"A Mother Knows Best... A Doctor rules things out"
We have all heard this saying before, and chances are that some of us are Mothers and have experienced before knowing that something was wrong and it turned out right! But what happens when your instinct takes you down a pathway that was not expected?
This is what happened to my family. We were so happy and blessed to be welcoming a baby boy into our family of 4, we have 2 girls already Allison & Elizabeth, aged 6 & 7. Well when Lucas came along and at only 3 weeks old, he come down with a fever, and that sent us down a long and scary pathway, and 72 hours of hospital stay. If you have a newborn under 3 months or expecting a baby, please take the time to read this blog. I do tend to write a lot so I will try and keep our story brief.
Our story started like most do while they are on a new baby adventure. we were sitting at 39 weeks and 3 cm and wanting to meet out new little guy. Thank the good lord he finally came 1 day before his due date, 2 1/2 hours of hard contraction, and 9 min of pushing we gave birth to our handsome Lucas, weighing in at 6 lbs 14 oz. There is no words to describe how amazing the feeling is of seeing your baby for the first time, but it was something like being on a cloud in heaven.
36 hours later, we were visited by the Pediatrician to go over the pre admit to finally send us on our way home to the excited big sisters. She talked about S.I.D.S and how best to prevent it, she talked about jaundice and how best to watch for it, she talked about breastfeeding and how to best offer it. the last thing she said is " Oh and make visitors wash up when they come in, especially if they have a job that handles money"
Coming home was great, we did have lots of visits, but we hardly asked everyone to wash in like it was a hospital. We had a very calm boy so we went out for groceries once a week, went to church every Sunday, visited our playgroups, went out to the mall to finish Easter shopping and then came Easter were we visited my Moms and my husbands Dads, and a neighboring town for a Easter egg hunt with thousands of visitors This might have been too much too soon.
It was a Monday like any normal day, Lucas had turned 3 weeks that Saturday, and he spent the day like normal with his napping and snacking and playing. Then after his afternoon stretch of napping he woke up just screaming, not normal for my lil Lucas. this continued for the rest of night, he spent 10 min sleeping 3 min screaming. We then spent he rest of night tag team sleeping and looking after Lucas. We figured at first it was gas, seeing as there was no fever present, but as the night wore on and still no relief for our poor lil guy we just know something was up. So we called our Dr in the morning and made an appointment for later that day, but still no fever! still no relief from pain for lil Lucas.
At around 10:30 finally we saw the first hint of a fever, it came in at 37.4, and I started thinking hmmmm this really seems like an ear infection. Lucas wanted to be held up on your shoulder and he didn't want to feed on one side. Off to the Dr we went. Our awesome neighbor, who also happens to be our Nurse took his temp again and now we were sitting at 37.9, and she agreed there was something going on to provoke his sad painful cries. Doctor came in the room and said. "Well Mom what do you think it is?" I said I thought it was ear infection, he relpied "Oh we will have a look but it is very rare in a child this young" then he started his examination checked his ear, said it was a little red so I figured I was right. Then that is when he checked his heart rate, and I know something was really wrong. His poor little heart was racing up to 167. There is no words to describe how horrible the feeling is not knowing what is wrong with your baby.
Then things got really scary, he said he did not know what was wrong with Lucas to cause the heart rate and the fever, and that he wanted me to go down right away to see a pediatrician. This is when your heart as a Mother literally stops, all the worst things in the world come rushing into your head. I got Lucas cloths back on and prepared myself to go out into the waiting room and tell his Dad.
The car ride was about 45 min, but it was the longest 45 min of my life, I believe I cried the whole way there. when we arrived at 2 pm and they already know we were coming, they took my info and rushed us right into the ER. There is were we met our Dr. and he too asked " what do you think it is" well by this time he had a bit of crust around his one ear I thought was in question, so I showed him and said, ear infection. He too replied "Oh thats really rare in a baby this young." but he checked his ear anyways and said yes there was a drop of fluid in his little tiny ear canal but it could just be a tear. The nurses and student paramedics went to work hooking up all the wires that were needed to monitor him and the Dr went on explaining all what was going to be done to our baby boy. He informed us that they needed to find the source of infection and that meant a nose swab, urine sample, blood sample and spinal fluid sample. Nothing can prepare you for what comes next.
The nose swab was easy, just a little swab of his nose and we are done. the urine sample a little harder, they need to insert a catheter to catch a clean sample, which a student Dr wanted to try and ended up in the nurse doing it, it wasn't so bad he actually fell asleep while this all went on. then came the blood test. they need one drawn from the vein and one tube bleed out from the heal prick. Well the first lady could not find a vein and only poked him 2 times before calling in another. The vein sample was just a prick and rather fast and easy, but the heal prick was not so fun, it took about 4 min to fill a vile of blood and he screamed the whole time. then came the spinal tap, this is when they asked us to leave the room and go wait in the quiet room. Which is not quiet at all, I could still hear my baby screaming from all the way down the hall and over top of the loud and busy ER. Then came the worst news, we are going to be keeping him here for 48-72 hours, and we still don't know what is wrong.
The Dr. then went into explaining what all could be causing this infection and why they need to do all these tests. It was brain infection, kidney infection, bacterial infection, or viral infection. WOW what a list. Then came the worst part of it all, the inserting of the IV so they could start antibiotics. The student paramedics thought they would give this a try, well all I can say is 2 tries in each hand and in each foot later,and collapsing some veins, I actually started passing out while holding him, they thought it would help it to breastfeed while trying to find the vein. Dad actually felt like punching them in the face, of course he knew they were trying their best, but not easy for a Dad to watch. They ended up calling in the neuro ladies to give his head veins a try, they too had to poke him 2 times before getting it in. By this time it was 7pm and I felt like I was going to puke or pass out, and actually broke down in uncontrollable crying.
Then came the waiting to get into your room for our 72 hour hospital stay. It was only an hour but I still had not been able to stop crying, due to the fact that this was time I then had to call our family members to explain to them what was going on. 8 pm came and we were walked down to the children's wing of the hospital to meet our Nurse and get comfy in our room.
Good news was there waiting for us when we arrived, the Nurse informed us that the spinal tap come back clear and their was no brain infection. This was like winning the lottery. Yes they still did not know what was wrong with him, but at least it wasn't the worst thing that could of been wrong. then she explained it was going to take 48 hours for the urine, blood and nose swab to come back and in this time they would just treat him with antibiotics and we would play the waiting game.
The next few days were good, we met lost of wonderful Nurses and volunteers who really made you feel like everything was going to be ok, because regardless what was wrong you were in the right place to make the wrong back to a right again. They were really focused on making it comfortable for both Lucas and for my Husband and I. Answering every question, and watching him while I showered or did a dinner run, or just sitting with me talking about life. Just anything it keep my mind off the waiting game. On the second day the Dr came in to check on him, and with him he brought his tool to check his ear, and said that the fluid had dried up but was yellowish in colour and that left him to question it seeing as it should of been white salty looking if it was in fact a tear. Then said it was going to be another day, the test still were not ready and he wanted to keep an eye on that ear.
As I sat there for the rest of the day I prayed please just be his ear, please just be his ear. We already know we were not suffering like our little 1 1/2 month neighbor, she was in for 21 days of antibiotics with meningitis which is a brain infection. We were still waiting to find out if it was some kind of bacterial infection, like the little boy of 2 months down the hall who was now in for 14 days of antibiotics. We were still waiting to find out from the nose swab if it was one of 7 viral infection that are in season right now like the little girl of almost 2 months around the corner from us had, and was on 7 days of antibiotics. This we learned is usually the cause that they see in newborns with a fever, just a virus. You see it was shocking to find out that 50% of who they see come through those doors of the children's wing is newborns waiting to find out what their test say about what is causing them to have a fever.We also heard from several Nurses and the Dr that they wish more talk was giving to parents after they had their babies on making sure everyone that touches your baby has been sick in last 24 hours and that they do wash up first. That yes go out but try to limit your outing to places that are not really busy like the grocery store, at least for the first 3 months. We all assume that because our babies have our antibodies that this is enough to help them fight off anything that they come in contact with. This just is not the truth, it helps but not with eveything.
The next day rolled around and we got an early morning visit from our Dr. he came with the news that all his test were clear the nose, the urine the blood, that nothing was wrong with him, did another check of the ear and saw still more yellowish crust. So after all that we went through he explained that yes this poor little man was suffering from a ear infection this whole time, but that it was very necessary to do the test to rule everything else out. And also that it is really hard to see in his tiny ears, and very rare to have a ear infection this early. We were very happy that it was something so treatable, and that we were then able to take out his IV and go home were we could just give him oral antibiotics. Believe me its not always a happy ending like that for most parents that walk through those doors,we had a 72 hour experience, a lot of others are there for 48 to find out whats wrong then another 7 - 21 days after they find out.
I wish that somebody would of better informed me about how many 3 month old and younger babies end up in the hospital with an infection due to being exposed to too many places and too many people, so I figured I would give someone else a glimpse into what we experienced in hopes that they will make sure everyone washes in like hospital. I wish I looked over paraniod to my friends asking them to do this rather then go through what we did. or that someone stays home a little more not exposing their babies to that sneezing old man standing 6 feet away from your baby sending all his viral infection droplets right into the air you baby is breathing in the grocery store. I write this not to scare you just to warn you in hopes that you can better understand how to prevent a scary hospital stay in your new babies future.
So I said this would be brief, but for those of you who know me this is rather brief. I could of wrote more. Just keep in mind, wash up, wash up, wash up, limit your outings, and if you baby does come down with a fever say yes to the tests even if you think you know whats wrong, because the Dr in the hospital know just as best as Moms do, and no matter what the infection is they can make your child back to normal and on his way home :)
