London's Big Adventure

London had been really fussy all day Sunday (Father's Day), not a big appetite, not very happy despite 2 long naps.  I put her down Sunday night at 8:30 pm after feeding her.  I woke up at 4 am to check on her and feed her again.  I got her up and noticed she was wet and she smelled.  Turned the lamp on and sure enough, she had puked everywhere.  She hadn't even been crying, so not sure how long she had been sleeping in it.  (hopefully, not too long)  I cleaned everything up and fed her again at 4:30 am.  At 6:30 am she was crying, I went in and she had thrown everything up again.  Cleaned, bathed, nursed again. I also got her a sippee cup of water that she just started chugging down, only to have everything come back up, yet again, 10 minutes later.

At this point, I knew my day wasn't going to go as planned.  With London having MCAD, she can't go longer than 8 hours without eating, so at this point she was going on 12 hours and clearly, nothing was going to stay down.  So, we headed up to Primary Children's. 

I have been given a letter by her metabolic MD when she was born to use anytime I had to go to the ER which pretty much states what to do with London...specific IV fluids, specific tests to order, and to treat her immediately.  I always looked at it as a free ticket in the ER...no waiting.  Well, didn't even get to see it's true power because (luckily) the ER was completely empty.  It didn't take long before she was hooked up to everything. 

She was so lethargic that she barely made a peep when they were drawing blood and then hardly a sound when they inserted a catheter to get her urine.  Blood sugar level:  37! 

That's when the doctor said, "It's a good thing you brought her in."  And I felt a sigh of relief knowing she was in good hands.  He stood their telling the new intern that this was a perfect example of why the newborn screen tests work so well.  If I didn't know she had MCAD, I would be coming in about 12 hours later, when she would really be having problems. 

Getting settled in our room.  She pretty much stayed like this most of Monday.  Once she had a bag of IV fluid in her, she started to perk up a bit.  By Monday night, she was able to keep pears and crackers down.

The IV "paw"

I knew she was feeling better that night when she would scream because she was so mad she had this stupid thing on her hand.

Tuesday morning with really swollen eyes from all that IV fluid.  Or from the 543 times the nurses came in during the night...I know, I know...they were just doing their job.

She was feeling much better, so much so she was bored silly and they brought in toys.  (God bless PCMC)

 She didn't eat much for breakfast because of all the dextrose she was getting from her IV, so they turned the IV off and said if she could keep lunch down, she could go home.  She downed her peaches and quesadilla. 

Mom, why are you taking pictures of me like this?

With a full tummy, she was ready make a break for it.

Love that little hospital gown!

Had THE BEST nurses!

Here she is making friends and charming every nurse on the floor.  She was saying, "See?  I can play with toys, I ate my lunch, I'm walking the halls...can we PLEASE go home already?"  

Okay, that's what I was saying.  

So, finally they let us go that afternoon.

A little 24 hour stomach bug is a fun hospital sleepover for London, and by fun I mean not even remotely fun. The doctors kept saying how great it was that she was 13 months old and this was her first time in the hospital. Oh yea?  My nephew has MCAD and is almost 3 and he's never had to do this, so we're hoping that this won't happen again for a long time, or ever.  

As a sidenote, we were on the infant med/surg floor and I was just so grateful to have something as minor as this rather than what some of those other cute kids had to deal with.  I just don't know how those parents do it, but God bless those little kids and their families.  

Thanks to Mom & Dani for the nice visits and Tami for the nice dinner!  Thanks Jen for watching Addy and thanks to the rest of you who I know I could have called and you would have helped.