Well, I thought I'd take a few minutes to collect my thoughts and put them down in the blog before I turn in for the night...a night where I hope and pray my sweet Shelby girl is already fast asleep in her hospital bed (along side her weary daddy :)). It's been one long day (in the midst of one long week) and honestly my head is pounding.....and my heart is just so sad for my girl.....I have never seen her so sick ever and I really pray I never have to see her this way again....so lethargic, unable to even speak at times, so skinny that her ribs and bones are sticking out and so dehydrated that her eyes are sunken in her head. It's not a sight that any parent wants to see...and in the midst of it all......I am so proud of my girl...so proud of her strength and her courage. Honestly, she is one of the strongest kids I know....through her days and days of vomiting she only made a mess once and that was cuz mommy and daddy didn't get her a new bowl in time....and even in her feverish exhaustion she has insisted on walking places on her own, carrying her own things, saying thank you for food and drink.....just little things like that make my smile and give me a certain pride for my strong little Shelby...she has a heart of steel......
Anyway....so back to the beginning just so I have a sort of journal of this crazy week of our lives and so my baby won't forget her 1st hospital admission :)......
Back to Monday....I never posted this, but Monday was Shelb's eye check-up at Riley Hospital in Indy. Ya' know the one we've put off for her eye-turn and have canceled a few times......anyway....turns out there has been no change in her eye strabismus issues so she is still in the clear for the time being (i.e. no surgery for her eye muscles...at least yet) Yay for that! So, all was well on Monday...or so it seemed.....now I wonder if that's where we picked up this mystery bacterial illness? I'm guessing not and that more likely the illness came from church the day before....but either way...it was already churning in her body unbeknownst to us :).....so Monday all seemed well....both girls complained at dinner of not feeling well and both went to bed early and even turned down a run to Cold Stone for Hailey's B-day (that should have been my first hint that something was wrong :)).
Tuesday...Happy B-day Hailey...and a not-so-happy morning of fever for Shelby....sad timing for the "bug" to hit, but honestly I think Hailey was more worried for Shelby than concerned about her birthday being a bust. We had big plans for the day....it was beautiful outside....we had hoped to have a picnic with Hailey's teacher and maybe go for a walk on our fav. trail and go out to a nice dinner....and just enjoy the beautiful weather on our Hailey's big 9th b-day. But, it was not meant to be. Thankfully Hailey's sweet teacher (and son) took her out shopping and to lunch, and our wonderful neighbor friend, Maddie, came ofer to play with the healthy kiddos in our back yard (both events helped break up the day a bit for the rest of our gang).....all while poor Shelby slumbered in her bed. I should have known something was terribly wrong when she slept ALL day in her bed. She has never not moved from her bed all day long....she usually at least moves to the couch to watch movies. Instead she slept all day long....and I would just check on her periodically and get her water here and there...all she wanted to do was sleep. By this time all we had going on was fever....nothing more...and I had high hopes that this would just be a 24 hour bug and we'd be up and running around the next day and ready to go to Nina and Poppy Stegs for a week of fun as planned. Well, right around the time daddy came home from work that night Shelb vomited for the first time....I had just moved her from her bed upstairs to the couch downstairs at like 6pm and tried to take a pic of her for St. Pat's Day (bad idea, I know)...anyway...the jostling made her vomit big time and that was the beginning of that. She was then pukin pretty much every hour or so and still running the fever.......we also had some bowel issues this night....the poor girl even tried to clean that up herself....have I mentioned what a trooper she is....she really is! I'm so proud of her and her strength just breaks my heart.....
Anyway....Wed. was more of the same....and the vomiting was getting worse....she'd vomit pretty much every time anything got near her mouth (including all tylenol and even a toothbrush). She was able to keep a half popsicle down (thank you, Jill for those!)....but pretty much that was all she ate all day......and she only got up once all day to pee around lunch time. Around 7pm she started to look really horrible.....that was when the dreaded 107 temp popped up on the thermometer. Believe me...I did a double take too when I saw that number and I took it a few more times just to make sure....it was still around 106.5 every time (and this was after she has drank something cool). I made a quick call to the peds office and the nurse only seemed concerned about her temp and told us to go get rectal suppositories (feverall)....and give her a luke warm bath...she asked no more questions and didn't seem all too concerned. We did what she said and the fever was down to 102 a couple hours later. I'll be honest and say I wasn't too worried. I really thought she'd be better by this morning. But, we kept a close eye on her all night. We were constantly in contact with Dr. Poppy who was very worried about Shelby, which made us think we should have been more insistent upon her going into our peds emergency clinic. But, instead we just waited and prayed for the best throughout the night. We kept checking in on her every 4 hours and gave her one more suppository before bed. I won't lie...those were torture to give and I am certainly glad to not be the one giving them in the hospital. Her sweet face just gets so sad when she has to have that nasty medicine "put in" :( My heart just cries for her....but it's been the only thing to even touch the fever....so she must endure...and she has....and she's been a trooper.
So...by 5am this morning (Thursday) we decided to let up on the suppositories cuz Shelb had finally fallen asleep and wasn't burning up. At around 8ish she still had a fever and I thought I'd give her one more suppository before daddy left for work for the day.....and after giving that she vomited all over yet again. For some reason that was just the last straw for me...I could not bear for her to continue this way. I made a call to our peds office and they scheduled us to come in at 11am. Thankfully Nina Stegs came and picked up Hailey and Dylan so it was just me and Ash and Shelb...and off we went for that appt. I honestly knew in my heart we'd end up in the hospital. I could just see in Shelby's eyes that something was not right. I knew she was dehydrated. She hadn't peed in almost 24 hours and her skinny little figure and bulging eyes and weak little body...they all told me she needed more than we could give her at home. Thankfully she was able to pee at the docs office and they could see she had proteins in her urine....and a chest xray showed she had an infection starting in her lungs (left side, I think)....which later I found out was pneumonia. She was just in bad, bad shape. She was a trooper the whole time at the doc's office....she had her blankie in hand, her barf bucket in the other...we read books, she vomited profusely before and after the chest xray, cried horribly after they swabbed her throat, and then she curled up in a ball on their exam table and went to sleep. And sure enough about an hour later we were off to the Peds Unit of the hospital......
Poor Shelby...I had sorta warned her about the possibility of going to the hospital, but when we turned into the parking lot about 5 minutes after leaving the doc's office I heard her mumble from the backseat "we're going today?"....I guess she thought we could go when we wanted...and she obviously did not want to go "today". I could hear her start to sob (with very little tears due to the dehydration).....she was beside herself...all she wanted to do was "go home". She wanted to go to her own bed. I felt so badly for her. And of course, she was worried about "shots". And rightly so.......for we all knew the IV loomed in her near future.....
Anyway....so we were admitted right away....we got her all nestled in her new home away from home...a private room for the price of a semi-private stay! Meaning, she is in a room with two beds (thankfully she (and daddy) will be the only patients sleeping there :)). Anyway....so we were admitted and nurse Tracy was our nurse for the day. Very nice and was great with Shelby....well, Shelby might not agree with that seeing as poor Tracy had to be the lady with the needle....
So, IV time came around shorty after that and it was the one thing I'd been dreading since I heard the frightful words "go to the hospital". And off we went to the "special" IV room with nurse Tracy and another nurse helper...and daddy, mommy and Ash....nothing like a bunch of specatators for the big event :) Anyway....this point in the day was rough. Now you must know that I am not one who usually cries when my babies get immunizations. I have a certain immunity to that for some reason. I feel for them...but I never cry and maybe that's why I make a good baby nurse (I can endure babies crying fairly well....and I used to be good at blood sticks and IV's back in my NICU days). But, this was rough. Not only did Shelby get stuck once for an IV, but she was stuck 2 more times cuz her veins were so dehydrated that they kept blowing. Each time she'd cry....try to be brave....try to blow through her mouth like the nurse told her too....hold our hands and look into our eyes with her big sad green eyes...and we could tell she was begging for the pain to stop...she even said with each new try, "we have to do it AGAIN?!"...with terror in her voice and eyes....and each time we had to tell her how brave she was...how proud we were....but that they had to try it again...that it didn't work that time. It was awful. And honestly my mind in those moments went to those parents who have to endure this with their kids who have chronic medical issues or cancer. I don't know how parents endure that...watching their children in pain....not being able to help. It was all I could do not to cry. And if I wasn't holding Ashley and trying to be strong for Shelby...I would have lost it. It was not easy. But, poor Shelby was a trooper. She rose to the occasion and now is the proud owner of a big old IV boarded-up right arm (to which she'll tell you is really getting in the way of her sleeping comfortably tonight...plus since she's right-handed she can't do anything--eat, color, etc....darn those 2 IV's that blew in her left hand!)
Anyway....so that awful deed was done and in went her bolus of IV fluids to help with that nasty dehydration. She was still vomiting at this point, still feverish (and getting more tylenol suppositories every 4 hours)....trying to drink a little here and there, but not doing a great job. Bloodwork had been done and her electrolytes were out of whack as was expected with vomiting and dehydration (glucose was 47 so some IV fluid was given for that....later her glucose was normal around 98...potassium was also low so later IV Potassium was given too.....as well as IV antibiotics/Rocephin for her bacterial pneumonia....white count of 9, which is thankfully a good enough number meaning the pneumonia was caught early enough).
At about this time mama headed home to pick up some things and get Shelb some pink flowers (she said "I really like pink" when I got her the yellow duck flowers for her ice-skating show....so "pink" it was this time!). I wanted to go to the store to pick up some goodies for her (some Polly's and maybe a new Scooby movie)...but by the time I ran to Kroger, ran home and picked up the needed goods for daddy's hospital stay, ran back out and had forgotten the movies Shelb requested and had to go back home...well, it was dinner time....so I never had time to do any more running around....and honestly I was just missing my girl and missing being by her side......
So back Ash and I went to the hospital. When I got there Shelb was up in bed and looking slightly less sickly (very slightly) :). I honestly had hoped she'd look a lot better after that bolus of fluids and first round of antibiotics....but I guess it's a slow course of action for kids?? Anyway....it was good to see Shelb sitting up though (she really likes the mechanical bed :)). And apparently the nurse had brought in a very cool gift since Shelby had done so well during the whole IV torment fiasco. Shelby actually had a small smile on her face when she showed me the cool new cash register and groceries she had gotten....along with a very cool new stuffed horse. I told her how much Hailey would love the horse and Dylan would love the cash register...and she was quick to mumble...."well, I don't want them to take them from me" :)) (I could tell she was getting her fiestiness back a little :)). Shortly after that I got her up to go pee (and "yay"...she did it!....nothing like celebrating over some good urination!) :). And after that....things have been on the upswing....well, slightly......I'm gonna post more about this in a bit...I need to take a break.......
Yo, yo peeps! It's me Ash. Mom's been slightly distracted this week with my super sick Shelby sis....so in celebration of my 1/2 b-day today I thought I'd do another "shout-out" post. I'm sorta under-the-weather (probably thanks to those 2 days I hung out in the peds wing with my sis)....so I'll make this short. But, whohoo for me being 6M today! It's been a wild ride so far on this thing you people call life....but I'm in it for the long haul and I plan to make the best of it. I know the next 6M is gonna be even more fun (and hopefully MUCH more healthier!). So, here's to me on my 1/2 b-day....eat some cake for if you please...mama just did! I was so hoping to join the ranks of babies who eat "solid" food (cereal) today, but mama is too tired to clean up another mess as she's been disinfecting our house today.....so another day, another food.....Nighty Night! XOXOXO, Ash Baby :)
