::sigh:: The joys of having children, right?! I've never experienced anything like taking my child into the hospital and having him poked, prodded and examined while I had to sit by and do nothing. The only thing I can compare it to was when Oliver had his casts on as an infant, but still...it doesnt make it any easier.
Saturday night/Sunday morning Oliver woke up around 1:00 a.m. crying. He just cried and cried and we didnt know what was wrong. Nothing seemed to be wrong at that point, so we just stayed with him by his bed until he fell asleep. (By the way, I promise to someday update about his sleeping situation. He's still in his own bed, in his own room, but we're still working through the nighttime wakings.)
Fast forward 3 hours and I heard him crying again. As soon as I got to his room it hit me. The smell. The horrid, rancid smell of sour milk. ::gag:: He had thrown up all over himself, his bed, his stuffed Puppy. Ohh the smell. I called for Jay and we got him cleaned up and stripped his bed. I brought him into bed with us and it wasnt five minutes later he started throwing up again. We stripped our bed, because we weren't talking a little bit of vomit here. We're talking LOTS of it. At least by this point the milk he had drank earlier was out of his system! So we remade our bed...and he threw up again. Repeat: strip bed, remake it, puke again. We went through the three sets of sheets we have and ended up just putting down blankets for us to sleep on. Oh, the poor baby. It was awful!! At one point I was wiping off his face and wiped out his mouth and he said the sweetest, saddest, "Thank you". My sweet, sweet boy.
Finally he fell asleep, and I did too, around 6:30 or so. I had already text Cindy from church to let her know I wouldnt be there to help with the toddler room. I think Oliver woke up around 8:30 or so the next morning. We tried to get him to drink some water, but he still kept throwing up. I gave him a bath around 11:00, and he just sat there. The rambunctious, crazy little boy who loves playing in the bath just sat and stared. It broke my heart.
Thankfully, my friend Amber brought us some pedialyte, crackers, and popsicles (da da doos as Oliver calls them!) after church got out so we didnt have to go to the store. What a blessing that was. She truly loves our little guy as much as we love her son Brady. (Oliver's best buddy.)
Oliver continued to throw up the rest of the day. He took a long nap that afternoon and he slept with us again that night. His temp was 100.5.
The next morning, he was able to keep some fluids down so I thought he was on the mend, even though he slept til 11:00 a.m. He kept wanting to go upstairs and when I would bring him up, he would walk into the bathroom and point to the tub. Again, he just sat in the bath tub and stared. As soon as I got him out of the bath, I wrapped him in a towel and he fell right to sleep. I was shocked by that, since he has never been the type to fall asleep just anywhere.
He slept until 1:15, then woke up and was able to drink a bit more and eat part of a banana. I took his temp and it was 99.5. he stayed awake for about an hour and a half, then again wanted to go upstairs and take a bath. We ended up taking 4 baths that day, as that is all he wanted to do. After each one he fell right to sleep. I couldnt keep him awake for anything.
My poor baby.
As the day wore on, he seemed to be getting worse. He threw up the banana, and started throwing up the liquids again. He couldnt walk without stumbling and just wanted to be held. He didnt play or get down from my lap at all.
Jay had left to go to the store around 5:30 or so, and I started to really worry about Oliver. I text Jay and said when he got home I was going to call the on-call dr. I should have called earlier, but I've never dealt with anything like this.
So when Jay got home, we took his temp (101.5) and I called the dr. He asked several questions (What's his temp? 101.5. How many wet diapes has he had? 1. Are his lips dry? Very, and cracked. Etc, etc, etc.) The dr said we had better bring him in to get checked for dehydration.
So we headed to Lutheran. This was about 8:30, and the roads were already getting nasty. It seemed to take forever to get there. Once we got there, we checked in, and Oliver just laid on my lap. Usually, a waiting room would be tough with him as he would just want to get down and run. Not that night. Not at all.
We finally got called back and they got all our information. They took his temp, and after what seemed like forever, they took some blood. That was AWFUL! It made me sick to my stomach to watch them do that to him. I knew they were going to make him better, but it was still so, so hard. :(
After they took his blood, they said they hadnt gotten enough (grrrr) so they put the IV line in and drew some from there. They gave him some saline fluids and Oliver slept through a lot of that. again, the fact that he stayed up on the bed without us even laying with him or anything amazed me.
The IV seemed to take FOREVER. It was awful because he was so thirsty, and kept asking for a drink over and over and over and they wouldnt let him have anything until they tested his levels again. They wanted us to keep him calmed down, but until he got a drink, that was impossible. They also gave him some zofran, for nausea. After the IV was done, they finally let him have some apple juice and Sprite. Unforunately, he drank it so fast that he threw it right back up. After the IV was done he also started having nasty diapers. Poor baby :(
They ran more blood tests and the dr came in to tell us that they were going to have to admit him. He said the level they look at needs to be 18 or higher; if its 17 or lower they admit. Olivers was 13, which they said was pretty low. This was probably around 2:00 a.m. I was exhausted, and Jay had to go to work the next day.
Jay left and got me something to eat (I hadnt eaten all day) and called his dad to see if he could pick him up so that I could have the car in case they released us while he was at work. He left around 2:30. My father-in-law came back to the hospital with a bag of clothes for me and my phone charger. He got a chance to kiss on Oliver a bit, but Oliver wasnt up for talking or anything. It was so good to see a familiar face though. :)
Around 3:45 they took us up to Pediatrics. I rode in a wheelchair with Oliver on my lap. he was awake for that, and thought that was neat. They had started another, slower IV with some sugars and potassium in it as well. I had to smile at the irony of holding him in a wheelchair. The last time I did that, we were leaving the same hospital to bring him home after he was born.
We got upstairs and they got us settled. Asked us a bunch of questions again, and helped get us settled. I was so impressed with them. A children's hospital is a great place to be if your child is sick. They really know how to deal with the little ones, and go out of their way for them. We pretty much live right between a local hospital (Huntington Parkview) and Lutheran Hospital. Personally, I can't imagine going to Huntington when Lutheran is so much better equipped and not far away at all.
One thing they did which I found exceptional was that they took the crib out of the room and brought in an adult bed so that I could sleep with him. They could tell that he didnt want to let me go, and they wanted me to be able to get some sleep as well. I honestly expected them to frown upon the thought of me sleeping in the same bed with him, but they welcomed it. Thank goodness!!
So we finally got to bed around 4:30. Not long after they came back in to take his temp. They told me what it was, but I can't remember what it was. About 7:30 they came back in to check him again, and the dr on call from the night before came in to check on us as well as Oliver's pediatrician Dr. Rusk. Dr. Rusk told us to expect to be there 24-48 more hours.
The rest of the morning was spent watching TV and cuddling. Surprisingly, Oliver didnt really nap that much until later in the day, but he was so tired that he just laid on me. So I was able to doze off and on a few times, which was much needed.
Oliver with his Pooh Bear and his new "dino" (really, an lizard) that he woke up to. :)
still so sleepy
We were very blessed to have a friend from church, Chris Walker, come and visit. She adores Oliver and is a dear friend of mine. She brought a bag of snacks for us (yay!) and two little stuffed puppies for Oliver. He adored them, and has slept with them every night since we came home. She prayed over Oliver before she left, which meant so very much to me.
Oliver talking to his new puppy.
We also had my friend Ashley Roeben come and visit us. She works at the hospital and came up to see us after her shift. She stayed for awhile and we got to catch up and chat. Oliver got to eat a popsicle while she was there and he told her all about the da da doo. It was too cute. :) She also stayed with us while they drew his blood again, and I was thankful to have someone there with me while they did that.
Jay checked in with us several times during the day to see how Oliver was doing. I knew it was killing him to not be able to be there with us. As soon as he got home, he packed up some stuff for me (since we still didnt know how much longer we would be there) and headed up to the hospital. It had snowed a lot the night before, so it took longer than normal. I couldn't wait for him to get there.
Finally, the doctor came back in and said his levels were back up to 18, and we could go home! By that time, Oliver had finally fallen asleep. She said we could stay if we wanted, but there really wasnt a need since he had been on the IV the entire day and was "tanked up" on fluids. She said if he went home and had a bad night, he would still be ok because of all the extra fluids and we could call the office the next day. She didnt have to tell me twice- we were going home!!!!
So as soon as Jay got to the hospital (not much after that), we got things around to leave. Oliver *hated* having the IV taken out. We got ready to go and the nurse escorted us downstairs. It was about 5:00 when we left, and it was still light outside and the roads weren't too bad.
Oliver did well that night, and because of the weather, Jay didnt have to work the next day. (Wednesday) The day was spent being very lazy and hanging out relaxing. Oliver seemed to perk up as the day went on. By Thursday morning, Jay was back to work, Oliver was asking to eat breakfast and playing again. A nurse from Lutheran called us that afternoon to see how Oliver was doing, which I found to be very thoughtful.
What an experience!! One I hope we never have to repeat, but I am so thankful for the wonderful nurses and great experience we had considering the circumstances.
Jay and I want to thank everyone who called, text, left us facebook messages, visited, and lifted us up in prayer. God truly healed Oliver as we expected to be there at least another night. We are so thankful for each and every one of you. <3
Oh, and one more thing. We had so many nurses and staff members comment on what a polite, sweet boy Oliver was. He kept thanking the nurses after they would work on him!! He would be crying as they drew blood, but when they were done, he would say the sweetest "thank you". Oh, how I adore that sweet boy!!!
