holy ER!

This has been one hell of a week for our baby girl.  She has been so lucky and hasn't gotten too sick yet.  It seems like with Bo we were battling ear infections every other week and his small stint in the hospital with RSV, we thought we were home free with this little girl.  But on Tuesday we picked her up in the late afternoon from Daycare because she had a fever.  Josh took her to Urgent care while I stayed home with Bo.  They did some blood tests and her temp was at 105.  Her white blood cell count was elevated and they reccommended we go to the ER in order to get more test done with faster results.  So Bo and I hopped in the car to meet Josh and Vallery at the Urgent Care.  From there I took Vallery to the ER and what a night we had.  They pricked her toe (pricked her finger at the Urgent Care) and did some more blood tests.  She had to get a catheter for a urine sample (testing for UTI) and they also ran xrays (testing for Pneumonia).  Her fever stayed at 103 (even after motrin and tylenol).  They also tested for RSV and Flu.  Everything came back negative, thankfully.  But we had to stay there until her fever went down.  Finally at about 1 am her fever went down to 100 and we went home for the night.  The next day I stayed home with her and she seemed to be acting better.  We had a follow up check up with our normal pediatrician and she also couldn't find anything, so they decided it was viral and it would just have to run its course. 
 

the start of a long night in the ER

 

 

snuggling with Mama on Wednesday

 

still smiling even when she is sick!

check up appt on Wed.

 

On Thursday and Friday Josh stayed home with her and both mornings after her bottle she threw up a lot of what she drank, but I informed the doctor and they didn't seem too concerned.  Saturday and Sunday Josh had to work and it wasn't like was getting worse, and when she was awake she acted pretty happy and normal.  She didn't throw up at all on Saturday morning, so we thought she might be taking the corner.  But we had given her ibubrofen and tylenol every 4 hours for 4 days now and her temp stayed pretty conisistent and didn't get below 99-100.  It would spike to 103-104, but mostly at night. 

Finally Sunday morning after her having this persistant fever and she also vommited up 4 ozs of her bottle I thought it was time to go back into the DR.  I took Bo down to the police station and Vallery and I headed back to ER.  Finally the DR heard a little crackling in one spot in her lungs, so they decided to do another Xray.  After the Xray they put and IV in her little arm (so sad) and also drew more blood.  But after looking at the Xray she had developed pneumonia.  It was such a relief to finally have an answer.  So after a bit they gave her some liquid anitbiotics through her IV and we were able to go home around 330.  Josh and Bo did come down and brought me some lunch, but then around 330 Josh dropped Bo back off because there was a homicide in DSM so he was going to be working for who knows how long.  A side note to all of this, I had gotten food poisoning on Saturday night and was vomiting from that.  So once I found out that Josh was going to be working I immediately called my mom to see if she could come and help with the kiddos for the night.  We got back to house around 4 and my mom got there aroudn 530 (thank goodness).  I felt like I was on my death bed by the time she got there. 

with her IV

The next morning she was like a whole different baby.  She didn't have a fever for the first time in 6 days and she seemed to act pretty normal.  Like the Dr said in the ER, she seems pretty tough because she is so responsive and happy for most babies that have this.  (that's my tough girl!)  Grandma left around 1030 and Vallery I relaxed and slept a bit before we had to go back for a follow up appt at her normal pediatrician for another round of antibiotics (2 shots in the thigh of rocefin).  They also tried to draw blood again from both arms, but they couldn't find the vein, which is ultra irritating for me because Vallery had been through hell already and the last thing she needed was to get poked with a needle (and it was in her arm for about 1 minute while the tech moved it around to find the vein), not once but twice.  So finally they drew blood again from her toe.  She took the shots like a champ and Dad is taking her in today for her final round of antibiotics.  We are so thankful that she has not had a fever since Sunday so the antibiotics are doing what they are supposed to.  THANKFULLY!  We are just glad to have our happy girl back.  Last night was the first night she slept in footie pjs.  She had slept in a short-sleeved onesies for days due to her fever.  She is such a champ and Josh and I couldn't be more proud of her.