Thursday, November 13, 2008

How One of My Middle Children Gets Quality Time

Thank you so much for kind thoughts yesterday. You have no idea how much they helped--esp. because yesterday Sarah still hurt and needed some intense narcotics for pain. A little child in pain is just the worst.

Sarah came home from school as talkative as ever. Happy and hungry.

She ate about two bites of food and suddenly declared she was no longer hungry.

Then she had a stomach ache.

Then she fell asleep at 5 in the afternoon.

Then she refused dinner.

Then started to cry in pain. I brought a trash can to her bed thinking she got a stomach bug.

Then she got a fever.

I ran through her symptoms. Severe pain on her lower right torso and a fever and nothing else. I knew it could be  a number of things but there was one thing it could be, her appendix. And at a little after 11 I was driving my shivering, reeling in pain, little girl to the ER. Just her and mommy.

We got to the ER and the poking and prodding began. They brought us straight to a room via a wheel chair--the pain was so bad she could no longer walk. Then the pricking began and Sarah begged to nurse to make it not hurt. She was given a weird dye to drink and the doctor took me aside and said he thought it was her appendix. 

I was horrified.

The nurse asked her to pee in a cup and Sarah got very upset. 

The nurse asked if it hurt to pee.

"Only a little, maybe more," Sarah paused. "Only one or two or three times."

I sighed, a bladder infection. All this pain and a fever from a bladder infection. I could only hope that was the real problem.

We did x-rays for possible walking pneumonia (I still don't get this since she did not have a cough or anything.) and she was getting weaker and harder to keep calm by the second.

And then some results came back. She did have a bladder infection and, thank the Lord, her white blood cell count was OK. They thought it was merely a bladder infection.

The doctor mentioned getting her antibiotics and then looked at Sarah.

"To be safe, you should take her to her doctor this afternoon," he looked at her again. "Actually I'd bring her in as soon as they open."

I looked at Sarah. She was in real pain. I had had bladder infections before. I was never in this type of pain.

I looked at the doctor and made that pricey decision, "Ya know, I'd sleep better if we could rule out her appendix with the cat scan. She's already forced herself to drink that dye (she could not eat or drink anything without feeling sick) and since we are already here...."

The doctor nodded, "Better safe than sorry."

I looked at my poor Sarah.


She was in real honest to goodness pain.

I asked the doctor if she could take anything for the pain. And almost never even give my kids Tylenol (the last time was last year during our chicken pox festival).

Both the nurse and doctor agreed. Our room was right in front of the main ER desk and they heard her crying and saw the tears rolling down her cheeks.

The nurse inserted morphine in the tube in her arm. Slowly, she was not hurting as bad.

"But I still hurt a little," she whispered as I pulled to front curtain and turned down the lights.

I pulled out my iphone and we watched 'Cars' as we waited for the cat scan.

The cat scan was weird. More injections in her tube and a tech who kept asking why I didn't take Sarah to a children's hospital.

Like a broken record I kept repeating 'because she was screaming in pain and I was not about to drive for 40 more minutes than I needed to so she could see a doctor' but by the fifth time he asked I just shrugged and agreed next time.

Back in the room, I turned on the TV and Sarah giggled at 'Good Eats'--she loves that goofy show.

And finally at almost 4, we got the final results. The appendix appeared normal and the final diagnosis was bladder infection. YAY! I asked if this much pain is normal and the nurse told me it can be even worse. So I'll say we were very lucky.

Driving home all I thought about was getting into bed. It was odd that if this was a normal night, I'd be getting up in half an hour for spin  class (not happening today or even this day!) and then Sarah asked if we could watch a movie together.

"We could watch Christmas because you love Christmas,"she smiled. The morphine was really kicked in!

So we dropped off the prescriptions and drove home to watch Elf.

I watched the baby climb into Santa's bag and suddenly Buddy is opening a present with maple syrup. I am guessing I slept through a bit of it ;)

But I looked over at Sarah and she was smiling.

"This is fun mommy."

I really need to spend more time with her without doctors and nurses :) 


22 comments:

Amanda said...

Now that she has some antibiotics i hope she gets better quickly. I feel so sorry for her, UTI's can be so damn painful.
Hope you both have caught up on your lost sleep!
love n hugs,
Amanda xxxx

Anonymous said...

Oh, the poor thing. That's horrible & I'm with you. Tell the tech to suck it. You go where you get seen the quickest and your kid is better fastest. I hope she is better soon.

Unknown said...

I am sorry she was in SO much pain, poor sweetie!

And I am glad it wasn't her appendix. Thank God!

Hope you have caught up on your rest...

CC said...

Aaaaaa! Hugs!!!!!

I've had a bladder infection where I absolutely thought I was going to die.

It was THAT bad.

I'm a pretty big fan of pain drugs. Since I'm addicted to Advil (almost), I figure giving my kids the stuff occasionally can't be that bad ;)

Jules from "The Roost" said...

I never knew those could hurt like that! I am so glad that was it and not something worse. Thank the Good Lord Above. ;)

Jacque said...

I'm glad she's okay, but sorry she was in so much pain. At least she got some Mommy time out of it! ;)

EatPlayLove said...

I am so glad she's okay and it wasn't her appendix! That's the tell tale spot!

McMommy said...

Oh my goodness...what a night you both had. There is something about when you are sick...no one comforts like a mom!
Hope your little girl is on the mend. xoxo

Gretchen said...

Oh, Lisa, I love a happy ending!

I'm so glad she's feeling better now. My Peppermint Patty had a bladder infection last year, and it was all I could stand to see her in pain. Parent's should not watch their children in pain... that's SO not a good thing.

KC said...

OH poor poor little thing.. So so sorry for the both of you.. How is she doing now?? How about you, have you got back on your feet from your night of quality time with one of your middle children??

Brian and Staci said...

Ohhh. Sweet Sarah...just needin' some time with Mom! Okay, so now the scare is over...tell her she doesn't have to take it that far next time :) Hope you all get some much needed rest!

Brian and Staci said...

Ohhh. Sweet Sarah...just needin' some time with Mom! Okay, so now the scare is over...tell her she doesn't have to take it that far next time :) Hope you all get some much needed rest!

Grace Acres said...

i hope she starts getting some relief, and glad it wasn't something worse. Mommy time is always great.

Blessings From Above said...

I had to idea a bladder infection could be so painful. I'm am so glad she is doing better. I hope you both get some rest! :)

((HUGS))

Tyne said...

I left my middle child in a swing in a RAINSTORM!!! I hear you on that...

I have an award for you over at my blog, but I probably won't actually publish the post until tomorrow... but while I am here, thought I would let you know.

Lizz @ Yes, and So is My Heart said...

Oh, I'm so glad she is okay. I hope she is feeling much better today after a bit of meds.

JCK said...

Oh that sounds so scary! I'm so sorry she had to be in all that pain.

Jackie said...

Oh, what a night...and I am so irritated on your behalf because of the tech that kept asking you why you didn't take her to the Children's Hospital. Hello????

Well, it's nice that you got to spend some one on one time with her, even if the circumstances were yucky. :)

mah-meeee said...

Oh geesh! I don't know if I could have stayed calm without crying if I were you.

Glad to hear that they did find out what is really going!

Get well soon!

Anonymous said...

We are so sorry to read about all the goings-on, but so grateful to see that she is better.

:-)

Elizabeth Byler Younts said...

poor little thing! but i am so glad that you were there with her and that she's starting to feel better. keep us updated!

Jennifer S said...

Poor, sweet girl. There's nothing worse than when they're in pain. I'm glad she didn't have to go through a surgery.

I can only imagine how worried you were.