We’re home – Edited

Phew. That was a long weekend. Bulleted, because I’m just too tired.

• Wednesday – Evan throws up twice at daycare after 3:30.  Daycare says I can pick him up at regular time.
• Wednesday evening – Evan acts uninterested in food and drink, but isn’t throwing up.
• LATE Wednesday evening – Evan begins to throw up again and does so through the night.
• Thursday – Nathan stays home with him all day, but can’t get him to keep anything down.
• Thursday night – It’s recommended that we take Evan to the ER because the vomiting and diarhea have lasted more than 24 hours and it’s been over 6 hours since he peed.
• Later Thursday night – Take Evan to Cardinal Glennon’s Hospital for Children. They run no tests or an i.v. They just give him anti-nausea medicine and tell us to give fluids really slowly. The Resident doctor wanted to give him an i.v. but the Attending doctor over-ruled her and sent us on our way without it.
• Friday morning – Evan no longer throwing up (thank GOODNESS), but his diarhea is still horrible. It’s taking about 5 minutes for anything that goes in his mouth to come out of his bottom. He goes down for a nap and proceeds to not have a pee for another 6 hours.
• Friday afternoon (after nap 3PM) – Evan wakes up and I know something is wrong. Called the doctor who recommended another trip to the E.R. This time went to our local hospital (Memorial). They got us back immediately because the triage nurse states "moderate to severe dehydration" as the initial diagnosis. We didn’t even go to a waiting room. Within 45 minutes, Evan has an i.v. and total blood draw. He’s also gone through several more diapers.
• Notice that unfortunately, Evan also has pink eye – AGAIN.
• Early Friday Evening (about 7PM),- Attending Pediatric E.R. doctor comes back in and says he spoke with Dr. Norman (Evan’s normal doctor) and that the numbers in his blood work weren’t good and that they had to admit him to the hospital with "Moderate (but almost severe) dehydration" and that he may be able to go home the next day.
• Friday evening (9:30 PM) – We’re finally in a room in the pediatric unit of the hospital. Evan’s still awake, but completely listless (that is until they have to adjust his i.v.). It’s a private room with a regular hospital bed for me and a cage/crib for Evan. Finally get Evan settled in and sleeping and I run to the 24 hour hospital cafe and eat for the first time since about 11 AM.
• Friday night/Saturday morning – Evan sleeps and gets prodded every couple of hours for vital checks. He’s starting to swell up from the fluid. But, that’s OK. He needs it.
• I.V. is "turned down" so he stops looking like a little balloon. Evan is still very unwell and listless.
• Doctor Normal visits Saturday morning and states that the lab is 100% certain Evan has Rotovirus (stomache/intestine virus) and that it’s common. He just didn’t handle it as well as most people. And that "Evan will be sick for quite a while." He states that it could be Sunday or Monday before we go home. We hope for Sunday.
• Saturday – Evan does nothing but sleep, fuss, and fill diapers. He’s still got diarhea, but the i.v. is also allowing him to pee again (although it’s only like once every 5 to 6 hours – it still counts).
• Saturday night – We stay again overnight. Evan is poked every couple of hours for vital checks.
• Sunday morning – Evan is showing some signs of improvement. He smiled at me and giggled when I drove a toy truck over his belly. He continues to show his i.v. arm and wimper to anybody who walks into the room.
• Sunday afternoon – Long nap and still mostly refusing to drink, but is beginning to snack just a bit (as in one bite of Jell-O and maybe a sip of juice). Doctor Norman visits and is happy with his progress. If Evan begins to drink MORE, we might go home this evening.
• Sunday evening – Evan decides he is STARVING and eats an entire single serving box of Cheerio’s all by himself. He also wants me to hold him (he didn’t even want me to touch him Friday and Saturday) almost constantly. He’s beginning to drink, but not enough. We have to stay another night in the hospital.
• Monday (4AM) – Evan wakes up and is FREAKED OUT by something. Completely screaming at the top of his lungs. The nurse comes in and checks his i.v., his diaper, his eyes and finds him O.K. in those areas. I figure out that he’s pointing to the bedside table. He wants a graham cracker! So, I give him one and he holds on to it and sucks on it and nibbles. He goes back to sleep.
• Monday (6AM) – Evan wakes up and wants MORE graham crackers AND he wants to drink his juice with it! YAY!
• Monday (7AM) – Dr. Norman visits. Evan is on his 4th graham cracker and is drinking his juice. Dr. Norman says we can go home right away as he feels once Evan is off the i.v. he’ll be thirsty and want to drink more on his own. WOOHOO!
• Monday (8:30 AM) – We are HOME. Evan has little energy, but he’s happy to sit on the floor and watch t.v. and eat graham crackers and hold his cup. He’s talking to his toys. He’s still fussy a bit. And he’s not really drinking too much. But he will.

I have to call the doctor tomorrow and give an update. If Evan isn’t drinking good yet, we’ll have to go in to be checked for dehydration and possible re-hospitalization – which sucks. Evan is out of daycare for at least today and tomorrow. And, when I have the energy/time, I will be writing one nasty and very well written letter of complaint to Cardinal Glennon Hospital. I was told by the attending E.R. pediatrician and by Dr. Norman that if Evan had gotten the I.V. on Thursday night when we took him there, he would not have needed hospitalization. If I had not taken Evan to the E.R. on Friday, serious organ damage could have been done and he could have died. Yeah. This is me extremely pissed off.

Edit

OH FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY! GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Nathan went back to work at 12:30 as planned. I clean up lunch and get Kenny moving for his nap. He felt warm. Guess who has a 101.1 fever. Yeah. Kenny. Dammit. Come ON. Can’t I get a break? Nathan said Kenny ate a good breakfast. He didn’t want lunch and he said he "had something in his eye." I didn’t see anything. I’m hoping he was just over-excited from the day. But, something tells me I’m going to be cleaning up vomit later. joy.