Friday, March 2, 2007

dotty in hospital

Now I'm a real mother. I've lived through a fever and a hospital stay. Here is the story.

Sunday she didn't seem like herself. She was throwing up after each feeding and acting fussy. I stayed home from church and only went to young women's because I was teaching. Since Dotty was sick, she got to spend the hour with Dad in priesthood. She felt hot but when I took her temperature, it was high but not actual fever high. Monday I went to the doctor for her thrush (more on the metaphor yeast = evil later) and the doctor dismissed her temperature and told me to wait for 38 C no matter where I took it. This is the same doctor that a few weeks earlier dismissed the white gunk on her tongue as milk residue and not thrush without really looking at it....so I don't know why I listened to her. We got medicine for the thursh and thought things would be smooth sailing.

That night she didn't sleep all that well and tuesday morning she threw up her first feeding. I left her sleeping to go running and usually when I get back she is awake and ready to be fed. But when I got back she was still sleeping, pale and really hot. She had a fever of 39 C (which is 102 F.) I'm glad I didn't know the farenheit equivalent then or I would have been more scared. I called the doctor's office at 11am and the doctor I do like got back to me around 1:30. Dotty's fever had gone down and I was sure she would say everything was fine, she's probably just getting over the thrush or something.
But she said to take her directly to the Emergency room. I hung up the phone and just started crying. We got there and talked to the triage nurse who said we were probably overbundling our baby. Can you imagine me overbundling my baby in California? Everyone has coats on the kids and I barely put a blanket on her...its summer! She also told me that one day I would figure out how to stop my baby from crying, as if I just couldn't quiet her so I ran her to the ER. geez. But she got me thinking I should just go home since I didn't want them putting needles in her and drawing blood and possibly doing a spinal tap if it was nothing. I seriously almost went home.
When we talked to people in the ER though they were much more concerned about thte temperature. Everybody listened to me about how she was acting different and looked pale before even though she looked healthy at that moment. They said we always trust a mother. When they drew her blood she screamed and screamed and Cory and I just cried and cried. There are more boring details but in the end we ended up being admitted because of a urinary infection. We stayed while they figured out what bacteria caused it and whether it originated in her urine or her blood. Once there were no more needles to attack my baby the stay was nice. All the nurses fell in love with my little cherub.
Things Dotty did not like about the hospital.
1. getting blood drawn (hellish hell hell)
2. putting in the IV
3. Cold stethascopes









Things Dotty liked about the hospital.
1. meeting new nurses everyday.
2. Getting all the attention for being such a good baby.
3. watching gilmore girls with mummy










We had some visitors at the hospital. Grandpa Don, Aunt Ashley and Uncle Bill (Guillermo wasn't allowed up). Grandmama Lesueur and Sabrina came and were dotty's favorite since they brought...
A BALLOON!




We also started a new game called Shaky Shoes. This shot shows her little shunt they put around her IV in her foot. She looks like a pirate.




3 comments:

Younger Leo said...

So lovely baby!

Regards. Younger Leo Blog

m. said...

your momhood is official. isn't it the scariest thing in the world being a parent? it's really hard loving someone that much. i hate doctors/hospitals. good job on your first big mom trial!! dotty is cute :)

Gregory said...

Maybe when Dotty is older she can be diabetic, that way you'll feel constant pain while she injects needle after needle into her flabby flesh. but maybe it won't be flabby by then.

oh, and updated my blog.