Yesterday morning Brenna woke up nice and early. I got her set up in the recliner with a bowl of dry cereal, PBS kids and a blanket and explained how Mommy was up really late at the hospital and asked her to be a really good girl so I could get some more sleep before Kara woke up. What an awesome girl, she let me be so I could sleep a little longer. I woke back up not too much longer wondering how Kara was going to be. Almost afraid to find out, I laid in bed waiting to hear from her. Not too long after, she started calling out. She sounded ok, and we headed upstairs to get her.
She was happy to see us, and had to make sure to grab her usual three blankets, the stickers that had fallen off her pjs in the night and her hospital bracelet that she was holding when I put her in the crib. We made our way downstairs and she was warm. I took her temp and it was 103. Dang. I called to the ER to see what exactly we should do and was told to see our primary. Well, it was Friday and our primary isn't in on Fridays. Neither is our second choice and most of the time there isn't a third option for us. It's just too hard to start all over trying to get a different doctor to understand Kara's condition and how everything is somehow linked. As I explained to the ER doctor the night before, most often, we just wait things out at home if we can. He understood exactly what I meant by this. I called the clinic and the doctor on call was one that I was ok with seeing, especially with the ER records and everything from the night before.
We dropped Brenna off with a friend so she could play with other kids - stay busy playing and keeping her mind off her sister. She was so concerned and actually crying that she wanted to come with me the night before when I was leaving with Kara. She was happy to go play with Alana and Aidan and had no problem with me dropping her off and taking Kara. Kara and I headed out, on our way to the 2nd doctor in less than 12 hours.
The doctor we saw is one that I had when I was little so he knows me, my family and had actually seen Kara once before and remembered that she has some pretty unique health problems. We went over everything that they had ruled out and he ordered a chest x-ray because that was about the only thing they didn't do, due to her lungs sounding clear. He agreed that they were clear but thought it was still a good idea. Of course, the chest x-ray came back clear. He decided that this was probably something viral that we were dealing with and since she had been on fluids the night before, didnt' feel that she was at that point yet this time around. He explained to keep doing what we were doing, and that he was on through the weekend so if we had any problems to have him paged, if needed he'd have us come in for fluids.
We went home with my girl still running a 102 temp. At 4:30 I called that doctors nurse, explaining that her temp had stayed at 102 all day long and she was starting to have pretty bad diarrhea, but she had been playing pretty good throughout the afternoon. We went about our evening and I had Brenna go with Brian's Mom for the evening and stay over night, just in case. Besides, Brenna needed some attention and with us both focusing so much on Kara she wasn't too happy.
We put Kara to bed around 9 or so, and she went down no problem Still had the temp but seemed to be doing better. Brian and I had just decided it was time for bed, around midnight and as we were climbing into bed, Kara started crying. We listened for a minute trying to decide what to do when she started crying really hard. "I'll get a bottle, you go get her." is what I said as Brian ran up the stairs. She started crying harder. "Grab a towel!" Shit, I remember thinking, she's puking now. I got up there and she was throwing up and choking, crying. We brought her to the bathroom, holding her head over the sink, got her cleaned up and then back downstairs. She started again in the kitchen, still choking on it. It was really, really scary. We cleaned her up again, grabbed some towels and headed up to the ER. Third doctor visit in just over 24 hours.
She had calmed down by the time we got there. I dont' think she had anything left in her tummy to come out either way at this point. While waiting to register, the doctor came out and saw us there. It was the same doctor that we'd had the night before and he asked what was going on. At this point, he said, there is nothing more they can do here and told us it would be best to drive down to the U's Childrens ER, where her specialists are, there's a pediatrician and a lot more experience in peds. He explained we could check her in and go through the process to have an ambulance transfer but it's not really necessary and they were all out on calls at the time so it would probably be a few hours before we'd even be on our way, where if we brought her ourselves, we'd get there before we'd probably even leave Crosby. At this point, I felt totally defeated again. We walked out the door and I was bawling before we even got to the car. Scared for my baby, frustrated that I had no clue what was really going on with her and REALLY not wanting to get in the car for 2 1/2 hours at 12:30 at night.
We got home to pack our bags. All I could think about was how we were going to get NO sleep whatsoever. Kara perked up at at the sight of us packing, somewhat excited to "go bye-bye". We debated and debated. Brian called back to the ER and spoke w/ the doctor - do we go tonight, or do we get some sleep and go in the morning. As he was on the phone Kara started pushing our bag around the kitchen, ready to go. The doctor said it's up to us - and basically who really knows what the right thing is to do at this point.
We decided to go for it but for the first 1/4 of our trip kept questioning each other. Kara stayed awake the entire time, talking, watching a movie, fussing here and there. We arrived a little after 3:00 this morning. We sort of laughed it off and explained that it was kind of embarrassing that we were there and drove that far but Kara is REALLY sick. They understood, it happens often. The U Ped called the ER doc from our hometown and was explained everything that's gone on. He also talked to the GI doctor on call who was the same one the night before that our hometown doctor had spoken with. This process was a waiting game as the faxed records back and forth and waited for phone calls. Shortly before 5:00 this morning, still not having slept at all myself, Kara had JUST fallen asleep. The doctor came in and let me know that they decided to admit her, start her on fluids and run some more labs.
The nurses came in shortly after, and I laughed - sure, you guys wait til she FINALLY fell asleep to come in and bug her! Go figure, right? They looked for a good vein to get her IV in and had some trouble finding one. Kara was NOT happy but mostly because they had her all wrapped up in a blanket to hold her really still. They did get the IV in in one shot but it was really tricky and didn't actually go all the way in but was working just fine. There was a lot of messing around with it, which just made Kara more and more mad but they finally got it all taped up and the fluids started after taking the blood samples.
At about 6:30 this morning we were finally able to get to a room, with still no sleep. By this point my mind was absolutely fried, I couldn't think at all and was confused by my days with having been up for the last almost 24 hours. I'm way too old to be pulling up all nighters! This is when we had GI in, the residents in, a new shift of nurses. It's all pretty much a blur and we've filled in bits and pieces as the day has gone on.
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