Illness update

If you know us in "real" life, you may be aware that Laurel's gastroenteritis didn't improve, and that after yet more vomiting on Thursday morning, the eighth day of illness, her doctor told us to go to the Emergency Department so Laurel could be re-hydrated by IV.  After a few hours at the E.D., she was admitted to the hospital, and we have been there ever since.

In addition to treating the dehydration, her doctor has been alert because Laurel's "stomach flu" has had unusual presentation.  It certainly seemed unusual to me, which is why I was calling the doctor on just the second day of her illness.  But I guess something in the way she has alternated vomiting and diarrhea seems atypical to them; she has also had long stretches without vomiting, but then it picks up again. 

They have done blood chemistry tests (she has normal electrolytes, white blood count, hemoglobin, and so forth), urinalysis (normal), and a stool culture (still waiting on results for E. Coli and salmonella; they need a bigger sample to test for parasites and giardia). She has never had a fever, however, which seems to rule out most of the bacterial infections.  And most frighteningly, yesterday Laurel had an MRI of her head to see whether there was a problem inside her skull.  She had developed a stumbling, foot-dragging walk, and was slurring some of her speech.  We are thankful that the "rapid MRI" (a lower-resolution scan that only took five minutes instead of the full 45-minute scan done under sedation) showed absolutely no abnormalities.  Maybe she's just tired and weak from lack of food?

Nearly 48 hours of IV fluids have fixed the dehydration, although she still hasn't eaten much food or had anything to drink.  She has had Zofran to prevent vomiting, although she still isn't interested in eating -- she will not eat the yucky hospital food and especially won't have anything to do with the "clear" diet she has been stuck with for so many days.  They keep offering her popsicles, but I bet she never wants to see another popsicle as long as she lives!  Yesterday she vomited as soon as she placed a single bite of pancake in her mouth (without Zofran), but she kept down a package of animal crackers and a few bites of yogurt (with Zofran). But then a raspberry seed from the yogurt got stuck in her teeth, and she refused to eat any more, saying, "It's too seedy for me."

We are going to try giving her familiar bland food we bring from home today, without the Zofran, to see what happens.  We are also going to disconnect the fluids from her IV to see if that makes her thirsty enough to drink on her own.

Her mood and energy are pretty good, unlike her last few days at home, so the fluids have really helped.  She behaved like a champ with the MRI, which was a scary experience (for me, anyway), and she really enjoyed being transferred in an ambulance between hospital sites.

I stayed with her on Thursday and Friday nights, and Craig joined us during the days.  My mother came up to stay at our house with Isaac, for which we are very grateful.  Even though Craig is spending the nights at home, he can't leave Isaac there alone, and I can't leave Laurel here alone.  So to make things run as smoothly and stress-free as possible for the kids, we need another adult to watch Isaac at home.  If the hospital stay continues past Sunday afternoon, my mom will have to go back home to her other responsibilities, and we will have to make arrangements for Isaac to stay at a friend's house during the day -- but hopefully Laurel will be able to go home by then.

She's sleeping right now, at 9:00 a.m., which means she had more than 12 hours of solid sleep last night.  I asked the nurses not to check her vital signs or change her diaper overnight, so they just came in for a quick check of her IV site and didn't wake her up at all.  I was awakened at 7:20 a.m., however, by a phone call from the "financial planning" department of the hospital.