Our first night in the hospital since November 14th 2005

August 23rd, 2006

We had a terrible weekend. I guess it all started over a week ago when Lola had her 9 month check up and had to have a shot. I was unprepared for this shot and did not have time to give her the usual pre vaccine dose of Tylenol. So of course she spiked an impressive fever of 102.3. I called the doc and was assured that this was normal. It was a Tuesday. By Friday the fever had not subsided, so I took Lola to see a pediatrician. He said if the fever wasn't gone by Sunday we would have to come back in. Luckily, the fever broke on Saturday night. We spent the next week fever free. Then all hell broke loose.

Last Saturday we went to the Lentil Fesitval, a strange celebration of that fabulous little legume. Lola was a bit fussy and was still suffering from a runny nose that had hung on for the past week. As far as snot goes, however, this was a very unworrisome clear nasal discharge, and I attributed it to teething. We all enjoyed the festival, and when we got back to the car I noticed that Lola was very warm. Well, it was a hot day and we were all warm. I nursed her in front of the AC, put her in her seat, and we drove home. Once home I removed her from her seat, only to discover that she hadn't cooled down. With a yucky feeling in my stomach, I put the thermometer where the sun don't shine. 104.1. YIKES!!! I quickly drew her a tepid bath and, much to her displeasure, deposited her hot little body into the tub. This lowered the temp a degree. Then Wil broke out the Tylenol and the Motrin. The fever came down and we were all happy....for about 2 hours. Then it began to climb again.

At this point, Mommy and Daddy experienced a small squabble over Mommy's tendency to overreact to any little thing out of the ordinary with Lola. Mommy won, and we all headed to the ER. Boy were we glad we had brought her in when her temp skyrocketed to 105.1, brain cell killing levels. At that point, I started to cry, and Wil sort of withdrew into a little puddle of denial. Lola was a limp glassy eyed noodle. She cried huge tears as the hospital staff drew blood and inserted a catheter. She wailed when the put her in the hanging baby cage for x-rays of her chest. Finally, exhausted, she fell into a fitful sleep in my arms while cold fluids were started and more Tylenol was given. We discovered that her white blood cell count was off the charts. She had a raging infection....but where? The radiographs appeared clean to the tech, although I thought they looked a little funny. What does a vet know about people pictures though? A catheter inserted into my screaming baby's bladder revealed no UTI. Unable to find the source of the infection, Lola was given a high power IV antibiotic and we were shipped off to the overnight patient area of the hospital.
The nurses that took care of us were so kind and wonderful. I stayed up all night watching Lola sleep, and they would stop by often to see if I needed anything. "Do you want some grahm crackers and milk honey?" It felt good to be taken care of. At around 4 am I was pretty sure Lola had a small seizure from the fever. Finally at around 6 am the drugs seemed to be having an effect. At noon they removed the IV and let us go home. The fever continued to break through the drugs for another day, and then it broke for good. Subsequent blood tests showed all the levels coming back to normal. When the radiologist reviewed the films, he discovered a small bit of abnormal lung (told them so!) and diagnosed pneumonia.

As of today I think we are out of the woods. We have to give Lola a bunch of banana flavored medicine for 10 days. Good thing she hates bananas. Great. She is starting to get her appetite back. I am starting to get my blood pressure back to normal. Having a sick child is the worst feeling in the world. You feel completely helpless. I would have given my left foot if she could have felt better that night.

On the upside, Lola can now free stand. She stands in the middle of the living room clapping and looking quite proud of herself. When we ask her to take a step though, she still flops back down on her butt and crawls to us instead. I bet she is walking in a couple of weeks.
So aside from our hospital adventure, she is progressing normally. Thank goodness for that. I have the week off to get everything back to normal. I am starting to think that once you have kids, normal is a thing of the past!