Kate's hospital stay

Our past week did not go how I had planned.  Wednesday morning I was all ready for work and I went in to wake Kate up and I picked her up out of her crib and she seemed warm.  No biggie, I took her temp and it was 101. I gave her some Tylenol and I went to work for an hour then planned to come home so Brendan could go in to work for the day.  

Kate and I spent the morning together just snuggling.  She didn't really want to play or do much of anything.  Drew had pre-school so it worked out great that I could focus soley on her. She went down for her normal nap around 11AM and woke up around 12:30PM which is very uncharacteristic of her.  I rocked her back to sleep and she slept until 2:30PM.  At this point she hadn't eaten anything since breakfast.  She refused lunch but had drank some milk.  

She and Drew both woke up about the same time and I offered them a snack.  Drew ate, Kate didn't. I took her temp again and it was up to 102.  I gave her Tylenol again and we sat and watched cartoons.  About 45 minutes later Kate all of the sudden starts throwing up but it's red, bright red.  I literally panic and think OH SHIT!!  That's blood, this isn't good!  Drew starts yelling because he's right next to me.  Kate throws up at least five different times, all over herself, all over me and thankfully on her blanket.  

  I immediately call my mom who lives two minutes away but unfortunately she's 10 minutes away.  I then call Brendan at his office and tell him to come home immediately.  He leaves and is home within 10 minutes.  In the meantime I call our pediatrician and  he tells us to take her to the children's hospital ER immediately.  

Brendan arrives home, we pack up both kids, we drop Drew off at my parents house, and we make the 35 minute drive to the children's hospital. We check in and Kate's fever is now up to 104.5.  We brought along the blanket she threw up on so the medical staff could see it.  They agree she was in fact throwing up blood.  Cue panic and me almost starting to throw up. We wait less then 5 minutes and are taken back to a room.  The nurses and doctors at the children's hospital were amazing. The nurse again takes her temp and it's 104.8.  At this point Kate is shaking while I'm holding her wrapped in a blanket.  Her face is beat red and she wouldn't respond to either of us. 

We see the doctor almost immediately and he wants to start an IV right away, get her hydrated and try to get her fever down.  Two nurses come in to put her IV in, they were amazing.  They swaddled Kate, told Brendan and me where to stand to comfort Kate, got it in on the first try and had her back to us immediately. They then gave her the biggest dose of Motrin I've ever seen.  Her fever was now at 105.3. 

Through the IV they took blood and they also took a urine sample.  All came back normal.  We turned off the lights and tried to keep Kate cool.  The nurse came in one more time, took her temp and it was 106, if my eyes didn't bug out of my head I don't know what happened.  They then gave Kate a large dose of Tylenol on top of the Motrin to get her fever down ASAP.  The doctor came back in and told us she was being admitted for the night.

We got up to our room and Kate's fever had come back down a bit, thank God!  Brendan and I decided I would stay with Kate that night and he would go home to stay with Drew. In the meantime I had Brendan run to Target to get me some pj's, a contact case, a toothbrush and a phone charger. He returned when we were in our new room and got us all comfortable and settled.  Kate was exhausted so we said goodnight to him and I tucked Kate in for the night.  

Overnight Kate slept well.  Her fever would break and then spike, break and spike. She'd sleep for maybe an hour without interruption so it was hard for her to get good rest. When she woke up Thursday morning I thought she was feeling a bit better.  As the morning went on she got worse and her fever starts rising once again. We saw the doctor and she suggested we stay another night.  Kate couldn't hydrate by herself.  Her fever was also back up to 104.5. The good news was that they had the ability to test for a whole slew of viruses and they did that test on Thursday morning. 

Kate's test came back and she was diagnosed with Coronavirus.  Thankfully it was nothing serious or lifethreatening.  It's short-lived and Kate just needed a little help from an IV to help her hydrate to get better.  Thursday she kept running a pretty high fever so she was still on a steady regimen of Motrin and Tylenol.  They talked about giving her torodol but thankfully we didn't get to that point. 

All day Thursday she slept off and on, and just sat in the rocker with us.  My parents came to visit and Kate actually smiled for the first time in 24 hours.  She tired a little milk on Thursday and it came right back up so we went back to only clear liquids. 

Thursday night was a bit rough.  Kate was so exhausted.  I put her to bed at 7:30PM. She literally did not get more then 90 minutes of straight sleep that night.  Her protocol was to have her temp taken every two hours.  Then someone would come in to take her vitals in between those times.  Her fever would break when she would actually get in to that deep sleep and at one point I finally asked the nurse that seemed to want to wake Kate up every 30 minutes if she could please leave us alone.  She was more worried about giving Kate Zantac for her tummy then letting her sleep. I understand she needed her medication but let the baby sleep.  She hasn't slept in 2 days, she's exhausted and I repeatedly told her that.  I told her we'd give her the Zantac when she woke up at her temp check. 

Friday morning Kate woke up and seemed like a different child.  She was still exhausted but her fever was down to 101, she was asking to get down and walk and wanting to read books.  She was asking to get down and walk around. We asked the nurse if we could go see the fish tank, that's the awesome part about a childrens hospital they have everything kids love. We walked all over seeing the Christmas trees, the fish tank and all the Christmas decorations they had the wing currently decorated with.  Kate also ate some toast and banana for breakfast and kept it down!  Praise The Lord!  

We saw the doctor around 10AM and she said they would turn Kate's IV down and if she did well we could go home later that day.  Kate napped later that morning and did well with her IV turned down.  She kept drinking on her own and kept all her fluids down.  Around 4PM we were discharged!!

Everyone was smiling about the news of her discharge!!  Kate got a snazzy wagon ride on the way out of the hospital.  She was so excited to see Drew and we were so excited to be home.  She slept for twelves and half hours that night and another three and half hours that next day for nap time.  

We kept Kate out of public this past weekend and she's really bounced back. She stayed in her pj's most of the weekend and Sunday even had her little sassy attitude return.  I never thought I'd be so happy to see my kids fight over stickers.  

Having Kate in the hospital has made me so thankful for our healthy and happy children.  Some of those kiddos at the hospital are there for long periods of time and I can't imagine the toll it takes on them as well as their families.  We are so fortunate that Kate's virus was short lived and she is home and healthy.  We couldn't have been happier with the care she recieved.  Her doctors and nurses were amazing, the gift they have to care for these children is God given.  For that we are so thankful.  

Kate is now back to her happy and sassy self.  We can tell she is still requiring a little more sleep then normal but we have a feeling that too will taper off and she will be back to 100% in no time.