This Is... Bleu in Urgent Care

1.2.10



[WARNING: This is a long one. And if you don't like the word "vomit," skip to the next post.]


So we had ourselves a relaxing New Year's Eve at home with friends. The Conroe's were in town. Everyone was happy + HEALTHY. {Side note: Nicole and I were college roommates for just six months in 1996, but we've stayed tight. We celebrated the millennium in Times Square with Nic and her hubby Mike. Now 10 years later our little dudes are commiserating over drum sets, pulled pork sandwiches, and dinosaur raceways. It's kind of cool. We're already planning an escape in 2020.


The wee ones must have been tired, but it didn't show. They were in awesome spirits, so we let them stay up late basking in the Eve. After we sent them to slumber us big people broke out our own appetizers, desserts and spirits {wine, champagne, I think even Jack} and stayed up chatting until about 2 a.m.


Buby generously gave up his bedroom {with a minor bribe from Daddy} since it has two beds to the playroom's one. So Buby was in our bed when he suddenly woke up vomiting at 5:30 a.m. Not even a half hour later Bleu woke up crying with chunks of puke all over her sheet. Now they were both vomiting. My Sweets and I divided and conquered the sheet changing, comforting, and washing of each.


All together Buby had only three major vomiting episodes and he was done. We felt soooo bad for him though. It was traumatic. He was tired and weak and took a full day to recover. Buby hit 102 at one point, but Bleu never ran a fever. No other symptoms, such runny noses, coughs, or sore throats. Just barf. Both kids started throwing up at the exact same time, which is rare. So we guessed food poisoning... bad deli meat, contaminated raw veggies, whatever.


Bleu didn't stop though. She continued vomiting on/off for 30 hours. She couldn't hold down anything, even a sip of water. And she had diarrhea to boot. We tried everything to get her to drink Pedialyte, and I worried about dehydration.


We called the pediatrician Saturday morning. He said it sounded like Buby had turned a corner and was fine, but he wanted Bleu seen at Urgent Care ASAP. Bleu had nothing in her and yet she was still vomiting big. Her last wet diaper was Thursday night. My Sweets stayed home with Buby, who got upset anytime Daddy left the room.


Bleu was dehydrated. The doctors took some tests and confirmed her glucose levels were dangerously low. A nasty 24-hour stomach bug caused excessive vomiting. Excessive vomiting caused dehydration. Dehydration for 20-month-old Bleu is not pretty.


We'd be there a while. I was glad that I brought her favorite pink blankie and Bitty Baby. We never leave home without Bitty. After the initial trauma of getting an IV put in and having her hand and arm all wrapped up like a boxer to prevent her from tearing it out, Bleu fell asleep on my lap. She clinched my side with her free hand. It was a good long nap. That's when I pulled my tiny old camera out of my purse and snapped this for Tom.


For several hours I held my Bleu girl on that exam table while they pumped sodium chloride and glucose into her veins. Her limbs felt heavy. Nurses kept coming in to check on us. They were sweet and soft spoken and even turned the lights down so as not to unnecessarily wake the sleeping beauty. Then the doctor on duty came in like a bull in a china shop, flicked on the fluorescent, and spoke in his loudest stadium voice. He was clueless in that way.


The nurses drew more blood before the doctor informed me that despite their best efforts to replenish her, Bleu was still just "borderline." He said we could easily end up in the emergency room that night, but he discharged us after another bag of fluids.


Our awesome pediatrician {who we've LOVED for over 3 years now} was on-call but at a different facility. He zoomed into the parking lot just as I was buckling Bleu into her seat. It was like zero degrees with the wind chill, and I had her blankie wrapped around her since she puked on her coat and hat on the way in.


I saw Bleu's physician running into the building but figured for another patient. A moment later my cell phone rang. It was Dr. N. He couldn't believe he missed us. I told him we were still in the parking lot, and he ran out to talk to me. He reviewed Bleu's new charts and briefed me on her state. {Which was sort of a relief, since the Urgent Care doctor didn't speak very good English.} Dr. N. asked me to come back inside. He examined Bleu and determined she needed to be admitted to the hospital. He said it was ultimately up to us, but if it were his kid... {and he has two}.


He strongly recommended I drive Bleu to the hospital immediately. He would call ahead and get her a room, so we would not have to wait. He was worried about her potassium levels, among other things. Dr. N. is a very good doctor. He's never steered us wrong before. He said Bleu could easily go into seizure from low blood sugar. Enough said.


The only caveat: The hospital adopted a new flu-season policy prohibiting any visitors under 18 years of age. Smart. But we had nobody to watch a recuperating Buby, so My Sweets could not come. I wanted him with me and Bleu, but at the same time I'd be a nervous wreck if poor Buby had to stay with anyone else in his state. He needed us, too.


The boys packed a few essentials into a bag and met us in the hospital parking lot. They insisted. It was FREEZING. My Sweets wanted to see Bleu. My Buby wanted a hug from me. And we went our separate ways. Ugh. {The downside of not living near family.}


Bleu and I goofed around on the bed for a bit after the IV was in. She kept pointing out the window and saying, "Dada ome... Dada ome..." It was way cute. She doesn't make a clear "H" sound yet, but she knew our boys were at home waiting for our return.