Olivia's hospital visit

Well, it has been quite the week or two.  I guess it started about two weeks ago.  Olivia woke up in the middle of the night on Sunday the 18th crying.  This is a rare case in our house, so I went in to check on her.  She was really worked up and felt hot.  I changed her diaper and took her temp and noticed that she had a rather big red spot on her bottom.  She also had a fever. 

Back up a few weeks from that.  I have had this thing on my face that I thought was crazy pregnancy acne.  I got weird acne with Olivia, so I thought this was just par for the course.  Then as time went on it got dry and wasn't really acne looking.  I thought maybe it was eczema.  Being the poor "I-pay-out-the-wazoo-for-private-insurance-and-it's-still-crap" person that I am, I decided I'd just wait until my next scheduled OB visit.  This was mistake number one.

Unfortunately, it was impetigo and it had spread to Olivia's diaper area.  Although it looked nothing alike and we had no idea.  It showed up in a pimple form.  She'd get one, then the white head would be gone the next day. She never complained.  We thought maybe it was from the heat?  It finally started clicking that maybe I should get it checked out.  I mentioned to Michael that I needed to take her in.  That was too little too late.

So fast forward back to when the spot was big and red.  I called the pediatrician Monday morning.  There was a little bit of a miscommunication about exactly what to call it.  I didn't know how to describe it.  So they gave me some things to do in the meantime and told me to come in first thing Tuesday morning.  By that time it had almost doubled in size and Olivia couldn't even sit.

Waiting for the doctor

The nurse practitioner took one look and said it was a bacterial infection with an abscess.  Basically one of the spots got infected--from poop, the swimming pool, random changing tables, the bathtub... who knows?  The NP  decided to try to drain it.  Which they did.  Her and the nurse helping kept saying over and over about how much was in it.  Poor Olivia was screaming and there was no form of pain management for that kind of thing.  I ended up having to sit down.  I almost passed out three times during the entire visit.  I'm not normally squeamish.  That's a story for another blog!

They sent us on our way with a prescription and directions for care.  She said if it didn't look significantly better by the next day to call back.  It had basically filled up by late afternoon.  So I called first thing in the morning.  It was our pediatrician's day off, but she was going to be there for a meeting.  We originally saw the nurse practitioner and she wanted the doctor to take a look.  So our appointment was at 1:30, when they open up after lunch.

To add to the drama, Michael had sold his car so we had to get up and take him to work.  When we returned home, Olivia camped out on our bed watching TV while I tried to pack.  She was in so much pain that she didn't want to do much else.

We got to the appointment and both the nurse practitioner and doctor said we would need to head to the hospital.  Since Olivia had two doses of antibiotic at that point and it was bigger, harder, and redder than before, it meant that the infection wasn't responding.  There were too many "pockets of puss" for them to drain it and she needed an IV.  Not exactly what I had in mind for our last few days in Texas.

So I ran home and packed a quick bag.  I had no idea we would end up being there three nights!  Then I headed to pick Michael up from work early.  We went straight to the hospital and got checked in.

I posted this picture on Facebook.  She actually walked in the hospital happy, smiling and talking down the hall.  All the nurses were oohing and ahhing her on our way in.  This picture was taken after they spent about 45 minutes trying to get her IV installed.  They tried both hands.  She HATES the tourniquet and they always have the hardest time finding her veins.

She had to get antibiotic through IV every 6 hours around the clock.  She also had to have her vitals checked every 4 hours around the clock.  The doctor that came in first checked Minnie's vitals and then Olivia's, so she got spoiled and would insist that the nurses listen to Minnie's heartbeat first. :)

She was generally in a good mood except for two things--when someone wanted to look at her bottom and when she had to have her blood pressure taken.  She kept saying, "Mommy, I know it hurts.  We're trying to make it feel better." Bless her heart.  And they told her the blood pressure was just a little hug on her leg.  She HATED it.  She screamed and cried every time and they only got good readings when she was asleep.  She kept saying, "Mommy, does my hug hurt?"  Poor thing.

So on Thursday morning they had OR come and take a look and both the OR people and the pediatrician attending to us thought that she needed to go into surgery.  It wasn't going down as much as they wanted and it was too complicated to just drain on it's own.

They sent us up to OR.  She was dancing around and making everyone laugh.  Of course, that got her to act even more crazy.  It was a really simple procedure.  She was in and out in minutes.

They gave her some meds in her IV at first so that she would be able to leave us and not throw a fit. Basically happy juice. :)  And boy did she get happy.  The anesthesiologist told Michael to hold her.  Within in minutes her head was bobbing everywhere and she was laughing and slobbering. Oh, the pre-op nurse, OR nurse and anesthesiologist were all from Ohio originally.  How weird and cool is that?

As soon as they took her back, I left to head to my Dr. appointment.  Under any other circumstances, I would have cancelled, but I really needed to get it in before the move and get medicine for my own face! :)
She was in good hands with Michael anyway.  I also ran home to get us all a change of clothes and shower items.

It was the hospitals 100 year birthday and our locations 5th birthday.  They were having a party outside, but we were banned to our room so they brought Olivia a good bag.

 Speaking of being banned--this is the sign that was on the door.  It was put there after the doctor checked her upon arrival.  Everyone that had to come in had to put on this hazmat looking cover up.  Very comforting! :)

Michael had to return to work on Friday since it was his last day in the office.  (Plus, they had a surprise party planned for him that I knew about, but he didn't so I had to send him on his way!)

Our day was spent watching TV/movies, playing with stuffed animals, running around the room over and over, dancing, napping, and lots of diarrhea.  Yeah. that was fun. The medicine made her have to go to the bathroom.  It was bad because A) it hurt her every time she went and B) I refused to change that with an open wound in the picture so we kept having to call for help.  They also took out half of the packing.  Not fun.

Olivia found ways to entertain herself.  Maybe it's because we are her parents, but both Michael and I were impressed with this little skill.  She went over and stacked all of the medicine bottles from smallest to largest all on her own.  Pretty good for 26 months, we thought. Then later she went over and reversed the order and stacked from largest to smallest.  She did this a number of times.  I told Michael that I'm sure this says something about her... I'm just not sure what yet. :)

I thought for sure that we would be headed home that afternoon, but no such luck.  We ended up there until Saturday morning. I don't think Olivia minded--she had unlimited snacks, juice, applesauce (to hide things in!), and TV.  Plus, the lovely staff kept bringing her new movies, toys and books.  She was having a ball! :)

On the other hand, Mommy and Boppa were ready to go.  Only to have to deal with ridiculous movers, but again... that's a blog for another time.

We are still giving her antibiotics three times a day and soaking in baths twice a day.  It's healing.  Hopefully it's healing properly. There is a little hard spot that worries me. We will be going in for a follow up visit on Tuesday.