Merry New President's Day!
There, that should catch me up for a while.
Nothing in my life ever could have prepared me for the holiday we have had. From giggles and smiles at various Christmas celebrations to high fevers and overnight hospital stays. We rang in the New Year at MUSC's Children's Hospital with a toast of creme soda for mommy and daddy and IV antibiotics for baby.
Without boring you with details, Thursday after Christmas Madelyn was running a slight fever and we called her pediatritian who recommended that we take her to a pediatritian the next morning in Asheville because she wasn't acting like she felt bad at all. By 5 am her fever had skyrocketed to 103.2 and we took her straight to the ER. An ER not equipped to care for 2 month old babies. She had a chest x-ray, they drew blood, tried to run a catheter twice and failed twice, and then the doctor tried to trick (yes, I said TRICK) us into letting them do a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) on my sweet baby girl. Luckily we knew what he was doing and refused the lumbar puncture. We were admitted to the hospital and they monitored her only giving tylenol to keep her fever down. Her fever went down and we were released on Saturday afternoon with a diagnosis that it was a virus because nothing else showed up. On Sunday we returned home and she had a normal temperature all the way home and 45 minutes after we got home it skyrocketed again to 102.8. Back to the ER we went. This time it was to the children's ER and they ran all of the tests needed including the lumbar puncture to test for menengitis. They started an IV and admitted us. Within an hour we found out that she had a nasty urinary tract infection and needed iv antibiotics. We were discharged on New Years Day with a prescription for her to take at home and a much happier baby.
Now, I'm not saying that the other hospital gave her the UTI, but nothing showed up in her urine when they tested it and I'm kind of pissed that they tried to use a feeding tube to cath my baby and I'm even more pissed that the doctor thought we were stupid enough to let his incompetent ER put a needle into my babies spine! He just glossed right past lp like it was nothing. All he said to us was "We're going to test for menengitis." and didn't even say how they test for it. Thank GOD we knew and refused to put her through more pain than neccessary.
I have never felt so helpless and useless as I did looking over my sick baby and not understanding why her fever was so high and she was so happy. That first night in the hospital she laughed and cooed while her fever was down and then she would want to eat and sleep as it crept higher and higher. She just looked so pitiful and holding her made her hotter and more uncomfortable but she wanted to be comforted. It broke my heart to not be able to make her feel better. I know that there will be more times like these, other times when I have to hold my daughters little hands while some medical procedure is done to her. I cried when she cried because I just knew she was going to hate me for letting them stick her with needles. Her little eyes looking into mine while she screamed and held my fingers so tight her tiny knuckles were white. I will never forget that feeling, I will never forget feeling so horrible because she couldn't understand that it was going to help her, that the pain would stop and that because of the tests we would be able to make her feel better. All I could tell her was that it was going to be OK but I'm not sure she believed me.
Everytime she smiles at me and laughs at me I know that she has forgotten, but I haven't and I won't.
Nothing in my life ever could have prepared me for the holiday we have had. From giggles and smiles at various Christmas celebrations to high fevers and overnight hospital stays. We rang in the New Year at MUSC's Children's Hospital with a toast of creme soda for mommy and daddy and IV antibiotics for baby.
Without boring you with details, Thursday after Christmas Madelyn was running a slight fever and we called her pediatritian who recommended that we take her to a pediatritian the next morning in Asheville because she wasn't acting like she felt bad at all. By 5 am her fever had skyrocketed to 103.2 and we took her straight to the ER. An ER not equipped to care for 2 month old babies. She had a chest x-ray, they drew blood, tried to run a catheter twice and failed twice, and then the doctor tried to trick (yes, I said TRICK) us into letting them do a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) on my sweet baby girl. Luckily we knew what he was doing and refused the lumbar puncture. We were admitted to the hospital and they monitored her only giving tylenol to keep her fever down. Her fever went down and we were released on Saturday afternoon with a diagnosis that it was a virus because nothing else showed up. On Sunday we returned home and she had a normal temperature all the way home and 45 minutes after we got home it skyrocketed again to 102.8. Back to the ER we went. This time it was to the children's ER and they ran all of the tests needed including the lumbar puncture to test for menengitis. They started an IV and admitted us. Within an hour we found out that she had a nasty urinary tract infection and needed iv antibiotics. We were discharged on New Years Day with a prescription for her to take at home and a much happier baby.
Now, I'm not saying that the other hospital gave her the UTI, but nothing showed up in her urine when they tested it and I'm kind of pissed that they tried to use a feeding tube to cath my baby and I'm even more pissed that the doctor thought we were stupid enough to let his incompetent ER put a needle into my babies spine! He just glossed right past lp like it was nothing. All he said to us was "We're going to test for menengitis." and didn't even say how they test for it. Thank GOD we knew and refused to put her through more pain than neccessary.
I have never felt so helpless and useless as I did looking over my sick baby and not understanding why her fever was so high and she was so happy. That first night in the hospital she laughed and cooed while her fever was down and then she would want to eat and sleep as it crept higher and higher. She just looked so pitiful and holding her made her hotter and more uncomfortable but she wanted to be comforted. It broke my heart to not be able to make her feel better. I know that there will be more times like these, other times when I have to hold my daughters little hands while some medical procedure is done to her. I cried when she cried because I just knew she was going to hate me for letting them stick her with needles. Her little eyes looking into mine while she screamed and held my fingers so tight her tiny knuckles were white. I will never forget that feeling, I will never forget feeling so horrible because she couldn't understand that it was going to help her, that the pain would stop and that because of the tests we would be able to make her feel better. All I could tell her was that it was going to be OK but I'm not sure she believed me.
Everytime she smiles at me and laughs at me I know that she has forgotten, but I haven't and I won't.
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