from room to room checking on Madi and Cole. He said Madi was doing really well. She was alert and helpful with the nurses. She got shots and only cried when she got the IV. His bigger concern was Cole. Cole was so tired anyway and is a very difficult child to wake up. When he sleeps, he sleeps solid! So he was having a hard time waking up and they were concerned about his breathing as well. Spencer said as soon as they gave him the IV though, he was up and screaming! I could hear him from my room and wasn't sure if it was Cole or Madi, it was a sound I had never heard before. But they got him awake for a bit and he was responsive and doing better.
The hospital staff was concerned with Ashlyn's asthma and told us they were going to helicopter her to the hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. There is a hyperbaric chamber there, but not at this tiny hospital in Mitchell. At first they said I could fly with her, but when the helicopter arrived they said they could only take one patient so I couldn't fly with her. Spencer popped up and said, "I'm not a patient!" The medics argued over this because they said since he had been exposed to the CO he was impaired and they wouldn't let somene who was impaired fly with them. Remembering somewhere through all the chaos that someone mentioned that the half-life of CO was 90 minutes and knowing he had been there long enough to get below the critical point, he got them to agree that if he took another test and was below the critical level of 25 he could fly with them. So he took the test and was at 21. So off they went! I hung back with the kids until an ambulance arrived that would take us all down to Sioux Falls, about 70 miles away.
When Spence and Ashlyn had arrived at the other hospital, her CO levels had already dropped to 12.5. Once they got into the room the nurses tried to put an IV into her vein with no luck. Ashlyn had been poked so many times in the last few days that she had marks on ever one of her limbs and both elbows with the other thing in her shin. The nurses almost had a vein and then it broke or something. After two different nurses tried, they then called in one of the doctors. Once she arrived and was looking as to where she was going to attempt to find a vein, Spence offered a quick prayer to guide the fingers of the doctor to find the right location. With just a little bit of work, the vein was found. With the IV in, the other could come out of her bone. Two nurses pulled with all their might and couldn't get it out. You could see them holding her little leg down and pulling with everything they had without being to obvious about it. As you can imagine Ashlyn is screaming at the top of her lungs "mommy, daddy". Spence was so glad that he was with her to give her the support she needed. After learning that you need to pull and twist back and forth, the thing came out of her bone. While I was waiting the ER doctor came in and we were talking. He said, "you guys have someone watching out for you! This ER was packed all night right up until about 5 mintues before we got the call that you were coming in." Knowing how small that ER was and that they wouldn't have been able to handle all of us at once if they had already been busy, that was a huge blessing!!
So eventually we all got into the ambulance and headed to the other hospital. Cole slept the whole way with his legs crossed like he was just chillin'. Madi talked with me for a bit and then fell asleep. We got to the hospital and the kids were admitted on one level while I was admitted two floors down on the emergency level. Once they got me all checked out they decided I could go up and be admitted on the pedicatric wing so I could be near the kids. We ended up having a whole hallway to ourselves. Rooms 1-4 of the McNiven wing! The nurses on that pediatric wing were so kind! One helped set it up so the hospital would help pay for Spencer's taxi ride later that day to get back to Mitchell to get the Durango (the tow guy was another angel in our story, only charging spencer $50 for the tow,changing the tire for us and cutting the exhaust pipe... on a Sunday when he didn't even work!) Another nurse made fast friends with Cole and was so good with him all day. He has this inability to sit still for very long and she kept up with him and kept him entertained. When he first got checked in he kept saying he wanted to go check on his baby. So they let him walk with his oxygen to check on Ashlyn. Then when I got situated they let all the kids come in my room and see me. They were all off oxygen by that point except for Ashlyn. Cole climbed up onto my bed and said, "I'm glad you're alive mommy." Melt my heart!
Later that day Cole was chillin in his bed and the nurse heard the alarms go off in his room. So she went in there to find that he had taken off his oxygen, pulled off the oxygen reader from his finger and was working on the IV. When the nurse asked him what he was doing he said, "I am all better now. I am gonna home. I just need you to help me with this" pointing at his IV. Also, while he was visiting me in my room and I had the oxygen mask on he said, "mommy you need to breath like this and get all the yucky air out. Just like I did when I was in the car and was gonna die."
Another funny story was when he had to go potty. The nurse took him in the bathroom and asked if he wanted to sit down or stand up. Mmm sit down, he said. So she put the seat down for him. Then he pulled down his pants and went and stood on the side of the toilet and lifted the seat up and went potty. While going he put his hands on his hips and resumed the Peter Pan stance :) Then he gave his booty a little shake and pronounced he was done! The nurse was busting up when she was telling me that story. He has such character!
So eventually all our CO levels dropped back to zero and we were released from the hospital. The nurses had arranged for us to spend the night at a Ronald McDonald house just across from the hospital. They really went out of their way to help our family out and I am so very grateful for their concern and hard work in caring for my family!
Another blessing, however, was that a family friend of Spencer's family happened to live near that hospital! So his wife called us and asked if we wanted to stay the night at their home. They took their five kids and went into two bedrooms in the basement and let our family have the downstairs living room and Chad's family have the three bedrooms upstairs. Chad and Katrina and family were a day behind us and left Montana earlier that Sunday. So we had a comfortable place to stay and the kids were able to play with some new friends and cousins for a bit. We woke the next morning and got to work fixing the muffler and rearranging the trailer. We were able to find a shop in town that could fix our muffler and they had a new exhaust pipe installed in less than an hour.
Monday morning while they were loading up the trailers, Spencer was standing on his brother's trailer trying to get the snowmobile up and on the trailer. He had a rope wrapped around a plastic piece at the front of the snowmobile and was pulling up and back with all his might. Wouldn't ya know it, the plastic piece broke off, sending Spencer flying backwards, flipping over the front of the trailer, and coming to land on the handle that moves the trailer up and down at the hitch. He hit the end of the handle about an inch to the side of his top vertebrae on his neck, and just below the base of his skull. It was a huge blessing that he landed the way he did or he could have broken his neck!
We got on the road Monday around noon. We had purchased three carbon monoxide detectors and installed them throughout the vehicle. We decided that the reason we got poisoned was because the exhaust fumes were going straight back and being caught by the bumper that was now acting as a funnel almost and sending the fumes straight up the back of the vehicle and through the hatch opening. Also, while we were driving through South Dakota we passed some smelly dairies and decided to switch the air to circulate. So a combination of those things, plus the trailer we were towing was making the vehicle squat.
So we got back on the road Monday and Spencer, again, drove through the night. Tuesday morning we stopped at a park in Ohio somewhere and let the kids play for almost two hours while Spence napped. Then we got back in the car again and drove and drove. We got through most of Pennsylvania and were going up a hill in Wilkes-Barre and then down a hill. Spence put the engine into second gear to try to slow our descent without using the brakes and the engine never slowed itself down. So then we went up another hill and all the sudden the transmission disengaged. He would push the pedal and nothing would happen. So we rolled over to the side of the road and noticed an exit sign that said we were 1/2 mile from an exit. We called the insurance company and they called a tow company. It just so happened (miraculously) that there was a dodge dealership for the tow truck to tow the Durango to within a mile of the exit. Also, there was an enterprise rental car within less than half a mile from the exit. And wouldn't ya know it (miraculously) that enterprise had ONE truck left and it just happened to be a four door three-quarter ton pickup. So we got towed within 20 minutes and were back on the road in less than an hour. As we were driving up another hill, almost to the New York state line, our trailer blew a tire. Sepncer had brought a spare along, just for such a circumstance, so he quickly changed the tire and we were on our way. Again.
We finally pulled in to the drive way around 9:30 Tuesday night. Our bishop and his wife were waiting with food for our fridge and helping hands to help us get everything off the trailer. It was so nice to see someone who cares waiting for you at the finish line!
We had a lot of trials. But we had a lot of blessings too! Every time something happened, it couldn't have happened in a better location. We were with a nurse, near a hospital (twice), near a rental car place. We were surrounded by Angels both seen and unseen.
Since we have been home we have all been to the doctor for checkups and all our blood work looks normal. Spencer had his neck x-rayed and it was normal. We are all healthy and breathing and that is a gigantic miracle in and of itself!
Perhaps the most incredible story of all this is Madi's story. On Sunday while we were sitting in the hospital she and I were talking.
Madi: I was the last one of the car so I probably breathed the most bad air right?
Me: Well you were the last one out but Ashlyn actually had higher levels than you did.
Madi: Oh. Well that is probably because I held my breath.
Me: You what?
Madi: I held my breath.
Me: Why did you do that?
Madi: Because I knew there was something bad in the car that was making us all sick.
Me: How did you know that?
Madi: Because I'm smart. Or because Heavenly Father told me. Or Jesus.

Later when she was talking to Spencer about that experience and he was trying to help her realize where that knowledge came from, he asked her how Heavenly Father told her to hold her breath and she said, "The spirit spoke to my heart."
I know my Heavenly Father is aware of me and my family. I know he is watching out for us and even that we have guardian angels doing everything they can to keep up safe and sound. I know that when we are in need, we are blessed in so many small ways that it may be hard to overlook them and just focus on the negative. It would be so easy to call this the trip from Hell and feel like we have the worst luck in the world. Which is most people's reaction when we tell this story. But I know that we were actually blessed beyond anything we could imagine. I've been keeping a list of all the blessings that happened and are still happening as a result of this trip. It is extensive! I invite anyone who reads this to post any blessings they notice also, because it is always different from some one else's point of view.
Bottom line is, I am so grateful I have my family here, and that I can have my family with me forever! I know our protection and safety and guidance is a direct result of covenants we have made with our Father in Heaven, and our commitment to keeping those covenants. When we are obedient to the Lord, He can bless us in ways we never thought possible! He loves each of His children and is acutely aware of their individual needs. He does bless us, just not always in obvious ways.
Thank you to all our friends and families and strangers along the way! The prayers in our behalf were greatly appreciated and felt. I urge everyone to look outside your own situation and find those whom you can help in their time of need.