Hospital Visit #2

October 8th, 2007. SIGH. She caught a cold from one of her older siblings. Temp started mild then shot up to 104.3. Off to hospital we go, this time bypassed the ER and went straight to pediatrics.

The initial blood draw/test came back with her ammonia levels good. YAY! Specialist said we should still stay for "preventative" reasons. OK fine. Then came the hard part.

First attempt at an IV took about 6 minutes. I could tell something was off with it, it was red at the site and when she moved her arm down, it filled with blood. Not a good sign, btw. After having it checking and flushing it several times over the next 8 hours they realized it wasn't working, it had bubbled and they had to remove it. Strike one. I question putting her through the insertion of another one since this was all preventative and stress can cause the same metabolic crisis as the fever. They send in the IV team again, they look her over, say they can't do it, she has no good, visible veins. No pokes, but she screamed through the entire examination. Strike two. They call the Specialist who was incredulous they couldn't get an IV into an 11 month old. They say they can call up one more person.

Then comes the "best" pediatric IV nurse in the hospital. She was very thorough and a sweet lady but TWENTY FOUR MINUTES of attempts in her hand, both feet, arm and ankle she admitted defeat. Strike three. Poor Lainey was screaming bloody murder the ENTIRE 24 minutes. Time that sometime. It was torture on her, on me, but mostly her. (My poor crushed heart!)

The nurses stare at each other then one goes to call the Specialist. He was not happy. (HE wasn't???) He wanted her transferred to the hospital an hour away. UGH! We really didn't want to put her through another round of torture if this was just being preventative. After all, she was eating and nursing fine, not vomiting or anything.

She was sick with a cold but she seemed so much better once they gave her a suppository of Tylenol. (she wont take oral meds, she spits themout, gags then vomits) We tell this to the Specialist. Back and forth with him with end result being that we would take her home and back for daily labs to monitor. So home we went.

Fast forward to today, October 10th. I take her to the lab to get the blood draw to check her ammonia levels. SIX jabs. SIX! Mind you, these aren't little pokes, these are insertion of a needle and when they miss the vein, they "fish" around in her little arm for it. Its just horrid and here has got to be a way to get blood from babies with "uncooperative" veins! OH, did I mention that NONE of the six resulted in any blood? So it was all for naught. (Can you tell I am frustrated?) Waiting to hear back from the pediatrician for the next idea as to what to do.