Thursday while at Sami's appointment, I had noticed a little bit of a rash on her hairline - I mentioned this to the psycho-doctor and she said "It must have been from the hat she was wearing." I informed her she wasn't wearing a hat. "Well, then, it's probably from rubbing up against a detergent or something... I wouldn't worry about it." So I didn't.
Friday afternoon, I noticed the same speckly rash on Sam's face as I was picking her up from daycare. I mentioned this to her teacher, who said she believed it to be a reaction to her shots, as she's seen that on other babies before. She said that if I saw it anywhere else, calling the doctor might be the best bet, but otherwise, since there wasn't a fever involved, Sam was probably ok. I trusted her judgment, since she's had more experience with infants than I had...
Friday night, towards Sami's usual bedtime, we were going about our usual routine - Sami started fussing because she appeared tired, so we changed her into her PJs, fed her, turned off the lights in the house and started trying to rock her to sleep. Only this time, after a good two hours of trying to calm her down, nothing was working... and after two episodes of vomiting and discovering the rash further developing on her stomach, we decided to call the pediatrician's, mainly thinking she was having an allergic reaction to the shots she received at her 4-month appointment. The doctor told us to bring her to the ER to get her checked out since she didn't think it was a reaction to the shots, which had us all the more concerned... luckily the hospital was only 5 minutes down the street.
The upside to bringing a 4-month old to the ER (not really) is that you don't wait - they brought us right back to the pediatric ER and the nurse checked in on us right away. They hooked her up to the monitor to check her O2 levels, which were fine, and then they took her temp and blood pressure, which were also fine.
The doctor then came in and check her vitals - because she was crying inconsolably, stopping for 5-10 minutes, then starting up again, she was concerned that it may have been an internal issue, maybe with her bowels, so she sent us for X-Rays and an ultrasound.
The X-rays sucked ass... they had Chris and I suit up in lead smocks so that we could hold Sam down and still while they took x-rays of her belly - the first one wasn't so bad, where she was able to lie on her back... the second one they wanted to take a film through her back, so we had to hold her up against a panel while she was lying on her side. She was screaming the whole time, and the suckiest part is we had to do it twice because she moved too much the first time. At least the ultrasound wasn't too bad- we did have to hold her arms and legs down do that she didnt try to move the wand out of they way, but really, none of it was pleasant.
Regardless, the worst of all was when they had to take urine and blood for testing. I was in tears... I mean, I know it was for the best, but having to hold my daughter down while they inserted a catheter and an IV just broke my heart.
And after all that, and all the tests were done, they couldn't find anything wrong. The doctor concluded that because of the vomiting, the inconsolable crying, and the spreading rash, it must just be a virus, and to monitor it in case things dont change for the better. In the meantime, I fed her 2oz of Pedialyte and they gave her fluids via her IV and she finally fell asleep. All the while I myself was fighting both emotional and physical exhaustion (it was midnight by this point) and we were finally discharged at 12:30am with the instruction of feeding her Pedialyte again in the morning, and if she kept it down ok, we could switch back to breastmilk. We were also instructed to follow-up with her pediatrician, and I again was very happy we are with an office that is open 7 days a week.
Saturday morning she kept 6oz of pedialyte down without problem, and we had no issue switching back to breastmilk. I called the pediatrician, and they wanted her in the next day for a follow-up appointment. Chris brought her in, they looked her over and agreed that it must be a stomach virus and to just keep an eye on her to make sure she's ok. And everything has been fine since.
Of course that doesn't mean I dont get all paranoid now whenever she doesnt calm down for bed... a sick baby sucks, especially when they can't tell you what's really wrong. =(
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