Monday, February 4, 2013

Where did Janurary go?

Well, it was spent either sleeping, Doc appointments, cleaning up a lot of pretty nasty stuff and unfortunately for Dax, 2 trips to the ER and Primary Children's Hospital. McKay and I had it as well and it was one of the worst bugs we both have ever had. Imagining a 2year old dealing with it was heartbreaking.
Grayson dodged the flu and just had a mild cold. Thank Goodness!!!

Dax was always cat napping. He obviously didn't feel well and was so tired all the time, so caught I him zonked out in random places.

I don't think I did his hair(or mine) for 3 weeks ;0

 Dax was fairly sick for about 4 days and only seemed to be getting worse, so Friday after tracking his input/output, it was very clear he was not getting the fluids he needed. I also had a suspicion that the antibiotic he was on, was not helping his empty-less tummy. We called my parents to come up to help with Grayson and made an appointment with Dax's pediatrician, they got us in quick thankfully. She looked at his weight lose, the information we provided, his extremely crabby behavior and sent us straight to the ER for fluids, antibiotics and pain meds for his ear infection.  This is one moment I wish I could erase from my memory. I’m sure you can imagine a 28 month old getting an IV started, along with strange people wanting to take all of his vitals and examine him was no treat. Dax finally fell asleep, finished the IV fluid process , woke up and left still pretty sick and upset.
  Poor McKay was right in the middle of the worst part of his illness, so he was going back and forth to the bathroom dealing with his own problems while at the ER. I actually kept thinking we should pay another co-pay and hook McKay up too :0


ER. Thank goodness for the ipad

Pretty sleepy after the fight of getting the IV started
Primary Children's Hospital
The next day was actually pretty good most of the morning, so we sent my parents home thinking that everything was just going to get better, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Dax that evening got really upset and his diarrhea got ridiculously bad. We had been giving him 10ml syringes of pedialite to keep him somewhat hydrated, but realized it was going straight through him.(a symptom of severe  dehydration is diarrhea and its hard to hydrate on your own, especially a child)  He got really emotional and could hardly lift his head up or stand, so I took him straight back to the ER, they took one look at him and sent us to Primary Children’s for severe dehydration and extremely low blood sugar. They said they wouldn't let him leave til he was better. I was pretty upset, called McKay to tell him what was going on, so he had my mother come back up and watch Gray. I have not been away from Grayson for more than 3 hrs at a time which threw another level of emotion to my situation.

This time around with starting the IV was a bit easier, since Dax was pretty lethargic and didn't really want to put up a fight. I could tell the IV team and his RN didn't like his lack of energy one bit.

That night was by far the hardest night. Lots of throwing up, sore bum diaper changes, vitals being taken every few hrs, changing the bags of fluids, finger pricks, nose swab to check for respiratory problems etc…(can ya blame him for being ticked off?)
That morning they stopped the IV, disconnected it and left the IV in his hand. His Dr. wanted to see how he would do on his own with wanting to eat, drink and just basically see how he acted. The problem is, how do you think a hungry, sleep deprived 2 year old is going to act being in a strange place with an IV in his right hand wrapped up so he can’t use it?  Yeah, he was no peach! He always tries to be an independent kid doing most things on his own. Watching him try to eat a popsicle and jello with his left hand was pretty messy and pathetic, I would be frustrated too. I told the Dr. my concern with needing a happy hungry kid to be discharged, how I dont see that in the near future.  He agreed with a chuckle and smile. He said that this is typical and to start out slow with fluids then bland foods. If Dax seemed interested in food/fluids and could keep even a little bit down they would discharge us. Hallelujah!  Taking care of your kid at home is much easier.
A few hrs later Dax acted a bit happier and ended up letting us help him with eating pancakes, pudding, crackers and juice. He ended up asking for pickles too :) He played with the toys and bubbles that the hospital entertainment team provided. The nurses and Dr. all got to witness that Dax really is a hilarious sweet kid and is actually fun to be around. This made me happy to see the mood change with everyone.
They released us that afternoon and things slowly got better at home. He still had lots of vomiting and diarrhea for a couple days, but we could see that he was voluntarily eating, drinking and keeping most of it down.
I am so grateful for modern medicine and the kind words and prayers from everyone. Its so nice to have my sweet and crazy kid back!



We all had a VERY LONG night, so we slept anytime Dax did.


It was so hard for Dax to get comfy with all these tubes and ID tags wrapped around his hands and ankles


After 5 days of refusing food and liquid he finally ate voluntarily. Pancakes, popsicles, pickles and pudding. Notice a trend?
Finally we are seeing some smiles and energy

LOVED the bubbles!

Stomping on the bubbles!


1 comment:

Sarah said...

Yuck. That seriously sucks. Glad it's over for you guys!