An unexpected trip to the ER

Sydney has been sick for a couple days. She's had a fever with diarrhea. Yesterday I noticed that it was a little bloody. (Sorry, probably TMI, but it's necessary for the story) I thought I'd watch it for a bit, but it got worse. I made the mistake of looking on webmd to see what it possibly might be. Never do this!! Conditions ranging from a simple stomach bug, to a virus that takes months to heal and can have permanent damage, to lukemia. That got me stressed.

This morning her fever was down a little so that was good, but she still had the bloody diarrhea. I made an appointment with the pediatrician for the afternoon, then debated if I was wasting my money. I hate going to the doctor, spending $20 to find out it's just a virus and will just take some time to get better. Nothing I can do.

After her nap it was even worse. This time it was in a diaper since I have her sleep in her diaper, especially when diarrhea is involved. I was glad I'd made the appointment and wrapped up the gross diaper to take with me just in case the doctor needed a stool sample. The worst is that it is very painful for her too. She just cries everytime after she poops. So sad.

Her fever had spiked after her nap though, it was 104* when we got to the doctor. I hadn't given her any fever reducer because it had been down in the morning, and after her nap it was 102* but I knew we were going right to the dr. and in a way I wanted the temp. to be accurate without any medication masking it. Now I feel horrible that it got to 104*!!! They gave her some medicine right there. But other than that my doctor didn't seem to be too concerned... at first. He said it was a virus, and probably a tummy bug, and just some little fissures were causing the blood. But he still wanted to check out the diaper and do a test to make sure it was blood, etc.

He came back shortly and said he was concerned. The poop looked like it was jelly like, which is a sign of something called, inteseptis? I'm sure that's not the way it's spelled. Basically it's when the intestines bind up, kind of like when you push a telescope closed. If it happens to the intestines it cuts off the blood supply and can be quite dangerous and require immediate surgery to heal it. She has also been complaining of a tummy ache. I kinda figured it was because she was hungry, but severe abdominal pain is another sign. He said, it might not be, but after seeing the diaper there was definitely concern.

What would you do?? There was no way that if there was a chance of it being something serious that I'd opt not to check it out. He called the ER and told me they were waiting for me and to go over there right then.

I was happy he'd called ahead because I only waited like 5 minutes before I got into a room with her. I had to hold her down, and listen to her scream as they had to get a stool sample, and since I left the other diaper at the pediatrician, and she didn't need to poop while we were there they had to go "retrieve" a poop sample. She was NOT happy about that. Then they also needed a urine sample by using a catheter. She got a few minutes for me just to hold her and calm down when they needed to get a blood sample and put an IV in. Because it's such a delicate procedure with getting it right in the vein I couldn't really be right there holding her. I had to stand back and look at her screaming eyes, looking at me wondering why I was making her go through this. She fought hard. They finally got it in, but had to tape it so much so she couldn't bend her hand and mess with the IV line. Oh, that poor girl. Finally they were done and I got to hold her. She just clung to me. The doctors were great and very gentle, she just fought and fought though. She had just about fallen asleep when the X-Ray technician came in to X-Ray her intestines. I couldn't be in the room because I'm pregnant. (Plus, I really had to pee:)) I left while they did the X-Rays and I could hear her screaming all the way down the hall. My heart just broke for her.

Finally all the tests were done and I was able to just hold her and rock with my baby. She fell fast asleep. Next we just had to wait. The doctor told me that it really didn't look like inteseptis, but they wanted to continue with the tests to rule it out completely and make sure, and just to find out what it was, like if it was salmonella or ecoli.

Finally after I'd been there for over 3 hours they got the results and the doctor was happy to tell me that she is perfectly fine. She just has a stomach virus that will take a couple days to go away completely. It is only contagious through her feces, which is a little more controllable than a respiratory virus at least. YAY!! I hadn't really been too worried, but it sure was a relief to hear that she's fine. She said the X-Rays looked great. They don't have all the blood test results back yet, but they will call me tomorrow when they get them, but they didn't see any reason to be concerned. When the nurses took the IV out of Sydney's hand she gave them a half smile, but she didn't like them too much other than that. Poor girl. (Not their fault, they were just doing their job, it just wasn't what she wanted them to do.)

So I went to check out and had to pay my ER co-pay of $200!! For some reason I thought it was only $100, but oh well, what could I do then. I chuckled to myself thinking that I didn't want to have to pay $20 to go to the pediatrician in the first place to find out it's nothing. But now I paid a total of $220 to find out it's nothing. I guess sometimes peace of mind is worth $220. I'm just grateful she is healthy. I'd pay way more than $200 if needed to make sure my children are healthy and going to be just fine. Plus I got some extra good snuggle time with just me and my little girl out of it.