This Year Still Stinks

We are home from the hospital at last. 5 days in that tiny room with a very sick little girl was the exact opposite of a Happy New Year, but we are home and hopefully on the way to wellness. Today we had our routine follow-up with Pattie's doctor. I took Raley too because the ear infection he was diagnosed with on Thursday is still causing him pain. So much so that I had to take some children's motrin up to his school for the nurse to give him if he needed it. Today we were given a different antibiotic for him to try.
Then it was Pattie's turn. Just a little background on this whole sickness marathon: on December 16th she was diagnosed with an infection in her left ear. Clay was also sick at the time with strep throat. They gave both kids a 10 day prescription of amoxicillin. On about day 8 Pattie started to run a fever again. Since it was Christmas and then the weekend we just gave her Motrin and figured the ears hadn't cleared up yet. I could not get her in to our pediatrician on Monday so we went to our clinic here in town. They suspected pneumonia and took a chest x-ray. The x-ray was negative for pneumonia but she still had a pretty bad case of bronchiolitis. They gave her a shot of Rocephin and a 3 day prescription for Zithromax. I was told she would feel a lot better very soon. Over the next 2 days I kept waiting for her to look like she felt better. I just didn't get that vibe from her so I made her an appointment on the 31st just to be sure before we went down to visit family in Houston (a trip that had been postponed 2 weeks earlier when she and Clay were sick). Raley's ear was also hurting so he went too.

While in the exam room they put Pattie on a pulse ox monitor and her oxygen levels were very low (83%) so they sent us to the hospital. The first chest x-ray they took still did not show pneumonia but that was her diagnosis. They said it was a viral pneumonia and they needed her there so she could have oxygen and breathing treatments. Then her fever spiked to 104. When I say it spiked, I am serious. They came every 4 hours to take her vitals. When they came in her temp was 98.7 and 30 minutes later I called them because she felt hot to me and her temp was 104. Then, 4 hours later when the motrin wore off she spiked to 102.9 within 30 minutes of another normal temperature reading. They repeated the chest x-ray and the pneumonia that had been hiding behind her heart was big enough to see this time. It was also determined to be a bacterial pneumonia. Out came the big gun antibiotics. While in the hospital Pattie was on IV antibiotics (Rocephin) for 3 days. They discharged us with a 10 day course of augmentin and she has has 3 doses of that. With all those drugs on board you would think that her ears would be pristine...you would be wrong. Not only is her left ear still infected, her right ear is too!
Another thing we discovered while in the hospital is that Pattie is anemic. Mostly because she has been drinking a little too much milk while she has been sick and had no appetite so she wasn't eating any iron-rich foods. We are now on an iron foods diet around here and we are giving her some soy milk since it has a small amount of iron in it as well. Of course she hates the soy milk, because...well, doesn't everyone? so it's very hard to get her to drink it. We are mixing it with regular milk which isn't exactly what the doctor wants us to do, but in addition to her prescription iron and the increase in iron rich foods she is eating, it will have to do. It is very hard for me not to give her whatever she wants right now since she has been so very sick, but I just have to remind myself that it is in her best interest and I hope she comes around soon.
But we are home and together, a point which has been hammered home due to the tragedy our neighbors are going through right now with the death of their daughter. Jayme and I went to the viewing last night and the funeral today. How will her parents be able to survive this? Their pain is almost tangible when you look at them...it feels like this heavy blanket that tries to keep you from breathing. I am so worried for them. Her mom is just broken and her dad admitted to Jayme that it hasn't really hit him yet. I was so angry during the eulogy it was hard not to walk out of the church. I won't go in to much detail because it will undoubtedly get me in trouble but suffice it to say that I was shocked by what the pastor said. He told us that her mom asked him to tell all the kids there to listen to their parents and respect what they say but I really don't think she meant for him to get up there and say that her daughter died because she did not obey her parents.
I sincerely hope that 2010 starts to get better, not just for me but for a lot of people out there. We weren't the only ones on the pediatrics floor, in fact it was full to capacity. So, pretty-please-with-a-big-fat-cherry-on-top can we be healthy for a little while and maybe get to make that trip to see our family sometime soon?