Saturday, April 25, 2009

Friday, April 24th, 2009



Guess where we are??? The UC Davis Emergency Department of course (it has been several months since my last visit after all!)

It all started last night when my heart rate started to go up while I was sleeping - always a sign that something is brewing. Then my night nurse noticed I was running a slight fever. When Mommy got up this morning she gave me a dose of Tylenol and then asked Lucille to give it to me every four hours the rest of the day. Spencer, my music therapist, ended up calling in sick so I got to rest most of the day. Despite having a fever, I played as normal and didn't show any other signs of being sick.

I went down for bed around 7 pm but for the next few hours I tossed and turned and was quite restless. Daddy gave me a dose of Tylenol at 9:30. At 10:00 when Carol came on shift, they decided to get a rectal temperature since I felt so hot to the touch. It was 103.7! A few minutes later I threw up a little in my crib. Daddy came to get Mommy and while she was holding me I threw up a lot more on her (Mommy never gets through this without getting thrown up on). My parents called the on call pediatrician who recommended we all head to the ER. So we said goodbye to Carol and headed to UC Davis. It took almost an hour before we got into a room but they got to work pretty quickly. Over the next six hours I got a chest xray to rule out pneumonia, a catheter to get urine to rule out a urinary tract infection and a blood draw to get a culture and look at my white blood count. Now you all know what a hard stick I am. My parents warned them ahead of time so they brought down someone from the children's transport team who was really good. Even so, it took her almost two hours to get an IV in and to get blood for testing. Mommy is not good with needles so she had to wait outside the room while Daddy held me down. I finally got so worn out from crying (and it was 2 in the morning) I wasn't fighting much anymore.

Around 4 am most of the test results had come back and everything was leaning towards a run of the mill viral infection. Not surprising since my night nurse has been sick with a cold the last week and a half. After some fluids and a dose of Tylenol they told my parents to go ahead and take me home. However, they want my parents to follow up with a visit to the urgent care tomorrow (or should I say today). By about 5:30 I was home in bed and ready to sleep for a few hours. My parents will take turns getting a few hours of sleep until it is time to leave for the urgent care appointment.

BTW - when nurses in the ER start to recognize you it doesn't mean you are a celebrity - just that you are a high utilizer of ER services! We have now officially been in every room in the pediatric section of the ER - another sign we are there way too much!

Peyton Nicole Smith

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