Vanderbilt's Childrens ER X's 2...

My sweet monkey has been SO sick. It all started on Wed. morning @ 345am. He had vomited in his sleep & it was all in his hair. I cleaned him up & he went back to bed only to be woken up {AGAIN} vomiting. Needless to say it has been pretty much downhill since then. ALL day on Wed. he slept & vomited. He would take a sip of something and immediately would throw it up. I got concerned about noon when he hadn't had a wet diaper since 345am.

I called the pediatrician and they wanted to see him. I picked up T on my way to the doctors and I am glad I did. Owen got sick twice on the way to the Dr. Couldn't determine if it was because he was sick or my driving. :) When we got there all he did was sleep on the examining table. They did manage to weigh him and he is a whopping 23lbs. The doctor decided they were going to do a suppository and try to hydrate him with 5cc. of Gatorade every 5 minutes. He managed to keep it down, but started throwing up on the ride home. Still {NO} wet diaper...

Got him home and he was still sick throwing up. T was working over and about 530 I phoned the doctor and gave her an update...only to hear the three words I dreaded to hear ...{HEAD TO VANDERBILT}. I packed our stuff, waited for T to get home, and we headed to Vanderbilt. When we arrived you can imagine what was in the waiting rooms...

When we went back O had a fever of almost 103, they gave him a suppository to get the fever down, and sent us back to "wait on a room to open up." In the lobby I had a blanket over O and you could see I was holding something, but you couldn't figure out what I was holding...reminded me of the baby Michael Jackson held over the balcony with the blanket over him. :D If you forgot, heres the pic...



The nurse said "you might not want to cover him with the blanket b/c it acts as aluminum foil. My response was "I understand, but I don't want {ALL} these germs on my baby!" Fever broke while we were "waiting on a room to open up." You would have though nothing was wrong with O.

FINALLY when "Lankford" was called Owen seemed to be his normal self. He was playing, talking, eating teddy grams, and being really silly. The doctor gave him some juice, a Popsicle, and he chomped away. Oh, I forgot to mention they gave him some wonderful med to help with the nausea. To make a long story short...he was dehydrated, but they were confident he would hydrate at home and get better.

Thursday he was the same sick little boy. He was begging for milk and I finally gave in. It wasn't an hour later he was vomiting AGAIN. Back on clear liquids and crackers. I did give him some of the medication from the ER the night before.

Friday my parents came down and kept him while I returned to work. He was still pretty sick, but we thought he was showing signs of improvement. Boy how I was wrong. I picked us up Chili's that night and I thought for sure O would be able to eat a french fry. WRONG. Gave him about 4 and within 5 minutes he was throwing that up. After vomiting he was saying "fries, more fries, Hungry" Talk about breaking my heart.

Yesterday my parents came down to hang out, Dad and T did this amazing work in the bonus room, and we just hung out. Owen was definitely still sick and we were very concerned b/c he still was not keeping things down and was drinking very little. I contacted to doctor AGAIN and this is what I heard...{HEAD TO VANDERBILT}. Although this time was a little different...she called them to put our name on the list...kind of like a reservation at a restaurant. :) When we got there is was a HOT MESS. Boy, oh boy the sights you see there. Not to mention as we were headed to the room I hear "Stephanie" I turned around only to see a friend (Josh Weber) I teach with, in the waiting room with his child.

Got back fairly quickly, but Owen was acting like he was OK. Walking around, touching things...don't worry, I went through about 100 germ wipes while there, and he was looking "fine". We went back and they tried to get him to eat & drink. He did eat another pack of teddy grams, but refused to drink apple juice or eat a Popsicle. :( Then we heard the much dreaded words..."he needs IV fluids". Owen was severely dehydrated.

Let me say this has to be the worse day of my life. Having to hold him down while he is screaming "mama/dada hold you, hurt" My heart literally broke in a million pieces right there. They attempted to put the IV in the bend of his arm, but something weird happened with his vein. So, then they moved on to the hand. Success, but not really. He was sweating so bad the tape wouldn't stick and it was "coming out" but they managed to make it work. He got some fluids and he was literally a new child. On the way home we stopped and got a pizza at 9pm. Owen wanted some & we didn't deny him. He ate a piece and drink milk. If you are wondering, he kept it all down.

Today we are back to the normal Owen. However, he has horrible diarrhea. He has already gone 5 times...twice this morning, once in the tub, once during nap and it was everywhere....even on his face, and two more times. He will be home with my mother until this stops. He eating and drink are back to normal and I HOPE we are done with illnesses for the whole year. Nothing better than 3 baths in one day. :D

Well, I am off to rest. I am so tired. I am just glad my baby is better.

SWL