Two Days In the Hospital
My baby (age 8) has been sick. The little guy woke up Monday morning with abdominal pains and a fever of 103.8F. We brought him to the pediatrician's office first thing in the morning, and she also discovered a throat infection. Sure enough, it looked red in there, with red dots, like strep, though he hadn't complained of a sore throat. She prescribed antibiotics and we took him home. But he couldn't keep the pills (or anything else) down, and he just got worse the rest of the morning. So I called the doctor's office and was told to bring him to the emergency room.
The ER doctors ran all sorts of tests, including a CAT scan, but none of the results were conclusive, and even the strep test was negative. The doctors suspected appendicitis and admitted him to the hospital to keep him overnight for observation. He couldn't eat or drink anything by mouth, so he was hooked up to an IV. Thank goodness I was allowed to stay in the room with him. He would have been so upset to be left there alone! It was a long night, but by morning his fever was normal and his tummy felt much better. So the problem was not his appendix. He had to stay most of Tuesday, as well, even though he seemed much stronger. Eventually they decided he had a virus of some sort, removed the IV, and released him from the hospital Tuesday evening. He was a little annoyed that the doctor said he couldn't have pizza for dinner, but perked up when she said his second-favorite food, pancakes, would be all right.
This morning he seemed perfectly healthy. The doctor had told me to keep him home from school today (Wednesday) or I might have let him go. We did have a follow-up visit with his pediatrician. And he finally got his pizza for lunch today. Tomorrow he'll be back at school.
We were impressed with the hospital and its staff. Everyone -- from the surgeon to the woman who brought meals to the room -- was kind and helpful and seemed really concerned about how to make him feel better. And I couldn't fault the decision to keep him overnight. I'd suspected appendicitis from the beginning, and that's nothing something I would have wanted to take chances with. But I am so relieved that it turned out to be relatively minor.
The ER doctors ran all sorts of tests, including a CAT scan, but none of the results were conclusive, and even the strep test was negative. The doctors suspected appendicitis and admitted him to the hospital to keep him overnight for observation. He couldn't eat or drink anything by mouth, so he was hooked up to an IV. Thank goodness I was allowed to stay in the room with him. He would have been so upset to be left there alone! It was a long night, but by morning his fever was normal and his tummy felt much better. So the problem was not his appendix. He had to stay most of Tuesday, as well, even though he seemed much stronger. Eventually they decided he had a virus of some sort, removed the IV, and released him from the hospital Tuesday evening. He was a little annoyed that the doctor said he couldn't have pizza for dinner, but perked up when she said his second-favorite food, pancakes, would be all right.
This morning he seemed perfectly healthy. The doctor had told me to keep him home from school today (Wednesday) or I might have let him go. We did have a follow-up visit with his pediatrician. And he finally got his pizza for lunch today. Tomorrow he'll be back at school.
We were impressed with the hospital and its staff. Everyone -- from the surgeon to the woman who brought meals to the room -- was kind and helpful and seemed really concerned about how to make him feel better. And I couldn't fault the decision to keep him overnight. I'd suspected appendicitis from the beginning, and that's nothing something I would have wanted to take chances with. But I am so relieved that it turned out to be relatively minor.