My Friday 2/11

This won't be a day I forget for a long time. Bailey and Weston both had dr appointments that morning for different ailments...the week before Weston had both his ear drums rupture so his appointment was just for a follow up to make sure his ears were healing properly. I scheduled an appointment for Bailey too because she had been congested and had a cough for the past few days.

So to the appointment we go, Weston gets weighed, he is down 4 lbs, which was due to his lack of appetite from his ears hurting so bad and was fever free. Bailey had gained a lb. and a few ounces but had a fever of a 100.6. The nurse could tell Bailey was congested and was concerned about the fever so she wanted to do a "simple" RSV test that would only take 15 min. to get the results from. The nurse inserts this tiny thin flimsy flexible plastic thing down into her nose that has a small swab on the tip, she is moving it around and as she pulls up to bring the swab out of her nose she sets the plastic thingy on the counter, grabs Bailey and runs out of the room. I hear her saying that she needs Beth and a Dr. so and so immediately because the swab tip came off and was lodged in her nasal cavity. I ask if I need to be concerned (dumb question) and the nurse says no, they can get it out. Once Beth and the other Dr. were in the room they get some medical instrument to look into her nose and another to open the cavity a little to help them remove the swab tip w/something that looked like glorified tweezers. Weston starts crying because Bailey is wailing and it's taking all I have to keep myself composed. I'm not really upset or worried about the swab that could be potentially stuck in her nose, but just frustrated that it happened to me, the nurse says, "I've done this for 20 years and it's never happened before." (In my mind I am replaying everything that's happened to me that others claim "have never happened before" i.e. the spinal fluid leakage I had after my epidural when I was in labor with Weston...) After a minute or so they tell me she must've swallowed it because they can't see it.

So we continue on with the Dr. appointment- she checks out Weston first- his ears look great and he is in the clear. Since Bailey is asleep on me the Dr.looks in her ears and listens to her breathing and lungs and notices that her breathing resting rate is 45 breaths per min which is a lot, so she suggests we take her to the E.R. She is worried that Bailey has RSV plus while we are there they can do a tummy scan to make sure the swab did get swallowed. They wanted me to go immediately so I start making phone calls, calling Drew to tell him I had to take Bailey to the E.R. and to come get Weston, then I called the sitter that Autumn is with to let her know that Drew would be picking up Autumn, and then I just sent a mass text to a few family members asking them to say a quick prayer for Bailey because we are headed to the emergency room. My mom calls, I pass Weston off to Drew and head to the hospital, I had kept myself composed and emotions in check until my mother in law called me and she asked me how I was doing. I don't know why that set the tears flooding maybe because it's easy to forget about the mom and the stress she may be feeling when all thoughts are on the child, but I just lost it for a few moments. Anyways- we go to this fabulous Pediatric Emergency Room at the hospital by my sisters place.

The Dr. office had already called the e.r. to let them know we were on our way. We were checked in and put into a room to wait for a dr. It took the dr. an hour and a half to get to us, but during that time we got Baileys vitals (which is was so sad to see these tiny blood pressure cuffs, and tiny oxygen readers) and we also got x-rays done while we waited. The e.r. dr. ruled out an ear infection, which is what he was really hoping for, so he wanted to do a nasal wash to test for RSV or flu, he was hopeful for one of the two because if it wasn't either of those things we would have to do blood work and a spinal tap to see where the fever was coming from. The nurses came and took us to another room, where kids are admitted and stay. I worried they were going to have to start an i.v. in her little arm or something but they just moved us there so we would be more comfortable while we waited for the test results.

These pictures are from before they did the nasal wash, which was sad to watch- but the nurses were really great and efficient. Bailey looked so small on these beds, the beds already seemed small to me because they were half the size of the beds in regular adult rooms.

 She was in great spirits the whole time we were there.

And while we waited the hour and half for the results to come back I watched t.v. and texted family (and the nurses brought me lunch) and this is what Bailey did-

 After an hour and a half the nurse came back in with "good  news." It was the flu. As a mom you aren't usually thrilled to hear that your kid has the flu but the flu is treatable and RSV isn't plus now we got to skip the blood work and spinal tap. We knew what the fever was from. We were at the hospital for 4 hours total, and I never thought that my first trip to the e.r. with one of my kids would be with my 8 week old, I assumed it would be with my asthmatic daughter or my clumsy son.

Well today is Sun, and Bailey is doing much better, the fever is gone and she is on Tamiflu. Sometimes the Tamiflu makes her throw up, but half the time she keeps it down and what she has kept down has done wonders already. The dr. has me watching Baileys poop. She wants me to look for the swab. The x-rays didn't show anything but then again, a swab wouldn't show up on an xray anyways, but with the nasal wash there's no way it's still in her nose. We can't wait for her to be over this flu bug and to have no more sick kids in our house. :)