Noel's Visit to the Emergency Room

DISCLAIMER: This novel is for those who want the nitty gritty a.k.a. the details, of Noel's visit to the emergency room. IT'S LONG!

Last Friday the 20th Noel started running a mild fever. We were thinking with her mild fever and runny nose that she was probably teething. Starting that night she would wake up frequently which we thought was because she had a lot of gas and abdominal pain and would arch her back a lot. She lost her appetite for solids completely over the weekend and would gag sometimes when I would try to nurse her and wouldn't take very many fluids if any. Sunday came along and I only had about 2 hours of sleep from the night before so I asked if Morgan would stay home from church and help me with her because through the night her temperature peaked at 102 and I needed some sleep. Sunday she just kept getting worse and we kept debating on whether or not to take her to the emergency room and finally around 3:30pm we decided to do so. We arrived around 4pm and waited 2 hrs for Triage and it's all pretty much a blur from that point on.

The Triage nurse took her rectal temperature and it was 104.2 and asked a bunch of questions and the doctor that came in shortly thereafter admitted her into one of the rooms in the emergency area. They were going to need to take a chest x-ray, blood test, urine sample and give her an IV. I couldn't be there for any of those things because I was already having a hard time and thankfully my parents were there as well as my in laws in the waiting area to be with Morgan and I and to support us. Thanks Mom and Dad and Mary and Gary for everything!!!

Morgan told me that they got blood from her arm but they said that the vein was going to "explode" (whatever that means, sounds real scary) and so they were trying to find a vein to put the IV in. They tried her wrist/hand area and that didn't work and then they found a vein in her poor little foot. They started her at 175 ml/hr of IV fluid. That's about 6 oz per hour. It took a few hours to get a urine sample out of her since she was so dehydrated. Even then it was too little of a sample and the nurses had to try to re-catheter her (previously they couldn't get it in there right) which didn't work again so they taped another urine bag to her in that area to catch some more urine. Morgan later told me she was bleeding a little bit from them trying to put the catheter in. I'm so glad I wasn't in there because I don't think I would've said very nice things to those nurses even though they were trying to help.

Through all this time I tried to hold her as much as I could. It was so hard to see Noel is the shape she was in. She was completely lethargic when she was awake and was asleep a lot. Towards the end of our stay at the emergency room I began to get really sick. I got the aches, the chills, and a fever and nausea which made it hard for me to hold my baby. The results eventually came back and they thought she had possibly pneumonia, a urinary tract infection, and a possible bacterial infection. Around 2am in the morning, they transferred us to a more quiet, private room and soon after said that they would be transferring us to the Sutter Memorial Hospital in Sacramento via ambulance where there they have more specialized nurses and pediatricians for children under 2 and where they could monitor her through the night, etc.

Around 3:00am the ambulance took Noel and I to the hospital and Morgan met us there. Once we got to the hospital my nausea hit it's max and I'll just leave it at that. The nurse made a chair in Noel's room into a bed for me because I was feeling so sick. They monitored Noel through the night and Morgan took care of everything through the night and morning up until he had to leave at 4pm monday because he started school that day. Morgan was a trooper. He either slept sitting up with a pillow between him and the wall or leaned forward in his chair with his head against the back of another chair with a pillow in between...but that is when he got sleep, which was rare. He took care of his two sick girls and I'm so grateful for him and all that he did and does for our little family.

In the hospital they would take her vitals every 4 hrs and monday, they took another chest x-ray and it turned out that she had a very bad viral infection instead of pneumonia and a urinary tract infection and a bacterial infection. They stopped the antibiotics and monitored her monday night again and up through tuesday. She was discharged tuesday at 12:30pm or so. My mom came and picked Noel and I up and brought us home and stayed with Noel while I took a shower. Thanks mom again for that!

Noel is doing better. We just have to make sure she is hydrated, which is hard to do because she has diarrhea but seems to be doing better each day. She is happy to be out of the confines of the hospital and loves her freedom and independence. It was all a very scary experience but we are grateful that we are home and everyone is on the mend. I failed to mention Morgan also got sick for a couple of days starting monday but is feeling much better.

Thank you to those who have helped us in any way shape or form at this time. We love you all and appreciate everything!

Here is Morgan putting Noel to sleep on Sunday before going to the emergency room. The only way to console her was to put her on her back on our laps and push her knees up to her chest and massage her belly. She had a lot of abdominal pain and gas and that seemed to help at the time.

These are pictures from Sutter Memorial Hospital monday night. My parents were brilliant and brought their camera. Here is her little crib area she stayed in from 4am monday morning through Tuesday at 12:30pm. You can tell in these pictures she was on the mend.






Her IV in her poor little foot.
This was Tuesday morning. My dad brought me some breakfast and shot a few pictures. She looked even better this day, just sleepy looking because she just woke up.

Here is a picture I took just after she got home. She is such a wonderful blessing in our lives.