Scare

So it seems to be our month for scares (wait, was it actually last month that we had the whole eye emergency?), and apparently that's what it takes to get me back to blogging these days. I'm trying to get back into it, but man, it's been hard lately. Because well, I was husband-less and dealing with 3 dogs and a baby for the better part of Nov. G officially had to travel for work for one week, but the weeks leading up to that week kind of sucked too because he pretty much worked all the time. And because DZ (the baby -- I feel the need to remind you because it really has been that long since I've blogged) got a cold. Also she decided to suddenly stop sleeping thru the night for no reason. And because, oh yeah, by the way, we're moving! As much as we (especially me) loved that little town that we've called home, we've decided to make the haul to San Jose. Far south San Jose so that G doesn't have to fight a ton of traffic for work, but still, exciting big city nevertheless. I will be less than 20 minutes from work when I go back in Jan. But more on that in a different post, maybe next year.

The movers came on Fri. And G spent the day directing them. I would have loved to help but I apparently had more exciting plans. That involved DZ coming down with a fever on Thurs night, waking up her entire body burning, and then waking up every hour after that. And then throwing up in the morning. So I called her pediatrician and took her in. The doc wanted to run some blood tests, mostly because it was Fri and she was worried that we'd be stuck with everything getting worse over the weekend and having to rush off to the emergency room. Plus, when we were in there, my child was seriously the ghost of the kid that I usually know. Listless, barely even cried when she was getting examined, and just looked miserable. Man, the cold had been bad enough, but to see her feverish was terrible.

So the doc gave her an antibiotic shot, then sent us to the hospital across the street for a blood draw and chest x-ray. Also wanted us to do a urine test to rule out UTI. So I spent the better part of the early afternoon hanging out at the hospital. The blood draw was as much fun as the antibiotic shot, but it only got worse as the day progressed. Turns out it's not that easy to collect urine from an infant (somehow, she hasn't mastered the art of peeing on demand yet). So they stuck this bag in her diaper and waited for her to pee. But nothing happened. So eventually they sent me home and told me to come back with it.

G meanwhile had to head up to SJ with the movers. I stuck around waiting for my kid to pee. She did just about everything else - eat, wail, even poop, sleep, but no pee. I had to replace the bag because it had poop on the outside. And a couple of times, it looked like she may have peed around the bag but not in it. She even leaked through her diaper and onto her nursing pillow but nothing in the bag.

Finally, her doc called and said the blood work suggested a possible bacterial infection and just to be on the safe side, she wanted to admit DZ into the hospital for overnight observation!!! OK, I have to say this. I've been sick a lot over the years but it doesn't compare to seeing your kid sick. Before I was a parent, no one could have convinced me of this. I almost cried a couple of times while waiting at the hospital and seeing her sad little face. Anyway, the doc made sense. It was Fri afternoon by this point. There were still no urine results, but the kid wasn't showing any signs of feeling better. It wouldn't hurt to already be somewhere for observation in case things took a turn for the worse.

So rather than me heading up to SJ where all our things were, G came back down and we spent the night at the hospital. So I take it back. It CAN hurt to be at a hospital o/n, at least this one. Because this hospital sucks ass. OMG. So the first thing they did when we got there (aside from making us wait forever even though my doc had called ahead and asked them to get a room ready) was try to insert a catheter up my kid's hooha to try to collect urine. That was fun. I'd say that it must have hurt because DZ started crying but actually, I have no idea if it hurts or not because the kid pretty much cried from the moment I walked into the hospital room. But I don't know, it didn't look pleasant. The stupid nurse tried twice but nothing came out. I think she missed where she was supposed to go, but I don't know. So first thing my doc had wanted didn't happen. They put another bag in her and waited again for her to pee into it (something I could have done at home).

THEN, my doc had wanted them to start an IV to give her antibiotics. A different nurse spent almost 45 minutes just looking at DZ's arms to try to find a vein. But apparently, that wasn't enough time to find it (and she decided to just go ahead anyway) because the first needle she inserted was in the wrong place. Then she decided to try the back of the baby's hand. Also stuck the needle all the way in, caught the vein this time but couldn't flush our her needle so I guess that was a no go also. So by this point, my kid looks like a heroin addict (between these marks, the blood draw from earlier, the antibiotic shot at our doc's office, and vaccinations earlier in the week). UGH. I told the nurse she wasn't allowed to try again unless she could find some one else who was more experienced at inserting needles into baby's arms. Actually, I suggested that after the first attempt, but the 2nd, I said no more attempts period. So 2nd thing my doc had wanted also didn't happen. It was great too because all of this took over an hour and DZ was crying the ENTIRE time. Somewhere towards the end, G finally made it in, and it was a good thing, because just his presence kept me from attacking one of the nurses.

I was starting to wonder what the point of being in the hospital was anyway. It's a small town hospital, they don't really have an infant or pediatric ward or anything. I think for both nurses, they didn't really deal much with babies as young as 4-months. But still, they didn't have to suck. Oh, and all this crying, and the kid STILL didn't pee.

The rest of the night continued to be a disaster. The door to our room was LOUD. So every time some one came in, the kid would wake up. She spent all evening trying to sleep and getting rudely woken up and prodded. The night time seemed like it would pretty much be the same. We asked if they could do their monitoring when she was already awake to nurse, and they said yes, but then what do you know, a nurse that didn't get the memo came in anyway. The people in the next room were also loud. Somewhere in the hallway, some kid went running around looking for his "Papi." We had a private room with a bathroom but we were afraid to use it because the toilet flush sounded like elephants stampeding and actually freaked the kid out every time we flushed.

The nurses finally got their pee but what do you know, most of the pee had leaked out because they didn't stick the bag in correctly. Several nurses told me to give the baby water to help her pee which I think is completely medically wrong (since she was nursing just fine). And I don't know how many patients they had but everything took forever. Our kid could have died by the time they responded to anything. Actually what happened though was that she would have gone back to sleep and then woken up AGAIN when they finally burst in.

Overall, awesome night. If you're ever in the area and need a hospital recommendation, please let me know.

Fortunately, my doctor's partner checked on us in the morning and told us we could go. DZ's temp had dropped by this point all on its own. And she was looking better. He said he wanted to do one more antibiotic shot the next day but we could just do it in his office (even though it was Sun, somehow docs seem to love showing up on Sundays especially for us). I will say that if you're in the area and looking for family doc referrals, I know two awesome ones.

It's now Tues and DZ seems to be almost back to normal. We're still puzzled by what it was. Her preliminary urinalysis was negative but we'll see if the cultures reveal anything. I'm hoping it's not that because that would then require a bunch of tests to figure out why a 4mo would get a UTI. But I guess that's a bridge we'll cross if/when the time comes.