Baby C's First ER Visit

How do I even start. Yesterday was a hard day for mom but even more traumatic for Caroline. Julia has a thing for visiting urgent care facilities when travelling but never once have we taken her to the ER. However, Caroline has gone even before she is one! I hope this isn't the start of a pattern. So let me back up and tell you about the last couple of days.

Early Thursday morning Caroline woke up and I just happened to feel her fore head. She was hot and I just assumed that her ear infections hadn't healed. Not to worry because we had an ear check that morning. When we arrived at the doctor's she was running a 103 fever, had no other symptoms, and her ears were just fine. So we decided she most likely had something viral. My doctor said if she was still running a high fever in a couple of days to come back. So all weekend we had a very fussy, irritable baby. I chalked it up to this virus and probably teething. But by Sunday night the low grade fever she had all weekend was spiking again.

So Monday morning, off to the Doctor's we went. Now my pediatrician may be in his seventies but he is fantastic. Graham always comments that he hardly says anything but in reality I think it is because he listens. He heard me when I said she just isn't herself, something isn't right. Once again no symptoms but fever and irritability. So he started running tests. This is where I broke down. First was the urine catheter and when that showed only a few white blood cells we went on to the blood draw. It is the worst thing to think that this poor 8 month old baby, my baby, hurts. So after all the drama we went home to wait for the preliminary results.

At 2:30 I received the call and instead of the nurse calling to tell me the results it was my pediatrician on the other line. First thing out of his mouth was, "You live by Parker Adventist, right?" My heart sank. He had already called the doctor at the ER to tell them we were coming. Instead of just having me come back to the office to get a shot of antibiotics he was worried because her blood count was more than three times the average. Last thing I heard was meningitis. The drive to the ER was hard. Of course I started thinking of the worst and tears started flowing. When we arrived it was wonderful because my ped's office now has electronic medical records. So they were able to open up her files right away and I didn't have to fill out any paperwork. It made everything so easy. When the doctor came in her worry was we would have to wait a couple more days for the cultures and with Caroline not looking so good she didn't want to take that chance. So they decided to do a spinal tap so they could rule out meningitis. Scariest thing ever to hear that your baby is going to be put through this, but I was glad that they were taking this seriously. So long story short, spinal fluid was clear and early tests were negative. So after three hours we were discharged and Caroline was given a high dose antibiotic shot.

Today we revisited the pediatrician's office. The urine culture was starting to show positive cultures so now we finally have some answers. Another shot of antibiotics and tomorrow when they know more from the urine culture then they will put her on oral antibiotics. The last few days have been so hard to see your baby so sick. I want nothing more than to have my perky, smiley Caroline back and now I feel so grateful for her health. As I said on Facebook it has been a whirlwind and hopefully by tonight we will start seeing a baby who is starting to feel a little bit better!