from ice cream to IV
Here is Pippa yesterday at approximately 1:30pm, enjoying a kid cone at Dairy Queen:
Here is Pippa at approximately 10 pm, waiting for an IV:
It's amazing how fast it went from a happy carefree day to a trip to the emergency room. The culprit: probably norovirus, which is experiencing an outbreak here like in so many places. (It was almost certainly not food poisoning. For one thing, all three of us ate the same stuff all day [we both had bites of her ice cream etc] so since I didn't get it, it can't be that; for another, she was only experiencing vomiting.) She woke up from her nap vomiting and just couldn't stop retching, not even for fifteen minutes, so she couldn't keep anything down.
The rough timeline was like this:
4:30 Pip wakes up by vomiting.
5:15 I call the BC Nurse Line to ask about home treatment and get advice to start clear fluids when she's been an hour without retching, and to call back if things change in specific ways.
7:00 My cousin comes over to help out.
8:00 Pippa vomits bile; I call Nurse Line and get told to take her to emergency. I call cousin's dad for a ride.
8:45 We go into BC Children's Emergency, which is very crowded. Initially I think we triage pretty low (Pippa had no fever and vitals weren't bad). We're given a tray and told that when she hasn't vomited for 15 minutes, to start electrolyte solution therapy.
9:30 Nurses come to check on her progress and are surprised that she hasn't gone 15 minutes without retching yet. I think at this point she bumps up in the triage. Within ten minutes we're in a room, however it takes some time to get seen from there.
10:00 She gets her first really thorough check by a nurse, who thinks the doctor is going to want an IV, and puts numbing cream on both hands for this purpose (that's the thing you see on her hand in the picture).
10:30 Seen by a doctor, who orders abdominal x-ray, blood tests, and saline drip.
11:15 Meanwhile, The Husband has started experiencing similar symptoms and gets sent home from work. He comes to the hospital, which is great for me.
I'm getting really hungry at this point because I never got any dinner, and everything in the hospital or nearby is closed. A super awesome nurse offers me a choice of sandwiches and a cup of apple juice. I pick the cheese sandwich. It was not bad by hospital food standards! Whole wheat, cheddar slices, tomato, and lettuce. Probably my hunger made it taste better than it was.
There's a minor scheduling snafu regarding what's happening when with the x-ray and IV. It's squared away by doing the blood draw first, then the X-ray, then the IV.
Pippa did awesome with the blood draw. The numbing cream probably helped, but still, she was excellent about holding still. She did better than I do for blood draws!
Abdominal x-ray for a kid is kind of traumatic. They strap the child in and it literally looks like a medieval torture device. And mama and daddy have to stand way back (I wasn't even in the room) because of the radiation. This was probably the worst part of Pippa's night. The Husband had the bright idea to have the two of them count to ten together, which calmed her down and let her know it wasn't going to be forever.
Midnight: Once Pippa is on the saline she falls asleep. Doctor says there's no point in The Husband sticking around, so he goes home. I watch TV and try to stay awake.
12:30 Pippa is still having some issues with retching so they add an anti-emetic to the drip. After this Pippa will not vomit again (yay!).
1:30 I'm having serious problems staying awake and ask the next nurse who comes in to check the IV site if I could have some coffee. She asks if I'd rather have a cot instead. I'm like heck yes I didn't know a cot was an option sign me up please. I try to get some sleep, although I wake up frequently due to the noise and people coming in the room.
4:45am Pippa wakes up and starts demanding "drink". I try to get her to go back to sleep but it's no good. I get the ok to start trying oral hydration solution again. She is very impatient with how slow it is (5ml every five minutes).
6am After an hour with no vomiting after drinking, they say she's good to go home. Trouble is, how to get us home--I'm nearly a wreck myself from exhaustion, and I have all this stuff with me and no baby carrier. I call The Husband. He says to call back and he'll try to get himself together enough to come help me get home. I spend a VERY difficult hour with a Pippa who thinks she is fully recovered and doesn't understand why she can't run all over the ward and chug a lug Pedialyte.
7:15 The Husband just isn't well enough to come so I have to call a cab. I have the car seat with me. The reception desk helps me get the stuff and Pippa into the cab.
7:30 HOME! :D :D :D
8:30 Pippa finally lets me coax her down to sleep, and we sleep until about 10am. Then I make The Husband do a shift so I can get some more time. Everybody takes it easy today.
So far (finger cross, knock on wood etc) I don't seem to have caught the bug. I've been hand washing constantly.
I'm also lucky that I took my Diclectin dose late yesterday (I didn't take it until 5pm) because I missed the bedtime dose since I was at the hospital.
It was very stressful but it could have been a lot worse. It was definitely made a lot easier by how cheerful and helpful all the staff at BC Children's were (especially the nurse who got me the sandwich; she definitely could have just said "Everything's closed, too bad so sad, there's a vending machine in the waiting room."). They were definitely busy so it could have been easy for them to be snappish or even just indifferent and task-focused rather than patient-focused.
Over all I am feeling drained but grateful. Especially grateful that there's no big fat co-pay bill coming. Yay Canada.
Here is Pippa at approximately 10 pm, waiting for an IV:
It's amazing how fast it went from a happy carefree day to a trip to the emergency room. The culprit: probably norovirus, which is experiencing an outbreak here like in so many places. (It was almost certainly not food poisoning. For one thing, all three of us ate the same stuff all day [we both had bites of her ice cream etc] so since I didn't get it, it can't be that; for another, she was only experiencing vomiting.) She woke up from her nap vomiting and just couldn't stop retching, not even for fifteen minutes, so she couldn't keep anything down.
The rough timeline was like this:
4:30 Pip wakes up by vomiting.
5:15 I call the BC Nurse Line to ask about home treatment and get advice to start clear fluids when she's been an hour without retching, and to call back if things change in specific ways.
7:00 My cousin comes over to help out.
8:00 Pippa vomits bile; I call Nurse Line and get told to take her to emergency. I call cousin's dad for a ride.
8:45 We go into BC Children's Emergency, which is very crowded. Initially I think we triage pretty low (Pippa had no fever and vitals weren't bad). We're given a tray and told that when she hasn't vomited for 15 minutes, to start electrolyte solution therapy.
9:30 Nurses come to check on her progress and are surprised that she hasn't gone 15 minutes without retching yet. I think at this point she bumps up in the triage. Within ten minutes we're in a room, however it takes some time to get seen from there.
10:00 She gets her first really thorough check by a nurse, who thinks the doctor is going to want an IV, and puts numbing cream on both hands for this purpose (that's the thing you see on her hand in the picture).
10:30 Seen by a doctor, who orders abdominal x-ray, blood tests, and saline drip.
11:15 Meanwhile, The Husband has started experiencing similar symptoms and gets sent home from work. He comes to the hospital, which is great for me.
I'm getting really hungry at this point because I never got any dinner, and everything in the hospital or nearby is closed. A super awesome nurse offers me a choice of sandwiches and a cup of apple juice. I pick the cheese sandwich. It was not bad by hospital food standards! Whole wheat, cheddar slices, tomato, and lettuce. Probably my hunger made it taste better than it was.
There's a minor scheduling snafu regarding what's happening when with the x-ray and IV. It's squared away by doing the blood draw first, then the X-ray, then the IV.
Pippa did awesome with the blood draw. The numbing cream probably helped, but still, she was excellent about holding still. She did better than I do for blood draws!
Abdominal x-ray for a kid is kind of traumatic. They strap the child in and it literally looks like a medieval torture device. And mama and daddy have to stand way back (I wasn't even in the room) because of the radiation. This was probably the worst part of Pippa's night. The Husband had the bright idea to have the two of them count to ten together, which calmed her down and let her know it wasn't going to be forever.
Midnight: Once Pippa is on the saline she falls asleep. Doctor says there's no point in The Husband sticking around, so he goes home. I watch TV and try to stay awake.
12:30 Pippa is still having some issues with retching so they add an anti-emetic to the drip. After this Pippa will not vomit again (yay!).
1:30 I'm having serious problems staying awake and ask the next nurse who comes in to check the IV site if I could have some coffee. She asks if I'd rather have a cot instead. I'm like heck yes I didn't know a cot was an option sign me up please. I try to get some sleep, although I wake up frequently due to the noise and people coming in the room.
4:45am Pippa wakes up and starts demanding "drink". I try to get her to go back to sleep but it's no good. I get the ok to start trying oral hydration solution again. She is very impatient with how slow it is (5ml every five minutes).
6am After an hour with no vomiting after drinking, they say she's good to go home. Trouble is, how to get us home--I'm nearly a wreck myself from exhaustion, and I have all this stuff with me and no baby carrier. I call The Husband. He says to call back and he'll try to get himself together enough to come help me get home. I spend a VERY difficult hour with a Pippa who thinks she is fully recovered and doesn't understand why she can't run all over the ward and chug a lug Pedialyte.
7:15 The Husband just isn't well enough to come so I have to call a cab. I have the car seat with me. The reception desk helps me get the stuff and Pippa into the cab.
7:30 HOME! :D :D :D
8:30 Pippa finally lets me coax her down to sleep, and we sleep until about 10am. Then I make The Husband do a shift so I can get some more time. Everybody takes it easy today.
So far (finger cross, knock on wood etc) I don't seem to have caught the bug. I've been hand washing constantly.
I'm also lucky that I took my Diclectin dose late yesterday (I didn't take it until 5pm) because I missed the bedtime dose since I was at the hospital.
It was very stressful but it could have been a lot worse. It was definitely made a lot easier by how cheerful and helpful all the staff at BC Children's were (especially the nurse who got me the sandwich; she definitely could have just said "Everything's closed, too bad so sad, there's a vending machine in the waiting room."). They were definitely busy so it could have been easy for them to be snappish or even just indifferent and task-focused rather than patient-focused.
Over all I am feeling drained but grateful. Especially grateful that there's no big fat co-pay bill coming. Yay Canada.