We had a few scary days last week! On Monday, Alexis had a severe case of diarrhea. Which didn't surprise me, since our babysitter's kid had had diarrhea the week before while Alexis was there. His lasted only about a day and I fully expected Alexis's case to be about the same. On Tuesday morning, she still had the issue, but not quite as bad. She vomited once or twice as well, but by that afternoon, she seemed to feel better and both the diarrhea and vomiting had stopped. Wednesday, she started vomiting again. I wasn't worried about it though, she didn't have any fever and it wasn't very often. We were pushing the fluids, so that she wouldn't get dehydrated. Thursday, however, everything changed. She had been throwing up throughout the night and it started happening more frequently. By that morning she was throwing up every 15-20 minutes. Everytime she'd take a drink of anything (still trying to push the fluids) she'd immediately throw it back up. Still no fever, so I called the nurse and left a message so they'd call me back. I didn't know how much to worry about things, and I wanted to know when I should start worrying about dehydration or other things. An hour later, when she was lying on the floor of the bathroom because she didn't have the energy to go back to the couch after throwing up again, I called the doctor to make the appointment. The nurse hadn't called me back yet, but at that point I didn't care. As I was getting ourselves ready to go, the nurse did call back and I talked to her about Alexis's symptoms and everything. She said that it sounded like it was the flu virus and to continue pushing the fluids and let it run it's course. She didn't think I needed to worry and to give it another day before needing to come in to see the doctor. Since I had already made the appointment, I told her we were coming in anyway, that I was very worried about dehydration.
We got to the doctor, miraculously without her throwing up in my car (the longest period of time that day without her vomiting). When we got called back, the nurse had weighed her. She had lost 4 pounds since we had weighed her a little over a week before. She went from 40 pounds to 36 pounds; that's 10% of her body weight. :( When the doctor walked in, he looked at her sleeping on the bench by my lap, and made the comment that it was an odd time of day for a kid her age to be sleeping (10:30 am). He had to wake her up, took one look in her eyes, which were glassed over and totally lifeless, felt her hands and feet, which were ice cold, and told us he was sending her to the ER. He had been in the room a total of five minutes. I drove her to the ER and we were immediately taken back to a room and she was immediately hooked up to an IV. When the nurses came in to do her IV she didn't move, she didn't flinch at all when they poked her with the needle; and they aren't small needles either. They said that they know the child was sick when they don't even whimper when they insert the needle. As she was laying there, she looked so bad. How could I have not noticed how bad she looked at home? Her eyes were black and sunken in, her cheeks were hallow looking, I could notice that her wrists and fingers and toes were much skinnier. Maybe it was because I knew she had lost weight at that point, or that I knew things were bad, or maybe it was her against the white sheets and walls, not against the colorful things at home, that made it stand out more. But she looked so sick and it was so scary to see her that way.
We were in the ER for about five hours. Peter who was driving home from Wenatchee that day, finally arrived after we were there about four hours. Finally, we were moved upstairs to the Medical & Pediatric Care Unit and were told that they were admitting her for the night. They had taken some blood when they inserted the IV and I was told then, that it was a very good thing I had brought her in that day and hadn't waited. Her potassium and sodium levels were super low and she was VERY dehydrated, and if we had waited much longer, it might have been too late. I about collapsed at that point. She was still vomiting even after having the IV drip in for a couple hours, so they had given her some anti-nausea medicine to stop that. She slept and slept and slept after that. Peter went home to help out with Natalie, who was worried about Alexis and wigging out at home and I stayed overnight with Alexis.
The next morning, she was feeling better, but not great. They wanted her to be able to eat something and not throw it up for a couple hours before they released her. She did not want to eat anything. I don't blame her. She was drinking lots of fluids and keeping those down, thank goodness! Around lunch time, I got her to eat a bite of banana. They wanted her to eat a banana to bring up her potassium levels which were still low. But she said it upset her tummy too much, and sure enough a few minutes later she threw it up. Which made her even more scared to eat anything more. The doctors and nurses started talking about the possibility of her staying over night again. By this time, Alexis was aware enough of her IV and was complaining about it hurting and being uncomfortable. She was also super bored and wanted to go home. I told her that I understood, but she needed to get better and be able to eat. Finally, around 4:00, I was able to get her to drink a cup of broth. She was able to keep that down, and at 7:00 the doctor said he felt confident enough to send her home! Alexis was so scared about them taking out the IV. There was even one point that she said that nevermind, she didn't want it out and would stay in the hospital. But out it came, with a lot of screaming and crying (mostly because of the tape coming off and jostling around the needle) and we, finally, got to go home!
She was still sickly and exhausted! Saturday morning, she threw up a couple times, so we called the doctor again and he said that to keep pushing the liquids and he wouldn't have us come in again just yet, but if she threw up again, to call him back immediately. Thankfully she didn't. She slept a lot, but when she was awake, she was more herself. Talking, playing a little, and she had life in her eyes again!
This was one of the most scary experiences of my life as a mother I've ever had. The only experience that would match this one is when I was in the hospital giving birth to Natalie and her heartbeat dropped dramatically, and I was rushed in for an emergency c-section. Now that I've come close to losing both of my girls, hopefully, that will be all I have to go through! I wouldn't wish that experience on any child, or mother. Scary, scary, scary!!!
