In the hospital

This morning started with a bang…

6am – Kaitlyn was sleeping in our bed and woke up vomiting all over the place. I got her and the bedding all cleaned up and I hear her say, "Mommy, I'm sorry." When I asked her why she was sorry, she responded "because I puked all over everything". I started bawling...I hugged her and reassured her that she had nothing to feel sorry for. This is just one more reason why this kid amazes me. Her ability to empathize with others at such a young age truly baffles me. Even if in this situation her empathy is a bit displaced. I NEVER want her to feel sorry for me for any of this. I feel sorry for her and I am willing do anything, ANYTHING to make her struggle a little easier...no questions asked. (Katie, you don't EVER have to feel sorry about ANY of this...NONE OF IT is your fault, baby.)

After getting everything all cleaned up, she proceeded to vomit 3 more times before 8am. Once she finally fell back to sleep, we slept until 11am. When we woke up, I noticed that she felt a bit hot. Sure enough, she was running a fever of 101.7, so we called the doctor and packed our bags for an anticipated hospital admission even though he said that she probably wouldn’t be admitted.

1:45pm – We arrived at the ER. They took her temperature with the dreaded machine that never registers a fever and sure enough, her temp was “normal” even though her cheeks were bright red and she was HOT to the touch. I am sure that she still had a fever even if that stupid machine didn’t register one.

2:35pm – Kaitlyn had her port accessed and after our last ER fiasco, I insisted on seeing the package to make sure she was being accessed with the right size needle, which it was. Her port was accessed with little trouble and she had her blood drawn. The oncology resident didn’t really feel comfortable sending her home because she was so lethargic. And we agreed with this because she just wasn’t herself. She looked like a wet noodle the poor thing. They said that they wanted to keep her overnight for observation and that she will probably be going home tomorrow (I’ll believe that when I see it).

2:45pm – Tylenol & first antibiotic, Gentamycin, was administered. This is on an 8 hour cycle.

3:10pm – ER attending exam

3:28pm – Second antibiotic, Clindamycin, was administered. This is on a 6 hour cycle.

3:45pm – Oncology attending exam

4:30pm – Antibiotics complete, maintenance fluids started

5:30pm – admitted to a room on the 5th floor

While in the ER, we discovered that Kaitlyn’s new friend Nate was also there with a fever and sore throat. This was the family that we met Thursday at clinic…the little boy, Nate, was born a week after Kaitlyn and we were in the same Lamaze class…if you ask me, this is getting just a bit weird…do, do, do, do (twilight zone music…lol)

By the time we had gotten into the room, her fever was starting to come down and she finally wanted to eat something. Kaitlyn asked if she could have some mac n’ cheese, which I happily made for her. Just as I was returning to the room with her food, her nurse told me that she was on a “clear liquid” restriction. I just shook my head and said, “this is the first thing she has asked for all day, I am going to let her eat.” She said she was going to check with the doctor, but she didn’t realize that I really didn’t care what the doctor had to say…if she wanted something to eat, I was going to let her eat. Worst case scenario, she vomited it all back up and she would go back to clear liquids, but she was fine. She ate her mac n’ cheese then wanted a tuna sandwich and then some crackers and then some oatmeal…lol. She had a small amount of each, but she kept it all down and I was happy to see her eat.

Auntie Kay came to visit for a little while, which I think cheered Katie up a little bit. She is such a social butterfly, she loves it when people visit her. Even at home, she asks me every morning, “who’s coming over today?” lol

After Kay left, it was time to get Katie settled in for bed. This proved rather difficult tonight because there was another little kid in the room next to us that was screaming for about an hour. Poor Katie couldn’t fall asleep until finally I put the iPod on her ears to drown out the noise. She was asleep within 10 minutes.

As I finish writing this post, it is after midnight and I am exhausted. We are hoping to go home tomorrow. Stay tuned….