Yes, that's my sweet girl covering herself with a blanket because the window is too bright (I think she had a headache)
This whole mess started with what we thought was just a nasty cold on Thursday. Friday (which was New Year's Eve) was when the incessant vomiting began. By Saturday (New Year's day) we were pretty worried about our sprout because she wasn't keeping anything down, including any liquids. This is when I called the doctor, they were so crazy busy that day, that the nurse actually asked me if I really thought it was necessary to bring her in ?? (and FYI this isn't our regular doctor's office, it was the on-call one for the weekend). So, she asked me if I could try a few things first to see if we get her to keep some Pedialyte down, and then call back if it didn't work.
So, for 3 hours I tried to give Emarie a half a teaspoon of Pedialyte every 10 minutes. Long story short, it did not work. So we were permitted an appointment for the only available time left around 7 pm. And the place was packed when we got there, not even room to sit. Thankfully Em's crazy vomiting and fever made it so we didn't have to wait long (much to other people's dismay... I'm sure they'd been waiting for hours, YIKES!)
The doctor did not believe her to be dehydrated just yet, but did tell us that he thought she had pneumonia and decided it would be best to give her an in-office breathing treatment, to which she responded nicely enough to that he had Praxair come and bring one to us at home. And we did those treatments on the dot every 4 hours. He also gave her a prescription for some heavy-duty antibiotics.
But still, our girl was not getting any better. In fact, if anything she was getting worse. By Sunday we still hadn't gotten her to keep a single thing down (including those antibiotics), so I called the doctor's office again to see about getting some Zofran (anti-nausea medicine). After what seemed like hours (and actually was), I called again to see if they had talked to the doctor yet.... no such luck! But I brought it to their attention again, and told them she no longer had tears, she hadn't had a wet diaper since the night before and her mouth was dry and gray. They said they would talk to the doctor right away, and 5 minutes later they called to say they had called in the Zofran.
Well darn it all, she couldn't even keep that down! We didn't know what to do, so I got the day off on Monday (first day back from break, was also supposed to be Emarie's first day too :( so sad that she missed it!), and took her to the doctor. This time it was her regular pediatrician who is one of the best people on the planet! Her appointment was supposed to be around 5, but I got a call at 12 from his nurse (also an amazing person) saying that he wanted to see her as soon as we could get there.
Me being the intuitive mother (haha) thought there was a possibility we wouldn't be coming home for awhile, got some things together for what I thought would turn into a hospital stay. And I was right. My sweet undeserving little girl, spent 5 days in the hospital :( Luckily this time, they were able to get an IV in at Utah Valley, so we were able to stay there this time, which is nice since it's 5 minutes from our house, our work, basically our lives.
Getting the IV in. Took a whopping 10 people to hold her down (even with as weak as she was) and about 5 different tries. But they got it in!!
Daddy got there just in time to help hold
Next day, daddy caught a rare moment of energy and happiness (sadly they were rare for the duration of the stay) I was at work that morning :-P
Yeah, and she still wasn't keeping much down at this point, but chest x-ray had shown no pneumonia, so they stopped the antibiotics and then they tested some mucous for RSV
A few days later, we were in much better spirits and finally started keeping things down!
I really think this picture says she's thinking, "Yeah, I'm tough as nails, what of it?"
and that's an oral cleaning sponge, not a sucker ;)
Wanted to give mommy a hug (mommy needed lots of these, because she was scared!)
Once we got her to finally start keeping Pedialyte down (thanks to a suggestion from me, to do a "cleansing" of sorts), they were then able to try her on a mixture of formula and Pedialyte. Once that went well, it was full-strength formula, and once she was up to the rate they wanted her at, they took out her IV, and we got to go home.
Everything they tested for came back negative, so we're still not entirely sure what caused this whole mess. The doctor seems to think it is something going on in her lungs, though not pneumonia, since she did respond to the nebulizer treatments pretty well (so we're still doing those, only just once a day now). We are just grateful that she is ok, because this was the sickest she has ever been (which is saying a lot). I think I prayed harder that week than I ever have in my entire life! And I thank all of you that joined us in prayer for our sweetie. I have no doubt that it worked! As well as the priesthood blessing my grandfather gave her.
Friday is when we went home...
and who looks happy about that??
She's still not 100% better, but we're getting there, and Emarie is hoping that she'll be able to have her first day of school this Monday instead :)
Thank you for all your prayers, love, words of encouragement and concern for our little girl. I would have crumpled if it hadn't been for you. There were really some times that I thought I might lose my little girl. So really, thanks so much for being there for us through this.
