Last night was pretty good...Kaiya slept pretty soundly and at her 3:00 am feeding, I decided to cuddle with her and sleep on the couch since her poor belly was so sensitive when I would change her diaper.
Today...has...been...interesting...and long.
So - I mentioned that her belly was sensitive when I would change her diaper...all day today, she has been screaming out in pain whenever we touched her stomach...for a tummy massage...or tummy time and the diaper changes still - we'd get this awful blood curdling scream. I started to get worried and wanted to take her into the doctor...but thought, "I've already taken her once this week...I don't want to take her again only for them to send me home telling me it was normal." So I would dial the pediatrician and then hang up. Finally, I thought I would call my friend Holly who is a pediatric nurse practitioner. Well...I texted her. We exchanged a few Q's and A's and finally I sent her a video of Kaiya's reaction to a little pressure on her belly. Her response was - take her immediately to the doctor or the emergency room. That was all I needed to call and get her in within the hour.
Luckily I have a fantastic pediatrician who takes our inquiries seriously and got us in quickly. Dr. Liddle immediately agreed that this was NOT the same baby that she saw on Tuesday and sent us over to x-ray. X-ray showed that poor Kaiya just had A LOT of gas in her large and small intestine. A LOT. So they did another glycerin enema...this time it worked. It was like someone squeezed a mustard bottle...and it kept coming and coming! Sorry for that graphic image! Anyway - while they were "in" there, they decided they might as well get a rectal temp. As Dr. Liddle was explaining what our plan of action would be to combat and prevent the air...the nurse quickly said, "Nope - change in game plan."
Kaiya had a fever. A fever that apparently scares medical professionals in newborns. It was 101.5. We were immediately sent to Primary Children's Hospital for admittance after Dr. Liddle's staff poked and prodded Kaiya for blood and urine samples. We had to go through the ER first in order to get admitted and tested quicker...and this is what started a LONG, LONG night for us.
Once we were admitting into the ER, the attending physicians explained the standard series of tests for any baby under 30 days old with a high fever (over 100.4). It involved more blood for more blood tests...another catheter insertion for more urine...and a lumbar puncture. My friend Holly texted me earlier with the standard tests that she said they would run and those two words, lumbar puncture, was in the text...but I didn't really know what it was until we were in the ER. A spinal tap. They have to go in to extract fluid that surrounds her brain from her spine. There are risks associated with this extraction and as the doctors (3 of them) were explaining all of the tests they had to do and what the tests were checking for...I seriously thought that my child had some or one of these rare diseases that they were testing for. Meningitis, Herpes, etc... And then I asked...."Do you THINK that she has any of these or is this just worst case scenario to rule them out?" Million dollar question. This is standard just to rule them out. They should have PREFACED the conversation with that statement. It didn't make the blood withdrawal and spinal tap any easier...we had to leave the room - but at least I didn't feel like this was SOMETHING that I was certainly going to have to face...certain infection that could be life threatening.
After what seemed like forever, we were finally called back into the room after all was said and done and FINALLY taken upstairs and admitted into a room.
Here's a picture I took in the ER room of Allie before her spinal tap. She was miserable from being poked and prodded and they wouldn't let her eat. It was about 9:00 pm and the last time she ate was about 2:00 pm. (My boobs were full of rocks - which is my expression for being engorged!)
At 12:45, I sent Brad on home so that he could get some rest and I was left to duke it out with the lack of sleep and hospital staff that would interrupt my sleep every few hours. We're here for at least 35-48 hours for tests and observation...so I'm going to try and get comfy.
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