The cure is worse than the disease

When Anna was 8 itty bitty days old, it was time to take her in to visit the doctor. She was feeling under the weather and had not been herself for about 36 hours. She had been crying alot more that usual and it seemed she might have some painful gas cramps. She started to run a fever the night before and I was very glad to have an appointment already scheduled.

When we walked in, we did the usual weighing and measuring thing, but it was obvious she wasn't feeling right. She had started just closing her eyes and moaning. When they took her temperature it was at 102 and they told me to put her in the car and take her to Mercy Children's Hospital in Overland Park.

Now, I've never had a baby in the winter, so by the time any of them have anything, they are fat little 7 month olds. This was different. I've never had anyone tell me to drive straight to the hospital. And I admit it scared me. So I started crying. What else was there to do?

I drove her up to the hospital and had her admitted. The nurses took over and started to check her out. They took all her vitals and talked to me about what/who she had been exposed to in the 8 short days of her life. I cried. Then the doctor came in and explained to me that they were going to run all the tests they needed in order to figure out what was causing the fever. I cried.

She was just so little.

She was going to have to have a blood test, a urine test (catheter. ouch), RSV mucus test (fluid up the nose and then sucked out. blech.), and a spinal tap to test for meningitis (!! Spinal? tap? As in...tapping the spine? with a needle?).

I cried.

It was awful, but we know it was for the best and it was better to know and deal with the results than to risk it. She is just too little.

So they did the tests and she got through it, but she was exhausted. She slept forever when they brought her back to me. And then we had to wait. Two whole days in that room waiting for the results to come back and getting IV antibiotics just in case. She was so tired, I just held her and let her sleep while I watched hour after hour of the Food Network.


I think the board that was strapped to her arm where they put her IV in was the worst part of the whole thing. She was miserable and I couldn't wait for them to take that thing off of her.


In the end, she was fine. All the tests came back negative and they took her off the preventative antibiotics. I was a very painful, frightening, and expensive cold.

On the bright side, the hospital food was awesome and I had two whole days of quiet, which is a hot commodity when you have 5 little kids. We were also thrilled that one of the nurses was able to take off the bow that was permanently attached to Anna's head with some industrial strength solvent.

My mom was in town to help me with the baby, so that alone can be considered the best timing ever. She was able to get kids back and forth to school and generally save the day.

Unfortunately the only photo I have of her from this visit is this one Mark took of us. He calls it "Dualing Laptops".

She was probably researching bird-watching tours for her trip to Hawaii in the spring and I was probably avoiding writing on my blog.