Sunday, May 17, 2009

May 9th: First Emergency Room Visit

Well, after being a Mom for over 2 years, I think I am lucky to have been spared ER visits so far, expecially because Marco is so boisterous. This streak ended last weekend. First off: Can anyone tell me why in the world fevers get the highest on Saturday or Sunday night, when even the Med 7 centers are not open, neccesitating a visit to the ER?
Annelies had a fever that began on Saturday and rapidly became worse. Somewhere in the late afternoon she stopped showing an interest in food, and by the evening the fever felt so high to me that I thought we really needed to go. Mothers intuition. Aaron even said that it would take another 24 hours for her to become dehydrated, but why wait? Once someone is dehydrated it is harder to hydrate, and they need an IV for sure. Besides, I did not know what amounts of OTC drugs would be OK for her and really wanted her to be looked at by a Doctor. She was also crying constantly, which shows me that she REALLY needed help since she rarely cries. So Mom and Leif came to stay with Marco (we popped "Slumdog Millionaire" in the DVD player for them) and off we went to the ER.
Luckily, we got there in time for the Saturday Night Rush. We were seen almost immediately. In the waiting room we saw a couple with a 4 day old (!!), they were really worried, and the Mom was still so post-partum- emotional, I felt horrible for them and hope their baby is OK!!
Annelies got her chest X rayed, and they gave us a diagnosis of beginning Pneumonia. She got an injection of Antibiotics and a prescription of the Antibiotic Du Jour, Zithromyecin (forgive the spelling if wrong). We were also insructed to keep her fever down by switching between Tylenol and Motrin, (one every 4 hours) which worked beautifully (I am glad to know this for the next time for either one of the kiddo's).
It is a week later now, and Annelies is doing a lot better. Her cough is getting better. She is such a little trooper.