Current mood:

relieved

ER adventures

Friday afternoon, he had a low grade fever. I called the doctor's office, who told me to give him tylenol and observe. since it was low grade, there weren't any immediate concerns. At 4:15 Shabbat afternoon, I changed Ben's diaper.  I noticed that his belly was hot, so I took his temperature. 102.6. Since he's squirmy, and I wasn't sure if this was accurate, I rechecked with a different thermometer. 102 reading.  Given his urinary reflux issues, a fever can mean really, really bad things. I called the on-call doc (MDOC), told her the details and she recommended that we go to the ER. Okay, so it's shabbat, and my first thought was "okay, I'll walk to St. Elizabeth's Hospital."  Then I started thinking- they have nurses who know pediatrics, but given he has always been at Children's Hospital, we should go there. The MDOC told me that it didn't make a difference, but then she started talking about potantial overnight observation, and since he'd be transferred to Children's Hospital, I made the decision to take him to CH.  The plan was to go to  CH, have a urinalysis done to determine whether or not there was a UTI, and hopefully go hme after that.  
     I put Ben in the car and drove to CH.  Now, when I was pregnant, I learned about getting to the hospital on Shabbat. Little different now with a baby. I can't hop in a cab.  I rememeber learning that you're not supposed to turn he car off, but honestly, keeping a car running at a city hospital is dumb to the nth degree. Luckily, CH has valet, so I just left my car at valet and scurried into the ER.  He was seen pretty quickly, initially.  After getting his vitals, and hearing the clinicial info, they sent us to the ER waiting room. (an aside- one of the nurses remembered Ben from when he was admitted in 9/08. She remembered me, and she rememebered Ben's name).
In my haste to go to the ER, I left Ben's stroller at home. So I have an exhausted, fidgety baby, who was drooling on my shoulder so exxcessivly that I looked like I put on a wet shirt. Ben was hungry, so I fed him a bottle. As I was burping him, he puked. Everywhere. Gallons of puke. All over me. With no change of clothes for myself. SHIT.  I lost it. I started crying.  I had reached my breaking point. I kept it together on the outside, but inside, I was a wreck. Other parents ran to get a nurse and to get me some damp towels to clean ourselves off.  One woman offered to watch Ben while I went to the bathroom, but I didn't know her, so I declined. But she was very sweet and there with her own baby girl.  The Family Liaison worker came over to see what she could do, and I asked her for scrubs, and for a basinette of some sort, since Ben was psychotic from lack of sleep i twas 7pm, but he missed his nap, and he was exhausted).  She came back with scrubs, and a gigantic basinette. It looked like a single bed made into a wheelbarrow.  The FL held Ben while I went to tthe bathroom to suit up into my scrubs.
     As I got out, they finally called him to go into triage. We had been waiting about an hour.
They felt pretty strongly that Ben had a respitory virus.  The gave him a nebulizer treatment. He actually complied this time. Last time, he got so hysterical that they decided not to continue. So, his lungs were slightly wheezy, but that resolved.  Which leaves us with the UA......
Ben hadn't eaten in hours,a nd what he did eat was puked all over me.  They had to cathatererize him to get a urine sample. Nothing. Bone dry.  I gave him pedialyte while he was on the table, tubes all up in his business, with nurses holding him down. He slugged 4 ounces down in like a minute. No results. I gae him 6 more ounces.  No results.  They took outthe cath and put a bag on him to catch any urine, should he pee. Otherwise, they'd cath him again in an hour. Ben finally peed, they took the urine for cultures.....no UTI. Whew.
  The end result, after being at the ER for 6 hors start to finish, was that he has a slight respitory virus, which is causing the fever. It is NOT RSV again.  I have to give him small amount of liquids every hour, so I'll get pedialye today once the store opens. I'm alternating tylenol and motrin, should the fever come back.

I am once again grateful for Children's Hospital.  The staff were amazing. I told the FL clincian at one point that I knew she wasn't there to only help me, and that I appreciated her finding me supplies. She told me that parents forget everything when they go to the ER. Which is why I will always go back there, shoud we need it again.  The parents in the waiting room were very sweet and understanding as well.  Ben did not hold up his end of the bargain. He agreed to not go back to CH unless it was for a well-visit.  I'll have a long talk with him today about it.

Motherhood is not for the weak.
Happy Mother's Day!!!