Sommer family-The 5 of us: March 2012

This entry is mainly for me to remember all that happened in Feb. It is LONG. If you want the short version it's this: Had's was sick for an entire month. First with Adenovirus followed by 2 hospital stays for a golfball sized abscess in her throat. It is VERY rare and who knows how she got it. In the end, she had surgery followed by 14 days of antibiotics and we are hoping we can now move on!
Long Version:
Hads started getting her first cold on Jan 26th. She started with really red watery eyes, her stools changed and runny nose. I could tell her stomach wasn’t feeling good either. I felt so bad for her! We ran a humidifier in the room because she started getting congested as well. It’s so hard to sleep when babies are congested. She can’t sleep and I worry all night. She wasn’t getting better so I took her to her pediatrician on Monday 01/30. Dr. Wonnacott looked her over. She said her stomach sounded soooo upset and said with the cold and flu like symptoms she assumed she probably had Adenovirus. She said it is highly contagious and lasts 10-14 days. Crappy. By Friday Hads seemed to be feeling better so we went ahead and decided to bless her on Sunday 02/05. She seemed to be feeling much better but was definitely a little grumpy that day.

Mon 02/06: Hadley woke up at 4:30 am crying...no screaming. She didn't want to eat and nothing was calming her down. It lasted long enough that Scott finally came up to see what was going on. He finally took her and started pacing the hall. She finally fell back to sleep. She has had one or two episodes like this in the past so we figured it was just a weird thing. We were wrong. She ended up crying like this all day. If she wasn't screaming she was asleep and the second she woke up from sleep it would start all over again. She also was not eating anywhere near what she was normally eating. I knew there was something wrong; I just had no idea what it was. She had been sick the week before but this was something very different. It was a long day to say the least.
Tues 02/07: The crying continued so much-even into the night, that I was texting Cheryl at 2:00 in the morning with what I should do. Because she works the ER at Primary's I knew she would have some suggestions. We finally got her back to sleep but it continued every time she woke up. I decided I would take her to instacare. She had a fever of 100.6 and checked her for ear infections, UTI (did a cath...she hated that) and then I asked them to do a scan of her belly. It came back with a lot of air pockets-because of all the crying. The dr. basically said he could do blood work up but they didn't usually like to do that because it's invasive to babies (Writing that now makes me almost laugh. Poor baby had way more than that coming her way!). So...I went home....frustrated. I have to add that Jaxon was soooo good at the Dr office. I was so happy with him. The day continued much of the same-if Hads wasn't asleep she was crying. I was supposed to go out with Sarah that night. Normally, if I had a sick baby I would just cancel my plans and stay home. I decided that it was going to be in mine and Scott's best interest if I took Hadley to my mom for a few hours. I felt AWFUL for Hads. I knew something was wrong, knew I wasn't being able to fix it, and that can get frustrating after hours and hours of crying. My mom was happy to take her so I dropped her off and went to dinner with Sarah and Jax and Scott went to dinner with Drew and Izzie. I had a nice time going out and just chatting. I very much needed a break. When I picked Hads up from my mom she said that she had just slept most of the time. She did get her to eat a bottle-which I was happy about because she hadn't eaten in 8 hours. The night continued the same. Around 3:00 a.m. we decided that we needed to take her to the ER. We just knew something was wrong. Scott decided he would shower real quickly and get ready and we would find someone to sit with the kids. By the time he got out of the shower she had cried herself back to sleep.
Wed 02/08: We decided that because I had several meetings on Wed that Scott was going to need to take the day off so that I could get work done. We also knew that we needed to take her in to our pediatrician. Scott asked his Dad to come over and help him give had’s a blessing. By Wed afternoon she was almost giving up. She was still crying but a more softer "I am so tired of this" cry. She had not eaten all day and seemed to be getting lethargic-most likely from not eating. All 5 of us went to the dr (which both kids were again...so good for us). Dr. Wonnacott looked at her and asked us all her symptoms. We told her she had just woken up screaming on Mon morning. I told her all the tests they did on Tues and that she hadn't eaten in about 12 hours. We told her the only time she seemed to calm down was if we were holding her upright and that it seemed that her next hurt because if we moved it at all she would get really mad. She said there were a few options she thought we had 1- Do blood work in her office and go from there, doing OP things at the Riverton hospital if needed or 2- Going up to the ER at Primary's, being there for 6 hours but at least having everything in one place. I told her I was ok just starting with doing the blood and then looked at her and knew from the look on her face she wasn't real comfortable with that. I asked her what she would do and she said she would go up to Primary's. That pretty much solidified it for us and we decided we would go ahead and do that. The good thing for us was that I knew Cher was up there that night and so I felt comfortable knowing she would be there to help us with whatever. I called my sister and she said she could take the kids so we dropped them off, called Brandee to see if she could pick them up from her and then headed up to the hospital.

We lucked out and the ER was empty when we got there. Cher had been the triage nurse so she took us right back. She still had a fever and was still crying. Cher was able to be our nurse and took such good care of us. This was just the beginning of us being grateful that she was there. It's nice to have one of your best friends as your nurse because you know you are getting the best care and we asked her a million questions. They started by taking Hads blood. Cher was a champ and got her IV in on the first shot. They decided to start by taking her blood. Oh wait...they started by doing eye drops...in case all of this fussing was from a scratched eye-:)- Hey, they had to check everything when you have a baby who can't talk. THEN when that didn't work they started her IV and drew blood. The Dr came in and said that he felt like they needed to do a spinal tap to make sure it wasn't meningitis. He said it is usually best for parents to go out for that because it's hard to watch. He also said that when talking with kids old enough to tell him what hurts they say they hate staying scrunched up for 10 min more than the actual needle. Still sucks. So, we went and got a drink. We were drained, tired and just hoping we could get things better. We waited awhile for results. Hads slept and Scott and I chatted and when we got bored with each other we played on the Itouch! :) Again, nice to have Cher there. She even brought me in Diet Coke mixed with DP. I mean seriously.....that is star treatment right there! :) The Dr came in around 11:00 pm. The meningitis came back negative but her blood test came back very high for her White Blood Cells (so infection: 24000) and CRP(inflammation marker 4). He said that tells us there is something going on with her and he felt we needed to be admitted so that we could figure it out. At first I wasn't sure that was necessary. Admitted? So...we talked to Cher who seconded that admitting us was a good idea. We trust her and so we went with it. We got up to our room around 12:30 a.m. They hooked her up to fluids which she needed. About 30 min later there were all of a sudden 8 people in the room: nurses, techs, intern, residents...etc. Wow...that was a little overwhelming for a minute because I wasn't prepared for that. Hads was so tired and all 8 of those people wanted to check her out. Whew! By the time we were settled it was 2:30 a.m. and Scott was finally going home. Thankfully Brandee was so nice to stay with the kids for the night. She said later she got her first feel of parenthood as Jax came down in the middle of the night for food and Jade came down after having a nightmare! :) I was so tired but learned QUICKLY you don't get much sleep in the hospital. Between people coming in to check vitals every 4 hours, monitors beeping constantly, antibiotics being given and then beeping, quieting a tired/sick baby, pumping because said baby won't eat, sleep is pretty hard to come by.
Thursday 02/09: (day nurse tammy/night nurse amber) Scott had to go in early (5:30 a.m.) to get sub plans set up for school. Brand helped him get kids off to School and then He came up to the hospital. The team of Dr's came in to check her Thursday morning and wouldn't you know....she was happy as a clam. (By this point she had IV antibiotics and fluids so looking back, I can see why she was already feeling better) This was a little frustrating because it's hard for a team of Dr's who see a "Happy" baby to know what they need to do to help with what others said was a "inconsolable, fever, non eating" baby. Yes, she still was having fevers and yes, she still wasn't eating, but she was much happier. They decided they were going to go a belly and neck x-ray and start there. This was the day I learned more about hospitals: a lot of sit around and wait. A test is ordered and then you just wait until they have time to do the test and then wait more for results and wait more to hear back from Drs. Her belly and neck X-ray came back normal. Hmmm...That afternoon after I tried to feed Hadley she started her screaming again. The nurse heard her going crazy and came in. She wouldn't stop. Nothing we did would console her. After 25 min of this my nurse paged the Dr's so that they could see exactly what we had been seeing since Monday. The resident came in and was able to at least get an idea of what going on and see if we layer her down things got worse. After about an hour she calmed down a little.
The rest of the night we just hung out. Scott stayed till about 8:30. Meg had had my kids after they got out of school. Brand had picked them up from her and brought them up to the hospital. I forget how flustered I get with my kids in that situation. I felt the same when I had Hadley. It's just too much energy in a little space. I took the kids with Brand down to the playroom and to get dinner. The kids were good and I was glad to see them. When they were leaving and I was saying goodbye to the kids poor Jax didn't know that I wasn't going home. It was sad. They left about 8:30 and took Scott home with them. Unfortunately they got about 10 min from the hospital before they realized they didn't have anyway to get into the house and had to come back. When I went out to give them the keys Jax said "I want mewa mewa to come home with me. When will Hadley be better?" I feel bad for mom's that have kids in the hospital for long periods. It is so hard to be with your kids in the hospital with other kids at home. By the time they got home everyone was so tired. He said they got the kids in the bath and then they all slept in our bed. He said the kids were so worn out and tired...as was he!

Friday 02/10: (day nurse? night nurse- fussiness/night terror lady) Friday my mom was nice enough to take the day off and watch my kids so that Scott could go to school. She got Jade off to school and had Jax for the day. They did all types of fun things with her. The Dr's came in that morning and said her WBC they were going to go ahead and have ENT look at her today as well as have the speech and lactation come in to see how she was nursing and watch her swallow to see what was going on there because she still was not wanting to eat much. They came in the afternoon and she ate ok. They could see that she would suck, suck, suck and then pull off and cry but said they felt like it was because she was drinking to fast? Whatever. Sarah Nuttal came up to visit me in the afternoon and brought me treats. I am so happy she lives across the street. She is one of my greatest friends and I am lucky to have her live across the street and that our husbands are just as good as friends as we are! The ENT dr came up and looked at her. She checked her ears and she looked at her throat and then she said "We could put a camera down her nose and look more closely in her throat but I really don't think we'd see anything." Dang...if only I had forced that issue! She wanted to take her down later and get a deeper look at her ears though. Scott came up later that afternoon and brought me some clothes. YAY!!! I felt so much better after taking a shower! The resident (Angela) who was working with us came in that afternoon and sat down with us and basically said there are times that patients come in with fevers and they don't know what's wrong. They rule out the major issues and then if patients seem to start getting better they have to just say they don't know what happened but home the antibiotic took care of it and we just went home with that. We told her we were fine with that as long as we could go 24 hours without her crying in pain and she was eating. She agreed and said they wouldn't send us home unless she was eating and feverless for 24 hours. We were ok with that. Friday night they came and got her to look at her ears. They cleaned them out and said she was fine and that was that. My mom had had the kids all day so Scott headed home about 7:00 to take the kids. My first (and might I add ONLY) meltdown came soon after. I will admit: I was tired. I hadn't slept more than 3 hours a night since Monday. So I was tired and overwhelmed. They have nurses switch at 7:00 every day. Our new night nurse came in and we had this as our first conversation:

Nurse: "Hi, I am ___. I can't believe they admitted you guys for fussiness"
Me: (in my mind) Huh? Ummm...I don't think we are here for fussiness. According to everyone who has talked to us we were admitted for High WBC and CRC. My daughter has also had a fever since Monday and won't eat. "Uh. Well I think we are here for her fevers and she won't eat and has an infection that they can't find"
Nurse: "You know, sometimes I think these babies just get so overly tired and sometimes they have night terrors and that's what causes them to scream and cry."
Me: Now I was so so so annoyed. Seriously? Night terrors and fussiness? I had not been at the hospital for 2 days with my 3 month old baby letting her be poked a million times while my other two kids are at home because of Night terrors.

I tried to just ignore her and get her out of my room as soon as possible. I called Scott all upset and told him what she said. I was ticked. I then called Cher and told her....she reaffirmed that was not the reason. I was upset and went down to get dinner. I got a grilled cheese. It had too much butter...and tipped the "sensible" me side over and no lie....started crying at the cash register. The nurse just really bugged me. It isn't a fun place to be and no one is going to be here "for just fussiness". A few hours later I could tell Hads was warm again and asked the nurse to take her temp. 100.6. I seriously started crying. I wanted to go home and another fever meant another day. Sigh. The night terror nurse was like "Are you crying? What can I do?" Nothing...go out....

Sat 02/11: The Dr's came in Saturday morning. They saw she had a fever in the night and that she wasn't eating still. They decided to go ahead and do the bone scan. They also decided to stop the antibiotic and see what happened. Scott brought the kids up to the hospital so that I could get out for awhile. I took the kids to the Zoo and met Cher there. It was good to get out but I felt like I should be back at the hospital with Hads. They did the bone scan while I was gone. It of course came back ok. Scott and Brandee took the kids down to the playroom and then Brandee took them home. I actually took a 2 hour nap which was so nice. Hadley had been eating much better all day, which was good to see. My mom and Megan came up later that night and visited and brought us dinner (after they dropped dinner off at my house for Brandee and the kids). It was nice because 1- I got bored up there and 2- Real food! :) Scott and I just hung out for awhile and then Scott went home to be with the kids

Sun 02/12: My dad came up in the morning to see Hadley. The Dr's came in and said because she had been 24 hours without a fever, was eating, and hadn't gotten worse with stopping the antibiotics that we could go home. She said she would try to get all of the paper work done and have us out at noon. My dad said he would wait for us to help us out. By 1:30 we still didn’t have to paper work so I told my dad to just go because I felt bad that he had to wait along so long. He took my bags home so I only had to carry Hads on the way out. I think we finally got the paper work about 2:30. I was sooo happy to be home and the kids were happy I was home as well. Hads and I both showered and then took a long nap! I didn’t realize how exhausted I was! I think it took me a good week to catch up from the week!

The whole experience was such a whirlwind. Mon-Wed watching her scream in pain was awful. I KNEW something was wrong. She has piercing eyes and would look right at me when she was crying like she was trying to say “HELP ME!!!”. I feel bad for how much she went through though and in the end- even though we didn’t find anything wrong, I was just so happy that she was feeling better! The poor girl ended up with 3 IV’s, blood draw pokes every morning, being sedated for her bone scan, having tons of people check her ears-which she HATES!!! It was a rough week for all of us. Throughout the whole experience we had so many people worried about us and praying for us. I was so grateful for everyone who helped us out in so many ways. Being up at the hospital was a humbling experience. There are so many kids there who are there for sooo much longer. There were also a lot of little kids on our floors who were alone during the day-I am guessing their parents had to work. There was a cute little 18month old who I heard someone says is in DCFS custody so she really didn’t have anyone there most of the time-day or night. It was so sad to me! In the end I am grateful for my sweet baby who was finally feeling better, for Scott and my kids and for all of our friends and family who helped us out!

The two pictures of her crying are at the instacare on Tues. This is how upset she was for all of Mon-Wed. It's interesting to see her toungue in the bottom left picture, turning up on her left side. I never noticed it until the second stay. I noticed it Wed during the day, that her tongue was turned weird but figured it was something she always did and I just never noticed. It's not, it was because the abscess was on that side.

In the E.R. she was exhausted!

Hanging out in her bed. This bed was much softer and more comfy than the second time

Monday 02/20: It was President’s day and Scott had the day off so he took the kids to go and see a movie (Ariettie). Had's was fussy in the morning but feel asleep about 9:30 and took a 5 hour nap! I was surprised she slept for so long but it was nice because I was able to just work! She woke up around 2:30 or 3:00 and was fussy. When I finished working I got her in the shower with me and when we got out it was about 4:30. She started getting fussy again so I tried to feed her and after she ate for about 2 or 3 min she started screaming. It was THE scream. Scott was in the room and we looked at each other and I said “Oh no. Why are we doing this again?” At the moment I thought it was just a fluke. I was wrong. The crying continued, her fever went up and I knew we were in for a LONG night!

Tues 02/21: Had’s did have a long night. She wouldn’t eat very well and had a fever all night. When she woke up she was still fussy but she took a really good long nap again. I was hoping that would help. Wrong. She woke up still crying/screaming. I recorded the cry that day in case I needed to take it to the Dr and show how she wasn’t just crying. It is sooo different from her “I’m tired, hungry” cry. THE scream I keep referring to is so much of an “I am in pain, I hurt, please help me” It is so sad! Jade needed to go to dance, I had errands to run and I knew I couldn’t take Hadley. I called my mom to see if she could watch her for a few hours so I could go run errands. She said she would be happy to. I tried to feed her at 4:30 so that she wouldn’t need to eat at my mom’s and she refused to eat. It made her so mad when I even tried. When I dropped Had’s off I told my mom that if I came back and she told me Had’s hadn’t cried at all I was going to just have Had’s move in! J I was kidding. When I picked her up about 2.5 hours later my mom said she had mostly just slept the entire time (while my mom held her) but when she did try to feed her a bottle she went ballistic every time my mom tried. OK, so it wasn’t just me. Good to know. I tried to feed her the rest of the night but she refused to eat anything.

Wed 02/22: After another rough night, with no eating for now 15 hours I knew I had better call my pediatrician. I also texted Cheryl and told her I had a sneaking suspicion I would be seeing her later at work. Had’s cried all day. She still had a fever and so I would force her Tylenol down and she would get soooo mad! I finally decided that she needed something in her stomach so I also used a syringe to give her just 1 tsp of milk. You would have thought I was torturing her. I felt so bad for her. By the time I took her to the pediatrician she hadn’t eaten for 24 hours. My pediatrician could not believe that we were back (neither could I). We went over everything that had happened since we had been home from the hospital. She asked if we had taken her anywhere (the answer was no. Had’s seriously spent all of Feb inside. From the time she had adenovirus we did not take her to any public places.) She was at a loss. She said the problem was she was given the million dollar workup at the hospital and they found nothing. She said that she at least needed to give her fluids. She said with how long she hadn’t eaten it would be hard to get an IV and we talked about just taking her home and forcing milk down her with a syringe every 5 min. I told her I wasn’t real comfortable with that because of how much she screamed when I did it-like it was painful. I asked her if it could be strep and she said no because little kids don’t get strep. She decided to call an infectious disease Dr. up at Primary’s because it was someone we hadn’t seen yet. She called back and told Dr. Wonnacott that we needed to go back up to Primary’s. I figured as much. When Dr. Wonnacott came in the room to tell me that she said “Pack a bag”. Again, I learned my lesson last time. I left, called Scott who was taking Jade to gymnastics. At first I told him just to stay with the kids and I would just take Had’s up to the hospital but he felt like it would be best if he came (I am sooo glad that’s what we ended up doing). I called my dad and asked if we could stop by there and have him and Scott give Had’s a blessing. He was, of course, more than willing to do so. I then called Brand to see if she could take the kids for the night and she said she could and would meet us. I met Scott and the kids at my Dad’s house. We gave her a blessing. Had’s was still screaming and while we were getting her back in the car seat she gave my dad “the look”. The one we had seen several times throughout all of this. It is as if she looks straight at you, through her tears and screams and is trying to tell you “I am hurting. PLEASE do something about it!” My dad felt so sad for her! He says that look haunted him over the next little bit as we tried to get her feeling better. I understood that completely. Unless you saw the look you can’t quite understand, but it is one I won’t forget either. It was something that made me know that something was definitely wrong. We left my Dad’s house and Brandee met us off of Bangeter to pick up the kids. I felt bad saying goodbye to them because I knew it probably was going to be another long few days again. They were so good about it and are always happy to be with Brand. We didn’t get up to the hospital until about 6:00. Again, another huge blessing that Cheryl was working again that night. It was all feeling like déjà vu at this point. Wed night, 6:00, ER, Cheryl working. Crazy….. We were able to get right in (thanks to Cher). Scott was pretty stressed out at this point as Had’s was still screaming and crying. He gets so worried and stressed when things like this happen. He gets that way when he feels like he can’t “Fix” a situation. He wants to always be able to fix or help the kids and this was a situation we couldn’t. I, on the other hand, felt more relief. I knew there was something wrong and felt better that we were finally back at a place that could help get her better. She still had a fever when we got there. Cher got us settled in a room. The first person who came in to check her out was an intern. He went over everything and then did the basic “look her over” which is always the ears, nose and throat. Every Dr who has seen her does this. It’s quick and routine. Cheryl had said our Res. Dr for the night was really good….that made us happy. When Dr. Glyssmeyer came in he talked to us for a bit about our last stay, symptoms this go around, etc. He seemed to think the two issues weren’t connected and that he was not going to re-tap her and felt like maybe it would be best to get some fluids in here and see how she was but felt we probably wouldn’t need to get admitted. He said they would go ahead and do the blood work to just make sure her levels were still down from the last time we were here. I said ok, but felt uneasy about that. Again, I knew there was something wrong. I never felt like this was just a cold or something. I think the problem with the Dr’s were that they knew she had just been in, had been tested for a million things and never really found anything. I don’t think anyone really thought I was crazy because obviously she had a fever and wouldn’t eat (we were now going on 28 hours) but I felt like maybe they thought she was just “sick” with a virus or something. Anyway before he left he asked if he could just “look her over” real quick. Sure, we were used to this now. He looked in her ears, nothing. He looked in her nose and then in her throat. He couldn’t really get a good look in her throat (no one usually can, but don’t seem to mind and just move on) so he asked me to lay her down on the bed. He put the tongue depressor in her mouth and when he pulled it out it was covered in blood. He said “That is not normal right? Not something you have seen?” We were a little freaked out and assured him it was not. He looked again, more blood. I picked Had’s up from the bed and as I did she started spitting up/out lots and lots of thick bloody/pussy stuff. Things started moving. The Dr said that we needed to get a CT scan right away and that he wondered if she had an abscess on her throat and it had just ruptured. As soon as he said it I knew that’s what it was. Cheryl spoke up and said “Well that would make sense as to why we thought her neck hurt from 2 weeks ago.” The dr didn’t know that was a symptom and said “You thought her neck hurt? Oh I am sure this is why.” It ALL started making sense. All the symptoms from the first go around: Fever, not wanting to eat, pain was all probably caused from this abscess. She was then put on IV antibiotics that quickly started taking away the infection and she started feeling better and eating. We never found the problem, were sent home and as soon as the antibiotics stopped, the infection/abscess started growing again until it got so big/infected that Had’s went crazy again. Then all the symptoms from Monday made sense too: Fever, pain, not wanting to eat (who could blame her!) the breathing (which Scott and I both noticed was different) the gurgle sound I could hear (because she didn’t want to swallow) the SCREAMS when I forced medicine down her, like it was almost choking her. It all made sense and I was SURE we had found the problem. Even right then, as she was spitting up all over me, I felt relief-and guilt, like I should have done more, or not forced the milk earlier, just mom guilt. They tried to start an IV Scott sat by her and just suctioned out her mouth. She had so much bloody gunk in there from when the abscess ruptured. We stepped out for a minute while Cher and another nurse tried to get an IV in (which they eventually had to do in her head because she was so dehydrated) and they said she would actually turn her head towards the suction because she realized it was helping her so much. So sad! They got the IV in and then sent us for a CT scan. It was quick and Had’s didn’t mind it at all. The radiologist came in right away and had us come look at the scans. You could see the round abscess right away. It was big! He said it was partially blocking her airway and from the size said we would most likely be admitted and surgery done to take care of the abscess. Again, I was just so happy we were finally figuring out what was going on! When we got back to the room we had a miracle…she ATE!!! I could not believe it but it was proof that even just getting out the amount we did from the rupture/suction made her feel enough better to eat! I was so happy! She only ate about 2 ounces but it was something! They had someone from ENT came in. She was a resident and rubbed me the wrong way. She said surgery would either be tonight around 11 or at 7:00 in the morning. She talked to Dr. Park and came back and said they felt like in the morning would be best and that she needed to be on NPO (no food/drink) after midnight. Ok, that made sense. I would feed her again once we got in our room upstairs. After she left they started Had’s on fluids and 2 antibiotics. The good thing was that now that they knew what they were treating, they could give her the correct antibiotics to fight it. The dr came back in and just confirmed we were being admitted and then said that with the way her numbers came back from blood work, that even if we hadn’t found the abscess we would have been admitted again because her WBC was up to 31,000 and her CRP was at 13.6. When they admitted us last time her WBC was 24,000 and CRP was a 4. So that basically told us that things had gotten much worse since the last time we brought her to the ER. Crazy! I called my mom to let her know we were back at the hospital (she had been in parent teacher conf) and my dad to let him know what we found out. I called and checked on the kids as well. We got up to the room about 11:30. I was irritated at first because we had to share a room, which sucks, but I got over that quickly, realized it’s not a huge deal, nor anything we could do about it as the floor was very crowded. I was very happy to see that the night nurse we had almost every night the first stay (besides the one night with “night terror nurse”) was our nurse again. It felt comforting to have her be our nurse again. I was going to try to feed Had’s again but they sent us up with NPO orders so they said she needed to wait. Scott stayed until we got Had’s situated and then headed home about midnight.
Whew….what a day. As I tried to lay down and get some rest (HA!!!) I started thinking about the day and felt so blessed. I was grateful I didn’t go home just trying to force Had’s milk every 5 min. I would have been torturing her. I was SO grateful that Cheryl was our nurse again. I can’t explain how comforting it was to have here there both times. Scott and I can never tell her just how grateful we are for that. I felt sooo blessed that we were at the ER when her abscess ruptured. Had it happened at home I would have FREAKED out and probably called 911. I am also grateful it didn’t rupture while she was sleeping or something. She would have choked on all that stuff…it would not have been a good situation. We were so blessed that day to be where we were and to finally have answers. I am so grateful for that!

Thurs 02/23: Hadley woke up around 4:00 am and was hungry. It felt so bad that I wasn’t able to feed her. I went and pumped and came back and just kept thinking to my self that we just needed to get through the next 3 hours and then they could do the surgery and we could feed her. She was fussy for about an hour and then fell asleep. I was so glad she fell back asleep and was just ready for the surgery. Scott had a lot going on at school but we talked about it and thought it would be best if he was there for the surgery. So he had left the hospital at Midnight, got home around 1:00 and then went in to school around 5:30 to do subplans and was back to the hospital by 6:30. It was crazy for him but he was totally fine to do it so that he could be there for the surgery. The ENT resident lady walks in at 7:00. (This is the same one that 2 weeks ago said she could put a camera down Had’s throat to see if that is where the problem was but didn’t think she would see anything so didn’t. If only she had huh? Anyway, she walks in and says “So she finally decided to grow something we could see huh?” Whatever. I was already annoyed with her that she hadn’t found it the first time and now she was making it sounds like Had’s just grew this. Whatever. Hadley was totally asleep and this lady decides to check her out. I was fine with this, thinking she was going to surgery so it didn’t matter if we woke her up. The lady wakes her up, checks her out, looks down her throat-which makes Hadley scream and cry and then says “OK, we should probably be able to get her in for surgery in the early afternoon.” WHAT?!?!?! I told her that we were told surgery would be at 7:00 and that they put her on NPO last night at midnight because of that and she had now only had 2 ounces to eat since 4:30 on Tuesday night and it was now 7:00 Thursday morning. I was TICKED to say the least. She just said they would try to get her in earlier (right) but that the surgery scheduled was made yesterday and they were fitting us in. I was so mad. I would have had NO problem being at the end of the day but let me feed my baby until the 5 hours before and also give her stronger pain meds until the surgery. I was really upset. I let everyone know (in an “I’m upset she can’t eat” way) that what had happened was unacceptable to me. I was frustrated not only because Had’s couldn’t eat, but also because Scott had taken the day off work when he had a lot going on that day and could have taught and been up to the hospital by noon. Had we known we were “add-ons” I would have known we would never get in before noon and he might as well work. Now…that being said, we were extremely blessed that day. I know there were several people praying and fasting for Hadley that day and our miracle came because even though she hadn’t eaten and was fussy and hungry around 4:00 that morning she honestly slept almost the entire day on Thursday. I can only explain it as a miracle as she doesn’t sleep that much normally and was probably in pain and hungry. We truly were blessed. I think she was maybe awake a total of an hour between 5:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Because of that Scott and I just pretty much sat around allllll day. That wasn’t good because I was bored and it only made me have more time to be upset about the situation. Around 4:00 a lady came in who is over the floor and the satisfaction type stuff. She was very nice and said she had heard we were told 7:00 a.m. for a surgery and were still waiting. I let her know that I was very frustrated-not because we were having to wait until this late but because it was unacceptable to have a 3 month old on NPO for 17 hours when it wasn’t necessary. She said she completely understood and even offered to compensate Scott for his missed day of work which we said was unnecessary. She did leave us with a $10 meal coupon which we also said no to but she did anyway. Just as she was leaving (4:40) they finally came upstairs to get Had’s for surgery. We met with the anesthesiologist and Dr for a few minutes before surgery. The dr said he understood there was a miscommunication on the time of surgery (ummm….yes, I would say so) and he said he would talk to the girl who had told us the time in the ER and who put her on NPO last time. They explained what they would do to put Had’s asleep and what the surgery would entail. It would be about an hour. Scott and I kissed her goodbye and then went and grabbed a bite to eat…quickly….and went back to the waiting area. We were so happy when the Dr came to tell us they were done and that she was waking up!
When I saw her I felt so sad for her. She was upset and had blood all over her nose and mouth and her lips were swollen. She looked a mess. I was just happy to get her back in her room and sit and hold her. They were able to get her some morphine and once that kicked in she calmed down and just went to sleep. We tried to get her to eat a little but she didn’t want anything to do with that. Scott and I just held her for awhile. We tried to suction her out because you could hear from her breathing that she had a lot of crap in her throat. If she would have eaten I think it would have helped her clear everything out, but she wouldn’t. Scott stayed until about 9:00 and was nervous to leave but I told him she would be fine. I was glad we were still at the hospital though so that she could have people watching her and suctioning her through the night. She was fussy though out the night as I am sure she was in pain, but we got through it ok and I was so glad that Amber was there that night taking care of her.

Fri 02/24: When Had’s woke up in the morning I tried to nurse her but she wouldn’t eat. I went and pumped and when I came back I decided that I would try to feed her a bottle. I felt like she was hungry but maybe it hurt her to move her head and so nursing wasn’t comfortable. An hour or so later I tried the bottle and she took right to it. YAY!!!! J Dr. Park came in and checked her early in the morning as did the lady dr. I felt good about that. When the floor doctors came in to check her I let them know I had got her to eat and she seemed to be doing better. They told me that after her blood draws from the morning they were very happy because her WBC had dropped to 9000-from 31000! Her CRP numbers had gone from 13 to 6!!! I was shocked to hear how much they dropped, though I shouldn’t be shocked considering how much infection they took from her by doing the surgery! Things were definitely looking better and once Jade ate I could tell she was feeling better. I could tell her throat was still hurting so they kept her on morphine all day. Because of that she was definitely pretty calm and tired all day. The next time Had’s wanted to eat I tried nursing her and she went with it and then nursed great the rest of the time. I was so happy about that! We just relaxed throughout the rest of the day. My mom had taken the day off (on her birthday!) and watched Jax and then Jade once she got out of school. She said that she would bring the kids up so they could see me and Had’s. When she came in the kids each had a balloon for Hadley. My mom also brought her up so long sleeve onesies and cute matching pants. She also had stopped and bought me my favorite Jelly Bellies and some treats for Scott too. She did WAY too much for us but I appreciated it soooo much. I love my mom. My mom stayed with Hadley while I took the kids down to the playroom to make a craft. They love going in there because they are so good with kids, have lots to play with, and cater to the kids. We stayed for about 30 min and then went back up to the room. The kids left soon after that as it’s hard to have them in the room when we are sharing it with another family. I was so glad I was able to see them though. I felt bad that I wasn’t going to be able to be at my mom’s birthday party that night but was glad I was able to at least see her on her birthday. Had’s was still pretty dirty from the surgery and had sugar water in her hair from them giving it to her while she was getting a new IV so we decided that she needed a bath. Our tech from the day was nice enough to do that for us before she left for the day and I knew that Had’s would feel much better with a bath. We continued to just hang out and relax all night long. The ENT Dr and Resident both came in to check her that night, which I thought was really nice. She hadn’t had a fever since the night in the ER and was on morphine and probably feeling pretty nice. Overall I was so happy that everything was getting better and knew that if she continued to eat with no fevers it was very likely that we could go home in the morning. YAY!!!

Sat 02/25: We had a pretty good night and Had’s seemed to sleep pretty well. The dr’s came in to check her in the morning and I was happy to report no fevers and eating great! Her blood draws came back with a WBC of 17000 and a CRP of 1!!! I was a little worried about the WBC raising but after talking with the dr’s they said that they were more looking at the CRP and because it had dropped drastically since Wed, there were no fevers and Had’s was eating well we could go home. They told us this around 10:00 and imagine my surprise when our nurse came in around 11:00 with the paperwork to go home! I took all of our stuff out to the car and after going over the paper work with our nurse we left around noon!!! YAY!!!! I was so happy to be going home again and this time knowing that we found the problem!
Whew….what a long month that was. I was thinking on my drive home that Had’s started getting sick with adeno virus on Jan 26th and we were going home on the 25th of Feb. She was pretty much sick for an entire month. I feel awful looking back on it all and knowing how painful it all was for her. I am sure the adeno virus was definitely not fun. I know her stomach was very upset for all of that and she was super congested. I can’t imagine the pain the abscess caused and to not be able to do anything but cry to let people know there is a problem is so sad! The pain of the virus alone would have been awful but add in a cath, xrays, body scans, spinal tap, 10 blood draws, 6 IVS, one surgery, and umpteen dr’s poking and prodding was a bucket of non-fun for her. I am glad it is over and cross my fingers that when we are finished with the anti-biotic we are clear from that infection-never to come backThank you again to everyone who helped us by texting, calling, praying, fasting, watching kids, dinner, etc. We appreciate it more than I could every fully express with words!

Her CT scan. She didn't mind it until they put the dye in. The nurse said it makes them feel warm and they have a hard time understanding what it is