Third Time's a Charm

So, this morning at 8:00 a.m. I got on the phone with Alexis' pediatric nurse to see what my next step should be. Her temp continued to be a yo-yo all night long and showed no signs of bottoming out and staying there. After a quick run-down of her symptoms and an attempt to make her go pee, it was determined that she needed to be seen ASAP for dehydratation since she hadn't gone since the day before. Who would need to go potty if you hadn't drank more then 8 ounces in 48 hours?

I was then transferred to the urgent care department to get her registered and was told that she had priority registration due to her symptoms. It was then a mad dash to get our things together, dress two kids (one who had just been layed down for his morning nap), and throw a baby bag together with no idea how long we would be gone for.

When we arrived the waiting room was already filling up quickly. Aiden was in hyper mode since he had missed his nap and Alexis was lethargic and needing to be carried everywhere. She had to check out the plumbing in the bathroom even though she still didn't go, and Aiden decided that was the perfect time to have a stink bomb diaper.

We were called into the triage nurse about 20 minutes later and then sent back out to wait for another 15 minutes before being called back to a room. It was determined shortly after the doctor came in the room that she would be needing an IV for dehydration. I instantly wanted to panic because I knew the scene we were about to witness was not going to be pretty and I had a 14 month old tagging along. Alexis is phobic of needles and blood. Not just scared of them, PHOBIC. I tried to explain this to the nurses by spelling things out, literally spelling, but they just didn't seem to get the severity of it till we were in the midst of a major melt down.

We were transferred to the infusion room and the nurse did her best to explain to Alexis what would happen step by step. She put a blue 'rubber band' around her upper arm to give it a huge bear hug while she felt her arm. We had one nurse holding down her legs, I was holding her arm and had my other arm across her chest, while the second nurse was holding her hand and trying to place the IV. Then the chaos began!! Alexis knew what was going to happen next and even got a glimpse of the needle. She began to flip out and scream, "I don't want to die, I don't want to die!!" "I want to go home, and I want to do it N-O-W!"

Aiden at this point started to flip out himself but I was pretty wrapped up in holding Alexis down, so a third nurse came in to assist and noticed him screaming and rescued him from his stroller. She waltzed out of the room before I even knew what was happening. He stayed out of the room till things calmed down and had the opportunity to work on the computer while the woman was doing payroll. Sure hope all the nurses get what they earned, he loves the delete key here at home.

The first attempt yielded us just a few blood samples before the vein gave out. The second IV was a failed attempt from the get go. And, then finally, the third time was a charm. Each time was as traumatic as the first and took about 15 minutes to get her to stop hyperventilating after each attempt. Her arm was then strapped to a board to keep her from bending and messing up the IV sight. Of course all I had was my cell phone for a bad picture.
She was given two bags of IV fluid, an antibiotic just in case, and an amount of nausea medicine. They showed her an unused IV to explain to her that there was a straw in her vein drinking the water since her mouth was tired. She did a great job and took a short nap while the fluids dripped rapidly into her system. Her blood work came back showing no infection, she had no elevated temps (isn't that always the case when we finally take the kids to the doctor's), and so we were sent home, 3 1/2 hours later.

Since being sent home she has slept some more, drank a little, eaten some soup, and still not going pee. If she is not drastically better by tomorrow then we will have to return back to square one and have her rehydrated and re-evaluated. PLEASE pray that she makes a turn around tonight so life can get back to normal.