Saturday night was rough. Benjamin was very fussy and not sleeping well. Around 2 am I gave him a little Tylenol because I suspected a fever. Finally around 5 am, he fell asleep.
When we woke up, around 11 Sunday morning, it felt as though he still had a low grade fever. Brian and I decided that it would be best if I took Benjamin in to Urgent Care. I have never had an infant this small have a fever, so I assumed they would check his ears, lungs and throat, tell me he had the same cold his sisters had, write a prescription for antibiotics and send me home.
The Urgent Care that popped up on Google that was closest to my house, turned out to be an Emergency Room and they suggested that it would be cheaper for me to take him to an actual Urgent Care.
Urgent Care took one look, asked his age, and sent me to the Emergency Room. Before I left, I asked them to take his temperature. It was 101.4 F. Apparently, that is great cause for concern at this age.
The Emergency Room was practically empty when we arrived. We were quickly processed from the waiting room to triage, where they gave Benjamin some Tylenol for his fever. Then back to a room where they informed me that because of his age, they would do a full Septic Work-up. I had no idea how miserable that would be.
A Septic Work-up includes a blood and urine cultures, a snot test, and a Lumbar Puncture. They tried to get an IV in his foot... and then his hand... finally, they just got blood from his hand and gave up on putting the IV in.
I was so tired, I had no reserves to pull from and I cried as much as he did. I typically do not cry in front of strangers, so I was incredibly embarrassed and kept saying, "I'm so sorry. I don't usually cry like this." The nurses kept reassuring me that all mother's cried during this.
After the Septic Work-up, they moved us to another room where they informed me that I would be waiting on blood and urine cultures to be read at 24 and 48 hours and they were admitting us to the hospital. Around 5:30pm a special nurse from pediatrics was brought down to put in the IV so they could start antibiotics. This nurse was very sweet and inserted the IV into his little scalp. This was the least traumatic thing that happened that night, even though it sounds and looked so sad on my little guy.
About an hour later, we were put in a room in the pediatrics section of the hospital to wait on the blood and urine cultures to be developed and read.
Sometime during the night, his fever broke and by noon the next day, I could tell the antibiotics had helped. He was more responsive and smiled at me again. His eyes were not as "sick" looking and he was eating much better then he had on Sunday. All of the tests came back as normal.
We were due for the cultures to be read around 5 pm and I requested that if everything looked good that we be allowed to go home and that they could call me with the results from the 48 hour reading. The doctor told me, "No."
Sitting in the hospital is very lonely. It made for some amazing snuggle time with my little guy, but it is very lonely and I was missing the girls and Brian so much.
About 5 minutes later, the nurse came in and handed me a phone to talk with the doctor. Apparently, the blood and urine cultures had never made it to the lab. I was sitting in the hospital waiting for labs that didn't exist. The doctor and I talked for about 20 minutes and we finally agreed that Benjamin and I could go home that night as long as I would follow-up with Benjamin's pediatrician the next day. That was a happy moment.
On Tuesday, Benjamin, Savannah and I visited the pediatrician. She was much more positive than the doctor from Monday and agreed with my assessment that Benjamin had a variant of the girl's cold that manifested itself as a fever because he was so little. He was given a check-up and we were sent home. I was given instructions to call them first, should anything else develop, but that it was unlikely that it would.
On Wednesday, I had my 6-week postpartum visit with my OBGYN. Everything checked out, however, there was a lump that was sensitive to touch underneath my incision area from the c-section. My doctor ordered an ultrasound and sent me home with antibiotics.
On Thursday (today), I had the ultrasound. By the time we had it, the lump seemed smaller to me and the ultrasound technician seemed a little unsure as to why I was there. That, my friends, was the reaction I was hoping for. Otherwise, I would have been back to the doctors tomorrow. My doctor looked at the ultrasound pictures and called to say he believed it was a post op seroma and that the antibiotics should knock it out.
That is a lot of time spent in hospitals and doctor's offices. I am very happy that it seems to be over for awhile. I am very grateful for the nurses and technicians and doctor's that I dealt with all week. For the time spent, all the people I dealt with were friendly and helpful, knowledgeable and professional.
But, oh please, let it be enough for awhile! Besides, I need to clean my house and get back to my picture posts!
