Lydia's First Trip to the ER...

WELL... Last night was certainly eventful and pretty exhausting. It's kind of a long drawn out story, but I'll try to sum it up as best I can.

Josiah was complaining of a stomache ache all day, and then he was pale and running a fever. After nap (and motrin) he was acting fine again until the evening when he was looking very pale and complaining again that his tummy hurt and saying he might even throw up. He didn't eat much, couldn't, for dinner, but otherwise seemed okay. We gave him tylenol and put him to bed... while this was happening... around a little before 7pm, Michael was helping Josiah in the bathroom and Lydia was crying in the hallway. I was finishing up putting dinner on the table and I heard Lydia, and she was crying in a way I'd never heard before, to be more specific, acting like she couldn't quite breathe, or at least not as deep as usual. I was concerned immediately but checked her nose, mouth, saw nothing that she could have swallowed. I knew she was REALLY hungry and getting very tired so I put her in the high chair to eat dinner... she ate a few diced apples, drank some juice, and then by the time we were all sitting down she was screaming and clearly aggitated and breathing funny still. Anyway I held her and she wouldn't eat any more and was really upset. She didn't feel like she had a fever but was passing gas, so I thought, maybe it's just gas pain. We gave her mylicon and Michael ended up immediately rocking her around the room with her blanket and pacifier and she fell asleep in his arms around 7:20. She slept for maybe half an hour and then woke up still aggitated and breathing "strangely" or not like I'd ever heard. I tried to give her a bottle and snuggle her back to sleep but she was clearly upset and something was wrong. I paged our pediatrician who talked to me at length about what was going on, listened briefly over the phone to her breathing and asked me all sorts of questions about her breathing. She decided (it'd been at least 2 hours of this breathing by now) that I'd better take her in.

The Howard Co. Hospital has a pediatric ER wing and they were amazing. Poor little thing was examined by the nurses who didn't find much, one took her temperature (under the arm) and said she was 99.1. (I was thinking... what? really?) They checked her O2 levels, and listened of course to her heart, chest/lungs etc. Everyone still heard her panting type breathing and were looking at her just as confused as I was. The doctor fully examined her and said he didn't think it was constipation, and that he'd heard some children recently making these grunting/panting sounds when they came in with a UTI. So the poor little angel had to undergo a catheter for a urine sample and getting her blood drawn. The nurse mentioned how hot she felt (which I said I completely agreed, she never had felt this hot before and it was really REALLY hot...) so she took her temperature while she was down there... and sure enough, it was slightly over 102. They gave her some motrin for her fever. Poor thing was pretty miserable. After all the tests we calmed her down as best we could, singing and rocking to her, and then Daddy took her for a chest and neck x-ray which the doctor had ordered just to be sure nothing was "lodged in there" or anything. By the time she came back from her x-rays with Daddy, she was fully awake (of course!) and suddenly seemed more herself. Then within 10 minutes we noticed her breathing was going back to normal, she was calm, and happy, and looking up at the fish border on the wall making a "bubble bubble" fish sound and seemed totally okay. Just a half hour before she was completely miserable and aggitated. So... needless to say, the doctor came back in, said ALL her tests and her x-rays were fine and that she probably has some kind of virus, or like some other children they have seen recently, she may have a flu which starts in a high fever.

Of course it always feels silly to walk out with discharge papers that say, "diagnosis: fever" and be told to alternate tylenol and motrin and keep an eye on her... BUT we are so happy it was nothing more and she is okay! I'm still so glad I took her in, the difficulty breathing thing was very scary and it must've seemed so to the hospital because they made her top priority and took very good care of her. The only thing Michael and I could think of was that her breathing was like that due to the fever and the pain and discomfort she was in, as well as probably some gas (which she definitely had!) and tiredness on top of it all.

Anyway... after sleeping well the rest of the night at home, both kids are up and looking kinda "off" still this morning (little pale) but so far they seem fever-free. Guess we'll just be keeping an eye on them today.

Thank you for your prayers, and please do say a little prayer for them both today so they can get back to "normal" and feel healthy again asap!