Saturday, August 1, 2009

Poor Baby Girl....

My sweet little big girl got so sick today...it seems to be ending now but omg was it scary...

It started at the zoo, where we went to a concert and looked at some animals, fed the birds, saw lots of reptiles, penguins and that sort of thing. Her stomach was hurting though...I asked if she had to go potty and she said yes so we booked it to the restroom which fortunately was close. That's where it started getting strange...I waited outside that bathroom occasionally calling in to see if she was okay and every third time of doing that peeking in to see if she was indeed ok, and after about 20-30 minutes...when I came in she was leaning over the toilet!! Poor girl had puked on the floor of the bathroom and was now leaning over it probably feeling like she'd puke again.

So I used toilet paper and cleaned that up, and then carried her towards the closest food stand thinking I'd get ginger ale...keep in mind this is about 2:45pm on a HOT day and I have Hazel strapped to me as well as carrying a large diaper bag...this was a feat! Then I remembered we had gone to that stand earlier for water and I'd noticed the poor selection. As I was thinking about that I also realized I was about to walk by the exit where we were parked, there was a soda machine there too. I stopped and looked for ginger ale, there wasn't any. Then I decided to just go find a store and get a soda after we left the zoo...so we went to the car, Kenzie seemed hot but okay, and Hazel crashed pronto. I was driving soon and focusing on getting the tempurature down, I'd thought she'd gotten overheated, and I realized I smelled a pukey smell...hmm...amazing how that little bit on her shirt smelled so so much! Eventually I realized this was worth checking out, as we got closer to the stores I was trying to decide between I turned and looked behind me...she had puked all over the front left side of herself as well as her arm, blankets between the carseats, the seat, and all the buckles etc. on her carseat holding her in. Wow. From her I canceled my store mission and started texting Geo like crazy asking for help, however he was (is) frantically working on our house to get us moved into it by September 1 and was in an especially crazy position. So I went home...she was tough and walked from the car to the apartment and into the bathroom, and then into the tub, what a trooper. I got her some more water, made some ginger tea for her to sip on etc...and she kept getting sick. It's been about an hour since the last time she was sick, which was about 9:30pm, and at this point she's been sick a total of 13 times between 2:45 & 9:30pm. Around 4:30 the paramedics came because I was convinced she had heat exhaustion, I think around 6:30 I called the Premera Emergency Nurse line to get their take (since she'd puked 3x since the EMT's left) and basically we decided she probably had a stomach bug...which is much less scary than heat exhaustion. I started tracking everything at that point and had lots of notes from the nurse about how to deal with such a situation, things like no food for 8 hours once puking stops, follow a BRAT diet to start, clear liquids while she's still getting sick, not too much juice, and the big one...if she is still puking by 10:30pm, meaning over 8hr of puking, then take her in somewhere. So around 9:30pm, I sat with her for a while, and explained that one of two things was likely to happen. Either she would fall asleep and wake up feeling much better tomorrow, or she might stay awake, and keep getting sick, which is when I'd call for help, and we might go to the hospital. She is normally TERRIFIED of hospitals having only experienced one when I stood up into a cabinet and my head was gushing blood. However, when I explained that she probably wouldn't, might but probably wouldn't have to get 'poked' (needle/iv etc.), but if she did, it would only be to make her feel better. She was actually okay with this which was amazing, and kind of sad, the spunky girl I know would have flipped out if I said she might have to get poked.

Tomorrow at church I was supposed to be lighting the chalice, (we go to a UU church), which we were going to do as a family, I was late sending in info needed for that and then also realized (within the last hour or two) that it would not be a nice thing to do...coming to church with a recently ill child and her sister and I having been recently exposed to it. So I canceled that, I'm hoping I can do it next weekend though since it will be the day after my one year wedding anniversary...we'll see!

Anyway, right now I'm very grateful to be able to say she is sleeping soundly on the couch...I'm letting her stay there for now with her favorite fuzzy blanket. If she's up and sick we'll probably take her in, but my gut is saying she's just about done with that phase of this bug she's caught.

My poor little big girl...now I'm doing what I can to try avoid any of the rest of us catching this.

4 comments:

Sue said...

When I was sick like that, the Premera nurse told me that one of the most important things was to get liquid in to avoid dehydration, but I was not keeping any down. They gave me a great trick for it: take a 1/8 tsp. measuring spoon of water. It feels ridiculous to lick that little amount of water out of a spoon. They said to do it every 10 or 15 minutes, and if I keep it down after a few times, increase to 1/4 tsp., and keep repeating like this with larger amounts. She said that it's a small enough amount you can usually "sneak it in" and then finally get to a point where you can drink some like a normal person. It helped me immensely, and I hope that helps you too!

Kristin said...

After she finally fell asleep she was okay...this morning I gave her toast and banana along with some tea that has mint, ginger, chamomile etc.

So far so good, she's tired but not throwing up so I'm grateful for that!

Audrey said...

What a sad and scary story! I'm really glad to hear she's better and that it wasn't heat stroke (that was my thought too reading that). Hope the rest of the family is spared

Kristin said...

Totally...she had the symptoms of heat exhaustion but wasn't quite hot enough for the stroke, it's the only reason I was freaking...poor girl had me taking her temp every 10-15 min! I even made her lick some salt off my hand, lol...she thinks I'm crazy now.