Thursday night Nate was pretty fussy and running a low grade fever, typical of when he’s teething, so I assumed that’s all it was when I put him to bed. He was up a couple of times through the night but I let him cry himself back to sleep, thinking it was his normal get up a couple times through the night routine. However when he woke up at 4am and I went in there he was on fire. I took his temperature and it was 100.something, but he wouldn’t really eat much and wouldn’t stop crying. I thought something is different. He finally fell back asleep and woke again around 7am. Again, he was inconsolable and wouldn’t really eat. I knew something was wrong. So I immediately packed up and took him in to the doctor. The doctor and I both had thought it might be an ear infection, but after checking him over, he couldn’t find anything wrong. At this point, Nate was hysterical and the doctor was practically shouting over him to talk to me. He wanted to run some blood tests, thinking it might be sepsis or meningitis. I almost lost it when I heard that. So we packed up and went to the hospital for the blood work. I called Jaime to let her know what was going on and she immediately came up and met me at the hospital. The first blood work to come back was the cell count, which was okay, so we headed back to the doctor’s office to get a shot of antibiotics. The blood culture wouldn’t come back for 24 hours, so the doctor decided to start with the antibiotics, standard procedure. Well, during the time we were at the hospital waiting for the results, Nate’s right eye was beginning to get red and puffy. It was slightly red when we first got to the doctor’s office, but I thought it was from all the crying. After Nate got his shot, the doctor came in and saw his eye. He said if it would have looked like that a few hours ago, he would have diagnosed the eye infection right away. Sorry. That’s what he said, sorry. Okay, it was a scary few hours of not knowing what was going on, but it was better to be safe than sorry (although watching Nate get his blood drawn was so sad).
We needed to go back Saturday morning for a follow up visit. Friday night went okay. Nate slept okay but his appetite was still really low. His eye looked even worse Saturday morning, almost completely swollen shut at this point. The minute the doctor saw him she told me she wanted to admit him into the hospital for 24-48 hours. This time I did lose it. She said it would be best since he wasn’t responding to the antibiotics given yesterday. She wanted to run some more blood work and this time set up an IV to administer the antibiotics. So I took him up to the hospital and got him admitted in. He was in a big baby crib and even had to wear a little baby hospital gown. So sad. The nurses brought him in a room to have his blood work done and then tried to give him an IV. After two failed attempts, they decided to call the nurses from the birthing center to try it. So about an hour later they came up and tried, three times, with as much success. They tried his hands and feet but he’s so chubby that they couldn’t find the pathways or a good vein. So they called the doctor in. This time they wouldn’t let me in the room (at this point I probably had had as much as I could take watching them poke at him and holding him down while he’s screaming). The doctor tried a couple more times and even tried once in his head, all times failing. It was horrible sitting in his room and hearing his screams down the hall. Probably one of the worst experiences I have had. They decided to just administer the antibiotics in shots (which over the period of the next couple of days resulted in many more times being poked by needles) and orally. Jaime and Jeremy came up to help me with things around the house and to keep me company in the hospital while we were there. On Sunday, Nate’s eye was looking much better and since they couldn’t start the IV anyway, the doctor released him and sent us home with the oral medication and a prescription for eye drops. She wanted him to come back in this morning for his next round of shots. But this morning his eye was looking a ton better and when the doctor saw it she decided that he didn’t need more shots and that the oral meds and eye drops should be enough from here on out. Thank goodness! I don’t think I could take much more of that, let alone Nate’s poor little thighs have got to be so sore. So now we just need to keep an eye on it and finish up the medicine (about 7-10 days). This has been so difficult and like nothing I have ever experienced. Being a parent is so difficult when you see your baby in pain and you can’t take it away and they don’t understand what is going on. I’m sure there will be many more times like this, but this definitely has been a difficult weekend for me as a parent.
We needed to go back Saturday morning for a follow up visit. Friday night went okay. Nate slept okay but his appetite was still really low. His eye looked even worse Saturday morning, almost completely swollen shut at this point. The minute the doctor saw him she told me she wanted to admit him into the hospital for 24-48 hours. This time I did lose it. She said it would be best since he wasn’t responding to the antibiotics given yesterday. She wanted to run some more blood work and this time set up an IV to administer the antibiotics. So I took him up to the hospital and got him admitted in. He was in a big baby crib and even had to wear a little baby hospital gown. So sad. The nurses brought him in a room to have his blood work done and then tried to give him an IV. After two failed attempts, they decided to call the nurses from the birthing center to try it. So about an hour later they came up and tried, three times, with as much success. They tried his hands and feet but he’s so chubby that they couldn’t find the pathways or a good vein. So they called the doctor in. This time they wouldn’t let me in the room (at this point I probably had had as much as I could take watching them poke at him and holding him down while he’s screaming). The doctor tried a couple more times and even tried once in his head, all times failing. It was horrible sitting in his room and hearing his screams down the hall. Probably one of the worst experiences I have had. They decided to just administer the antibiotics in shots (which over the period of the next couple of days resulted in many more times being poked by needles) and orally. Jaime and Jeremy came up to help me with things around the house and to keep me company in the hospital while we were there. On Sunday, Nate’s eye was looking much better and since they couldn’t start the IV anyway, the doctor released him and sent us home with the oral medication and a prescription for eye drops. She wanted him to come back in this morning for his next round of shots. But this morning his eye was looking a ton better and when the doctor saw it she decided that he didn’t need more shots and that the oral meds and eye drops should be enough from here on out. Thank goodness! I don’t think I could take much more of that, let alone Nate’s poor little thighs have got to be so sore. So now we just need to keep an eye on it and finish up the medicine (about 7-10 days). This has been so difficult and like nothing I have ever experienced. Being a parent is so difficult when you see your baby in pain and you can’t take it away and they don’t understand what is going on. I’m sure there will be many more times like this, but this definitely has been a difficult weekend for me as a parent.
1 comment:
Beckie, that sounds terrifying. I had to take Joshua to the ER when he was 2 months old & Mark was in Europe on business. He to was hysterical & would not eat anything (breast milk or formula) for 3 days. I had to feed him 2 ounces via a syringe every 2-3 hours to keep him hydrated. Never did find out what was wrong, he just eventually started eating again. It happened twice more & then he all of the sudden took formula. I quit nursing cold turkey (ouch!) and didn't look back!
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