Caitie's Hospital Stay

A few days after Patrick's birthday Michael got terribly sick with the stomach bug. About 4 days later it spread to Caitie. She started throwing up at night and then it continued through the next day. I called the pediatrician and talked to them. Since she was still in a happy mood they said to continue to watch her. About mid-afternoon she started keeping some water down, so I was very hopeful that she was over the bug. But, in the middle of the night she started throwing up again. Then around 3am she started throwing up blood and was very lethargic. I called the pediatrician and immediately took her to Centennial Children's hospital. The pediatrician on call recommended Centennial because there would not be a wait and he thought she could get the fluids faster than she would have been able to at Vanderbilt.

By the time we made it to Centennial Childrens, Caitie was barely responding at all. We had 5-6 nurses attempting to get an IV inserted, but they blew 5 veins attempted to get the IV inserted. She was so dehydrated they could not find a vein that would work. The nurses switched shifts at 7am and the new nurses attempted to get an IV in again. They tried a few more times and were not able to get one. By this time Caitie was breathing, but not responding at all. It started to become very scary so the doctor on call recommended an NG tube or a shot in her back to insert water underneath the skin to attempt to get her a little more hydrated to then put an IV in. Both options were terrible options and not something I wanted to do.

Luckily Michael was at the soccer game with good friends of ours and was telling them about Caitie. One of the dads mentioned that his wife happened to be on call at the hospital that Saturday morning for an emergency surgery. She is a children's anesthesiologist. Her partner was very very experienced and was apparently the best doctor at getting an IV for children. He came right in and told the nurses to move out of the way. He tried multiple times and was not able to get an IV in either. He insisted that he and our good friend take Caitie back and put her under anesthesia. Apparently when a child goes under anesthesia, their veins pop so it's easy to get an IV in. He took her back so quickly I wasn't even able to ask any questions or really understand what was going on. But, I trusted our friend and she was assisting him. It was also a MUCH better option than the other two options I was given by the ER doctor. They said that they easily got the IV in and she did great. I was so relieved!

And it's in! Time to get the fluids in and feel better!

Caitie still had an ear infection as well, so they decided to do a round of fluids, an anti-nausea medicine and and ear medication. Here is our sweet girl after her first round of medicine. She still looks so pitiful. It was so hard watching our sweet girl go through so much.

Her numbers hadn't improved very much after the first round, so we started a second round pretty close afterwards. She screamed whenever they started a round of fluids. It was awful and I was really hoping it wasn't hurting her!  After the second round she woke up a little and felt well enough for a popsicle. It was her first popsicle and she loved it!

She was still so tired that she kept her eyes barely open while eating the popsicle.

Sweet little baby was worn out

After three weeks of everyone in the house being sick we are finally on the mend. I can't wait for the sickness to be gone from this family. It has worn us out!