Saturday, September 12, 2009

Hospital Stay

It is 5:19 a.m., and I'm sitting in a hospital room with my baby and baby to be, trying to figure out if this really happened or if I'm still unconcious.

Last night, about midnight, Rose woke up with a low grade fever. We gave her tylenol and she was fussy, but I thought it was probably just some virus that would be gone soon enough. As the day went on we kept giving her tylenol, but her fever kept rising. She wouldn't eat and couldn't sleep unless I was holding her. At about 5:00, her fever topped out at 103.8, and I decided it was time to go to the doctor. Of course, our doctor's office was closed so we had to take her to an urgent care clinic. Why is it that when something serious happens it is always after hours?

Once Rose and I arrived I could see it was going to be a long wait. There were quite a few people ahead of us in line, and Rose was not very happy. After about 20 minutes in the waiting room, they put me in an exam room. I'm not sure who they felt sorry for me, or the other people who had to listen to a screaming baby. By the time we got to the room, Rose was inconsolable and every poke and prod made it worse. The doctor said it wasn't her ears and that she was going to do a blood draw and urine sample. The tech came in to do the blood draw and poked both of her heels telling me that she couldn't get enough blood. Well, I don't know if it was the fact that I hadn't got enough sleep the night before, or that I was exhausted from taking care of sick babies all day, or if it was that I needed to eat dinner, but the pregnancy caught up with me and all of the sudden I found myself nearly throwing Rose at a nurse and passed out on another's shoulder. Strangely enough, every time I pass out, I have this feeling of calm right before I come to. Usually, I have a "dream" about being on the swing set when I was young, and it is always a safe feeling. Not really unpleasant, and certainly a brief relief from reality.

When I woke up I was on the exam table, Rose was gone, and they were shooting questions at me trying to get a phone number. "Do you have family in town?" "No." "Do you have someone who can come get you?" "My husband, but I have the car with both car seats, so no." "Is there someone who can watch your son, so your husband can come get you?" "No, we don't know anyone here." Hmmm.... I never really thought I would be in this predicament. Eric is always giving me a bad time for taking the van when just Rose and I go out because if something happens, he doesn't have a car seat for Abe. I guess he was right, and I had to learn my lesson the hard way.

Eventually Eric called his coworker who was nice enough to come watch Abe so Eric could pick up his incapacitated wife and child. During all of this, Rose was whisked away and they bagged her for a urine sample. Eric arrived and they brought Rose back to me. Once she had urinated they did a quick lab and said she definitely had a urinary tract infection. Seeing as she had cried for almost two hours straight, and hadn't eaten in about five hours the doctor said we should admit her to the hospital.

Eric dropped Rose and I off at Blank Children's Hospital, and went home to relieve his friend and put Abe to bed. My mom came to stay the night and Eric brought me a late dinner and a change of clothes.

After all this, Rose is laying in a giant crib which makes her small frame seem even more diminutive. Somehow this crib looks more like a prison cell than any other crib I've ever seen. The IV coming out of her head is enough to make any mom cry. I won't go into detail about the catheter and IV they did here, but I will say I had to leave the room after a couple of tries lest I faint again.

I didn't really think her low grade fever at midnight would turn into a three day hospital stay, and so I wonder did I wake up yet?

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