WARNING: The following blog post is almost entirely about the bodily functions of my 14 month old. Read at your own risk! Audrey's Trick or Treat time this year consisted of lots of tricks and not so many treats! Little Missy goes to MDO twice a week and this past week was supposed to be filled with fun for her! However, she came down with a stomach virus Tuesday and missed all the fun.
However-- the absolute worst thing that she had to go through was a trip to the ER on Sunday. I had taken her to the doctor on Wednesday and they said she had a virus. At that time, they said it would last 3-5 days and could possibly last up to two weeks! They stressed to me to keep her hydrated.
Fast forward to Sunday. At that point, she wasn't eating or drinking anything so I called the on-call nurse to try to get an appointment for that afternoon (they take sick patients on the weekends). I explained to her what was going on and she asked me when the last time Audrey had had a wet diaper. Well... she didn't like my response! At that point it had been over 24 hours! She sent us to the ER!
I started panicking and running around the house getting our stuff ready and Clay (always the voice of reason) pointed out to me that Audrey seemed to be feeling much better and how did I know that she hadn't had a wet diaper since she'd had an upset stomach. He planted the seed of doubt in my mind but I am a rule-follower and the nurse said to go so we went (I told the nurse she had been sick throughout the night-- wouldn't she think of that? Apparently not).
He also brought up that we were taking a risk by taking her to the ER around the other patients so we came up with a plan that he would stay outside with her and I would wait inside until they called her name. When they called for her, I would call him on his Linc and he would hurry in. That way she had the least amount of exposure as possible.
During the time I was sitting in the waiting room with all the heebie jeebies and people coughing up their lungs, I watched Clay and Audrey run up and down the sidewalk, watched her drink and drink from her sippy cup, eat a banana and just overall look like a healthy child. I kept thinking back to what Clay had said about the wet diaper and how she was acting like she felt so good! She was eating! and drinking! They finally called her name and I put our plan in place-- I called him, and here he came. I could see them coming across the parking lot when the nurse that called her name asked me where she was. I pointed to her in the parking lot and she said, "Sorry, but I have to go to the next person in line."! AHH!! I said, "She'll be right here-- see her! We didn't want her to be exposed to whatever was in the waiting room so we waited outside". Clay and Audrey are now approaching the door to the ER. She had already called the next person so I went out to stop them. I told him what happened and we both decided we were just going to go home. Audrey was eating, drinking, and acting like she felt well. So we left.
Almost as soon as we got home, she started acting like she felt unwell and we started questioning our decision. What if? What if she was dehydrated? What if she hadn't really had a wet diaper during the night and it was just sickness? After she woke up from her nap, we took her back to the ER. We felt that even if she had had a wet diaper during the night, she still hadn't had one since she woke up that morning (6 hours) so we wanted to get her checked out.
When we got to the ER there were 12 people ahead of Audrey. Clay and Audrey again waited outside but this time they stayed right by the door! The nurse that had originally rejected us was still there and was very accomodating the second time! She apologized and said that she knew the other patient would only take a few minutes and that was why she had bumped us. She was VERY nice and actually moved Audrey up to the #6 spot.
After 6 hours, 2 blown veins, an arm pumped with fluids that made it swell up so much that she couldn't bend it to suck her thumb, and a U-bag, they decided to send us home with the U-bag. They said at that point that she was not dehydrated and that she probably had a urinary tract infection. They wanted us to take the urine sample (once she finally went) to our pediatrician the next morning. So, we brought our baby home. She didn't go to the bathroom until around midnight.
I did as they said and took it to the pedi the next morning. Well, guess what.. the sample was too old so they needed to start the process all over again! Again, they put a u-bag on her and again, we waited. I know I do not have a medical degree or any form of medical training what so ever but I still do not understand why in the world one would have to test the urine of a baby who is not URINATING in order to find out what is wrong with her! When they were asked, they kept saying it was because they had to test it for the UTI. Anyway-- back to the pedi-- they put the u-bag on her and we wait. And I get irritated and show my fanny in the doctor's office to the nurses. And we wait. And Audrey gets irritated and shows herself. Finally, the doctor (not my normal pedi, he was off that day) comes in and says, "I hear you have had a rough time the last few days!".
Oh, yeah-- Audrey had a wet diaper right when we got to the office that day and the day before when we got to the ER. She also had a wet diaper that morning when I woke her up-- granted it had other "stuff" in there but I could tell it had urine in it also.
The dr. then proceeds to tell me that they are not going to catherize Audrey and they are not going to make us sit in the office until they get a sample. They are going to take the u-bag off and the sample is not needed! The dr. did think she had been dehydrated the day before but due to the fluids she received, she was no longer. She gave us a prescription for her tummy trouble, lots of suggestions for how to get fluids in her other than through an IV and suggestions for foods that could soothe her tummy and help replace the good bacteria that she was losing.
The entire time I am listening to her, Audrey is pointing at the door and grunting. She was READY TO GO! We left, went to get her prescription filled and went home! After waking from her nap, she immediately seemed to be feeling better. She wanted me to put her down (she hadn't done that in 6 days) and she wanted to play with her kitchen! We went outside and she didn't sleep the entire day! All good signs!! She didn't get sick but twice yesterday and twice today! She's eating up a storm and drinking and drinking-- but she's still not having many wet diapers.
Soo.. here I am still worrying and planning to call the dr. in the morning. She seems 100% better but only had 1 wet diaper today and 2 dirty (upset) ones. I am so ready for my sweet little baby to get well!! I think she is definitely on the mend-- just not fast enough for my liking! If you have hung in there and read this entire blog post, WOW! Now go read something that has nothing to do with diapers or poo!
Side note: Read your prescriptions and listen to your doctors when they tell you what they are prescribing for your little ones. The pharmacy gave me the wrong medicine for Audrey! Thank goodness I was listening to the dr. and I read the labels on the medicine! I usually don't when it pertains to me but Audrey is a differnt story! The pharmacists are human-- they make mistakes!
