Saturday, March 1, 2008

ER drama

We have had our first middle-of-the-night ER visit. Don't worry - no one panic. All is well, but it was, as ER visits always are, a long, long night.


So, Abby started throwing up during her 9pm feed. She ate about 60ml, threw up, then ate 60 more. It wasn't a big deal at first. We figured it was just a little reflux. After eating, she went to sleep. About 10ish, she threw up in her bed and woke up. Then, she threw up a couple of more times to the point where she was dry heaving and then throwing up yellow bile. At this point, we are thinking this is a little concerning. She's never thrown up like that before. But, she didn't have a fever or anything. We were a little concerned about her getting de-hydrated but I wasn't too concerned. But my mom and grandmother had just arrived and they were concerned and so was Ben. So we called the nurse on call and she recommended Pedialyte and gave us all the instructions on what to do. But because of their cortisol issues (remember they were on hydrocortisone for a while), she connected us to the Pediatric Endocrinologist on call at Duke. Ironically, we had just seen the Endo that day at Duke. We were supposed to go Monday am to have a cortisol stimulation test done to make sure they are doing okay without the hydrocortisone (which they haven't had since December). The endo on call said we should take her in and have the stim test done to see if she needed the booster shot of hydrocortisone to be on the safe side.

So, about 12am, off we went. It was very fortunate mom and mema were here since mom could stay with Nat. Otherwise I would have had to go by myself. It would have been fine, but I was worried about her throwing up and choking in the car. For the first time EVER I sat with her in the back to make sure she was okay.

Once we arrived at the ER, we fed her sips of Pediolyte and she did throw up again. In the end, we were there until about 4am. They drew blood (after putting in an IV which was so sad involving much crying and crying). Then it turned out the lab doesn't even run that test at that hour, so they gave her the meds just in case. We are supposed to call today to see the results - if they have them.

Poor Abby was so tired, but did manage to drink more Pediplyte and keep it down. We all finally got to bed about 4:30am. At 6ish Abby woke up fussing. I think she was hungry. I gave her some more pediolyte and she fell back to sleep. She did have a fever though - 99.8. We got up about 10 to feed Nat and give Abby a mix of pediolyte and formula. She did well. She was up for a while then went to sleep. At 12ish, I gave her another mix, but she threw up. So it's back to pedalyte. She's been asleep mostly today and thrown up a few more times. I'm just waiting for Natalie to catch whatever it is and start throwing up too.

So - that's our ER drama. Abby will be fine, poor little girl. The good news is that being sick is the best time to test the coritsol reaction, so now we will know how well she really is doing. We will still have to take Natalie Monday morning though.

We are pretty tired today, so it's nice having my mom here to help. Ben had a nap already, and mine will come after the UNC BB game.

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