Why I've been missing.

Sorry I've abandoned you all once again! It's been a really awful, stressful week in my world and I haven't had the time or motivation to come here and blog. I know I'm behind on the last bit of that 30 day challenge, so I'll probably finish that up in the next day or two.

Anyways. Why I've been missing. (This is going to be really long, so hit the jump for the details.)


So, you remember when I told you about Kaetana getting her shots on Tuesday? She didn't like them, and I didn't like her reaction to them, but that was how it was and I got over it pretty quick. That Wednesday, she was crabby and groggy and unhappy but I've always read that a lot of kids react to shots like that so I was just going along with it. I'm sure she was being normal in her reactions, too. But then Thursday came along and she got worse. She was just not her self at all, and it was sad but again - that's just how it was going to be, and I sucked it up and hoped the effects would wear off the next day. Now, I'm not really that sure if they did or not because on Friday she was AWFUL. Crying for hours and nothing I did would make her stop, she ate but not voluntarily, she was feverish and developed pretty ridiculous diarreah.

I, being a first time mom, freaked out and called her doctor. I spoke to a triage nurse and she said that although most often the effects of shots go away within the first day or two, sometimes it can last for up to four. She told me to watch the fever, not let it get above 102(!), and just make sure she was eating enough so she didn't get dehydrated. And that's what I did for about 6  miserable, horrible hours. She didn't get better, she got worse. She ate, sure, but it didn't seem to be doing a whole lot since she was having a bowel movement at least once an hour, and towards the end of the day there was blood in them. Her temperature got up to 101.8 and I gave up, made John come home, and we took her to the ER.

We sat in the waiting room for about an hour before they called us back, and when they did they basically told me she's fine and sent us home. God knows what that was about. They did say that if she didn't get better, and if her temperature didn't go down with Tylenol, to bring her back or call her doctor because they were open for a couple hours in the morning. By the time we got home, Kaetana was so worn out that she just went to bed. I had had a pretty draining day so I did as well. She woke up at about 3 am because she had a dirty diaper, and when I went to change her she was BURNING UP. I checked her temp and it was back up to 101.9 rectally. I gave her some Tylenol and rocked her to sleep. We slept with her in our bed for the rest of the night, and when we woke up about about 7, her temp was down to 100 and she ate a bottle just fine. My spirits lifted, and John went to work. Because I was home alone with a sick baby (and not feeling too hot myself, I developed a ridiculous sinus infection) I had my parents come over to watch her while I took a shower.

Kaetana barfed all over my mom, it was awful. Then I checked her temperature and it was back up to 101.3, less than 2 hours after I had given her another dose of Tylenol. I was fed up, and tired of people telling me to "wait it out" and "keep an eye on her, but I'm sure she'll be fine" so I called John away from work once again, and we headed back out to the hospital - this time determined they figure out what was wrong with her. If this was indeed a bad reaction to the shots she got, I wanted to know. If she just caught a bug and it was treating her shitty, I wanted to know. I just wanted someone to fix my baby girl.

So, once again, we were at the hospital sitting there. This time we were sitting for over an hour, and had no signs of anyone coming out. The waiting area was packed, and I was sad because I didn't want Kaetana to pick up some nasty sickness off of some hacking person who didn't know how to cover their mouths. Eventually, a nurse called us back and because all the rooms were taken, they had us in the hallway on a bed. One of the nurses voiced her concern regarding another baby that had RSV that was also in the hospital - she didn't want Kaetana to get it. I was seriously freaked out about that! But, anyways, because they didn't know what was wrong with her and because at this point she was pretty dehydrated, they decided to get an IV in her and pump her full of fluids. It was horrible because her veins were so fragile due to the dehydration, the nurse blew the attempt twice before actually getting the needle in to stay. By that time, we were transferred to a room with a door, and there we sat for about 9 hours. They gave her fluids, took a urine sample after a failed attempt at a catheter and the use of some weird bag thing, and drew blood to test.

After that long stint in the ER, we were eventually transferred to the Pediatric Unit where we were told she was being admitted for the night. It was depressing because she had to be in this weird metal crib thing in the middle of the room, and it was difficult to hold her because of her IV. Thankfully, she slept a lot of the time. I spent the night with her, and she had the most wonderful night nurse. We were there until about 8 pm the next day when they finally discharged us and said it was the flu. Now we're back home, Kaetana is doing a little better, and hopefully things will be good so we won't have to go back to the doctor again until her 4 month visit!

 


Sorry that was so long. It was a stressful, horrible week/weekend.