The bad, bad, bad and the good, good, good

Ok, it's been over a week since I've been able to post, but a lot has happened in that time. I will try to keep this as brief as possible so as not to bore everyone to tears, but at least document the events in some sort of chronological order.

After injuring my neck/shoulder playing hockey, one of the babies was climbing on me and pulled on something which seems to have completed the injury. I have been unable to sleep due to the excruciating pain. I had xrays done which show that nothing is fractured which is good. I'm currently waiting for an MRI to check the rest.

Sam, Riley and I had been sick for a few days at this point, and when I arrived back home from my xrays and ultrasound Sam had taken a definite turn for the worse. This was Tuesday. The previous week she had spiked a temp of 103.3 and this was after she had Tylenol. Since her symptoms were mild and viral like, they said to keep her home and try to keep her hydrated (she wasn't vomiting or plagued with diarrhea at this point.) Monday came and she had been vomiting all weekend, and the diarrhea had set in. I took her to the docs (my regular one was out) who re-iterated the take her home and keep her hydrated advice despite the fact that I felt she was showing definite signs of dehydration, and she wasn't able to keep down even a sip of water. (When my regular doc found out, she was furious because as she pointed out, not only am I a Mom who knows her child well, but I am a pediatric nurse used to dealing with this kind of thing.) Anyway, against my better judgement we went home again to wait it out and try to hydrate despite the vomiting, etc.

Tuesday arrived and Sam was a bit tired, wanted to stay in bed (what nearly 2 year old wants to stay in bed?), and was now dry heaving since there was nothing left in her poor little body. I had my sister come watch her while I went for my xrays and ultrasound, and by the time I got back about an hour and a half later, she had definitely taken a turn for the worse. Her temp was now 104.9, she was totally lethargic, and so dehydrated she couldn't even cry. Off to the ER we went. After being there for about 3 hours they decided they were going to send her home (ARRRRRHHHHHH!!!!!) against my wishes. She had perked up a little with some pedialyte pops they were able to get down her, but she still wasn't ready for home. On cue, and as if she knew, she threw up all over me, the bed, and the exam room floor. There was green in it (she hadn't had anything green, and yes this is bad), so they decided to do a few more studies, start an IV and admit her.

The long and short of it is that she spent 3 days in the hospital, 2 1/2 of those hooked up to an IV. Initially she was very tired and just wanted to sleep with me in her bed (this was very painful for me because of my shoulder) After a couple of days, she perked up, her results came back (she had rotovirus, and it seems it was stacked on top of another viral infection which is why she got so sick.) Part of the illness caused her to be unable to urinate, so her bladder stretched to the size of an adults and she had to be catheterized several times. Finally the healing started and she could urinate on her own again. Riley had a much more mild version of the rotovirus and it was totally treatable at home.

The third bad thing is that just before going to the hospital, our washing machine broke down AGAIN! So, we had a house full of linens and clothing that had been puked, peed, or poooped on and no way to wash them, me in pain and my girls sick. My sister really came to the rescue here. She came over and took loads of stinky laundry to her house and washed them for me - what a saint. She continued this and brought us clean clothes while we were in the hospital. The new washer arrived on day two of the hospital stay, so now nearly all the laundry in my house is clean again. If only it would fold the laundry now.

That kind of sequed into the good. Cathy was a saint with the laundry, but she was also great support in the hospital as were my Dad, Liz, and Andrea. They all were very supportive, and helpful for Bill and I. It would have been a much more difficult stay without them. Thanks to each of you.

Because of the hospitalization we cancelled the girls birthday party, but did have a few family over on Saturday to celebrate, so the birthday would not be totally missed. We plan to have the big birthday party the first Saturday in June and team it with Bill's birthday.

Moving into this week, Sam is very healthy. You would never know that she was such a sick little girl a week ago.

Riley had her follow up VCUG yesterday (this is the test where they put a catheter into your bladder, drain it, and then fill it with radio-opaque dye so they can check the function. As you may/may not recall Riley has had a condition which causes her bladder to back up into her kidney on the right side. This is dangerous as it leads to infection, delay or cessation of kidney growth, and quite often can require surgery to repair. They usually wait until the child is 3 or 4 to do the surgery unless the condition gets really bad before then. Riley had a 2+ reflux (on a scale of 1 to 3). Yes, you read that right - had a 2+ reflux. Sometimes kids can outgrow this condition which is why they wait until they're older for the surgery. We got the best news possible yesterday in that they didn't see any reflux, not even a trickle. Now we can stop the prophalactic antibiotics, and cease the worry that came with the condition and the medications.

I think that's about it. Lots more small stuff happened, but this post is already too long. I hope your weeks are going well, and know that we care about each of you that has touched our lives, and helped us through all that we go through each day. I only hope that we are there for you in the same way.