Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Our tiny patient

(sorry it's so long) On May 18, 2011 Sophia woke up around 5:30am screaming. She had also woken up twice before this but went back down fairly easily. When I went in to check on her she felt warm. I took her temperature three times and got 102, 103, 102 degrees. So I mistakenly got her a bottle of milk and some tylenol. Within 10 minutes she had thrown it all up. All over our bed. So gross. I promptly put her in the bath and tried to clean her and I up all the while she was screaming. When I took her out, still smelling of vomit, I tried to call TJ (he was on call the night before and was at the hospital). I couldn't reach him. I had never written down his pager number so I called the hospital to get it. They wouldn't give it to me but paged him. He didn't answer the page (come to find out later they put 'wife' on the page and he thought it meant a patient's wife wanted to talk to him so he didn't call it back). Then I tried to call one of the residents. He didn't answer. I finally called Nadia, another resident whom I woke up, and she paged him for me. He called me back and came home. Sophie wouldn't eat or drink anything and we couldn't get her to take her medicine so her fever wasn't coming down. She was miserable, just laying in daddy's arms, basically lifeless. I was able to get in to a pediatrician (not mine because she was out) who said that normally she would send us home but she just didn't like how pitiful Sophia looked. So instead of directly admitting us to the pediatric floor she sent us to the ER where we could get testing done a little quicker. One of the docs in the ward was her doctor there and he ordered blood tests, chest x-ray, iv fluids and antibiotics, Zofran for the vomiting, and ibuprofen. The doctor was hoping she would perk up from the fluids and antibiotics but she didn't. He got the blood tests back and said that her little body was producing new white blood cells so her levels were high, indicating infection. The chest x-ray also looked like pneumonia. So, she was admitted. When they got a room ready for us and came to take us up, she started perking up. She even ate a popsicle on the way. Figures, doesn't it. Still took her a while to have a wet diaper, even after the second round of fluids but she looked so much better when we got her settled in her room. She had another popsicle and ate some chicken and bread that night (after they had brought her this weird adult meal that TJ wouldn't even eat). TJ stayed with her that night so I could come home and get some decent sleep. When I went back the next morning she had her iv out (TJ was able to arrange that the night before - some perks to being working at the hospital) and she was eating breakfast with daddy. She was so much happier! The nurses were awesome and they helped make the best out of a sad situation. Those first few hours were definitely the scariest and I think I totally terrified my parents. But everything ended up okay and her pediatrician as well as the radiologist were not convinced that it was pneumonia. When I took her back to the pediatrician a week later for a follow up she had an ear infection. The doc thought that is how the infection manifested itself. She is much happier and not as whiny now! We took a couple of pictures with our phones so they aren't the best quality. 
Doesn't she look pitiful. This is after the fever broke. My dear friend Nicole came by and brought me food and water and this little bear for Sophie. Her hand all wrapped up so she couldn't pull out the iv. 
 The wagon we found the next morning. She loved going around the floor and visiting all the nurses. The day before she was attached to the iv pole but she wanted to walk all around. That was an adventure with prego mama trying to chase her and make sure the didn't pull the iv out.  
The crib in the room looked like a cage. But it worked very nicely keeping her in one spot!

1 comment:

  1. That was one CRAZY ear infection! IV and kids make me sad. The whole concept of sticking it into a little kid's hand is horrible. I am glad she bounced back through that night. And yes, you were probably entertaining patients as they saw you walking around with Sophia in the wagon.

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