Monday, June 8, 2009

Anybody get vodka?

Ok, first, let me start by saying, those of you who REALLY know me are probably wondering what in the world THIS post is about!! For those of you who don't, #1, I haven't had a drink in I can't remember when (probably almost a year now), and #2, I've never cared for vodka! But, one of my FAVORITE comedians, Ron White, once said something that has stuck with me and really sort of epitomized how I'm feeling this week..."I believe if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade...(strategic pause)...and try to find someone who's life has given them vodka and have a party." I know things could definitely be a whole lot worse, but I have to tell you, I'm really feeling beat up after this past week. I've talked to a few of you and several of you probably already know, but I sit typing this from Rhae's hospital room. Yep, that's right! Little Miss went and landed herself in the hospital Sunday afternoon.

So, if you keep up with us, you already know about the arm and the sinusitis. Well, Friday we got home from the doctor and the diarrhea started so I waited to start the antibiotic because I didn't want to make her stomach worse. Sometime Saturday, her temp started climbing again, and she completely stopped taking anything by mouth. If I tried to give her medicine, she spit it out at me. She would take a sip of her bottle then push it away. She was miserable. My sister, Molly, went to CVS for me and got some Tylenol suppositories, and while I did get one in her, 2 hours later, her temp was 103. I snuck a little Motrin in her at that point, enough to break it, but she was still miserable. Still in pain, but I think she felt so bad she really didn't care. Saturday night was long. At some point I checked her temp and it was 104. Tried to give her some Motrin and she threw it up. I had to go and wake Jay up so we could change the sheets and change Rhae, which don't forget includes unwrapping the arm, getting a onesie off of her and a new one back on (not easy with a painful broken arm), then wrapping her arm back to her chest. Sunday morning, it was the same. Temp kept going up, she was becoming more lethargic and drinking very little. Finally I called Linde (our AWESOME nurse practitioner friend) to see if she thought I should be worried about anything else since the fever was steadily going up and I wasn't seeing improvement. She mentioned she worried about pneumonia because of her arm being broken and her decreased mobility. I then called Dr. Chu who said he wanted us to go to the ER and then be admitted for fluids and IV antibiotics.

So, Jennifer and Daddy came over and Jennifer and I brought Rhae to the ER while Daddy and Aidan hung out. Jay was in a golf tournament that day and I didn't want him to stand his partner up, so he came on later. Well, we saw a really nice, caring resident (oxymoron, I know) who had wonderful bedside manner. Of course, I learned later he's a surgical resident--go figure! He won't even need his bedside manner! Anyway, we had a chest xray which he said was clear, but I honestly wonder if it was early onset, or maybe just not a great film, because she had SO many other symptoms. He recognized right away that regardless of what the chest xray showed, she was obviously sick and something was going on and knew she needed to be admitted anyway. It's always nice to find somebody who treats the patient and not a lab, xray, etc!

So, here we are. Sunday night was horrible. Rhae did not want to sleep, so it was almost 1am before I finally got her down. I think she was very uncomfortable! We were woke up early this morning, and she fought a nap hard today, on top of the fact she is getting SoluMedrol IV every 6 hours, which hypes her up a little! We unwrapped her arm today to change her clothes and let her arm "breathe" and her little thumb looked as if it was out of joint, though she was moving it. Her hand was swollen, so it was sort of hard to tell. I called Dr. Chu and asked him to stop by later. When he got here, he said he thought it looked ok, and it did look better, but we would go ahead and xray it because he wanted to check on her arm as well. This was at about 6:20pm. Rhae was fussy on and off, but finally around 7:30pm I realized she was really starting to act like her arm was bothering her, looking at it and crying and whining. Jay fixed her a bottle with some Lortab in it and she was asleep by a little after 8:00! She was so wiped out, I had no doubt she would sleep for a while. Boy was I wrong! The xray guy came in at 9:00 and really wanted to go ahead and get it out of the way instead of waiting until tomorrow so it could be read first thing. Tried to explain to him I would come read it myself, as I had done better on a few done here than the radiologist, but he really wanted to get it done. Well, Rhae apparently heard us and woke up. Xray and breathing treatment done and she was WIDE awake! So much for my hard work! i did everything I could think of, except pacing the floors because we did that all night last night (on concrete) and for an hour tonight, and my back was killing me. I finally got her to ease off around 11:20, at which point I jumped in the shower then headed out here to type this up.

So that should bring you all up to date for now. Hopefully we will be home tomorrow by lunch, so if anybody's life gave them vodka, feel free to stop by...we'll be home all week!

P.S. Please keep my Daddy in your prayers Wednesday as he goes in for his procedure.

2 comments:

Melissa Swartley said...

Oh wow! Poor Rhae! Rough nights with soaring fevers and broken bones are the worst! I hope you all have a better day today and tonight! Sonya loves to spit her medicine out at me too! Our doc told us to blow in her face while administering it and it would make her swallow it like a reflex. It worked! We now get most of that nasty tasting stuff in her! Not sure if you tried this method, just throwing it out there... I sure do hope she feels better soon! We'll hold you all in our prayers!

Bedsole Boys said...

Dana, you're a champ, and I'm not sure how you're holding up or together. I wish I could do something for you! Praying for you both right now.