Sunday, September 21, 2008

One Long Week...




This is my journal entry for the past week we spent in the hospital with Parker...

September 21, 2008
I've only known Parker for 8 weeks, but he really is the center of my little world right now. Not even a century ago, we would have been laying him in a grave about now. I have never been more grateful for modern medicine and wonderful doctors who work so hard for the knowledge they have. Because of them, I still have my little boy.

Parker got sick last Sunday the 14th of September. Tayler and I had both had bouts of the flu the week previous and were just getting over our symptoms. Sunday afternoon he started throwing up forcefully every time I fed him. I thought the first few times that I wasn't burping him correctly. It continued on through the night and he soaked several blankets and jammies before I finally decided it was time to see the doctor the next day at 1:30. Dr. Knochel decided that he wasn't dehydrated yet and that we could probably see if would blow over in the next 24 hours or so. I took him home and the vomiting just got worse, he hadn't kept anything down for over 24 hours so that night I took him to the clinic that Dr. Knochel works with (they keep one doctor there until 8 p.m.). Dr. Bennet said that Parker was well on his way to dehydration, and although he wasn't yet, if he kept vomiting through the night, he would be in trouble. He had me drive to the Payson hospital to get Parker on an I.V. for the night.

They got the I.V. in his little arm on the first try (thank goodness, the nurse said that often they poke them 5 or 6 times trying to get it into their tiny veins.) They had him getting 2 ounces every hour that night. The doctor said that vomiting rarely goes longer than 48 hours and that he would probably stop the next day and be okay to head home. On Tuesday the vomiting did not stop although Parker kept wanting to eat, he would throw everything up forcefully within ten minutes of eating.

That night, he kept bending his arm too much and pulled the I.V. out slightly so they had to put another one in his left arm. The nurses kept saying they weren't sure if it was all the way in his vein, so they kept checking it every two hours to make sure the fluid wasn't going into his tissues. Around 10:30 p.m. the nurse came in to check the I.V. and it was fine. At 11:00 when I finally decided to go to bed I decided to check under his blanket and glance at his arm. It was 3X the size of his other arm and was swollen all the way up to his shoulder. I quickly called the nurse in, who took the I.V. out and ran to call the doctor (she didn't know what to do beside elevate it and put on a warm compress). Dr. Knochel came in at 11:30 at night even though he was not on call and could have easily passed it off to the doctor who was. He had to give Parker four more shots into the skin to help the tissues absorb the excess fluid. I was almost bawling, he looked so sick , and it had been the 7th or 8th time in 3 days they had poked him. I told the nurse to forget about putting him back on the I.V. for the night as he would be okay for at least that long with all the fluids they had put in him. I couldn't stand the idea of them poking him again!

The next morning Parker was still vomiting... the doctor said there was no way he was going to go back home and then they called up the nursery nurses to put an I.V. into his hand (they thought it was going to have to be put into his head because they couldn't find a good vein that hadn't already had an I.V. in it. Those nurses were so good! They had pricked enough babies I guess to get good at it and had that thing in, in no time. Parker continued to vomit throughout Thursday and Friday keeping down maybe 3-4 tablespoons of milk a day. On Thursday morning he got diarrhea along with the vomiting. They had me weigh each diaper to see how much liquid he was losing. Apparently he was losing in diarrhea in 4 hours what a normal baby loses in 24. The gave Parker a bolus of saline and then upped the I.V. to twice the amount he was getting before plus every four hours they would put in another bolus of liquid for what he was losing through the diarrhea. They added several minerals, sugar and electrolytes to his I.V. to help him too. That night the doctor was worried about him, that his heart might stop. He had Parker put on a heart and breathing monitor in case that happened. I just wanted to rip all the cords attached to him off... I knew when he didn't need them, he would be okay... I just wanted that moment to be right then.

Parker vomited almost everything that was in his stomach for almost 5 days and then the diarrhea on top of that. The doctor said he wouldn't have lasted more than 2 days the way he was going without the I.V. in him. He went through at least 25 pairs of jammies (Loren had to go home and wash two loads of laundry) and probably 15 blankets from all the vomiting and diarrhea.

On Friday morning my Mom who was flying in from Fresno after spending the week with Aaron and Alicia (who just had a baby), called and offered to come and be with us for the weekend. Because Loren had been taking care of Tayler all week and was only able to drop in for brief visits, I felt alone dealing with my sick little boy and was so grateful to have her come. When she walked in after an especially bad night for Parker (he hadn't eaten anything for almost 12 hours) she looked at him and started crying. His eyes were dark and sunken into his face, his fontanel was depressed and he looked yellow. I guess I just had become accustomed to seeing him more that way. By the end of Friday though, they had given him so much liquid that he looked a lot better and things started to turn for the better. Saturday he vomited for the last time at around 12:30. He still isn't eating well, but is doing much better than he was at the beginning of the week. He actually wants to eat, but will only eat for a minute or two because his tummy is so shrunken.

One of the most heart wrenching things to see was his little throat was burned from the hydrochloric acid in his stomach. He would try to cry and it would come out very hoarse and I could barely hear him. I could tell he was in so much pain and after every time he vomited he would start coughing for about an hour. They started giving him tylenol on Friday (they wouldn't before because they were afraid it would mask a fever) and that helped him feel more comfortable, Pepsid AC for the vomiting to get rid of the acid in his stomach, and also a good bacteria that grows in your intestines to help his diarrhea slow down. By Saturday he looked and felt a lot better. They started weaning him off the I.V. on Saturday night and the doctor released us to go home this morning.

I was telling my Mom tonight I felt Loren was a better homemaker than I was... I walked into the house and it was spick and span, he'd done all the laundry, cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed, done all of the dishes, made lunch for my Mom and sister and was a great Daddy to Tayler this week. What a wonderful guy I married, to always see a need and step in to take care of it.

I have never prayed so often, and have never before felt the prayers of so many people. I am so grateful for my wonderful husband who is always willing and worthy to bless my kids in a time of need. Thank you for the calls, the emails, and the thoughts and prayers directed in our behalf. We are so darn grateful to be home with Parker on the mend!!!

9 comments:

Jennie said...

Oh Carrie!! My heart goes out to you, how scary!! I am so grateful that little Parker is okay, thank goodness for modern medicine and good doctors.

Erica Bazil said...

I'm so sorry to hear about your little boy. What a rough week. I know how it is...our little girl had to stay in the NICU for a week and a half after she was born and was hooked up to lots of machines and had a feeding tube down her nose. It's so hard to see your little one have a hard time. Our experience was miserable (as I know yours has been) but thankfully our babies can be taken care of. I hope Parker continues to feel better. What did they say he had - a really bad flu? I hope you can get some rest and feel better too (that stuff is so draining on you when you're so worried). Good luck.

Ginger said...

Carrie I am so sorry!! I am just sitting here crying read your post. I can't imagine watching a sweet little baby going through all of that. You are so strong Carrie, I really admire you. Our prayers are with you.

Kristy said...

Carrie,
I'm so sorry to hear about the horrible week you've just been through. I can't even imagine how hard that must have been to see your baby so sick. I cried when I read this. I hope you are all doing better now. Thank goodness for prayer and the priesthood and modern medicine and your sweet husband. Good luck to you all, we are thinking of you.

K. Bitton said...

I am so happy he is doing better! I can't imagine how you felt! As I was reading what you wrote I looked over to Grace who had been sleeping on the couch next to me and was SO grateful for her good health. You never realize what a blessing it is until it is gone, unfortunately like a lot of the blessings in life. We will continue to pray for you guys! I don't know what we would do with out you! We love you so much! Please let us know what we can do for you.
Love,
Jeffers and Kayci

linzy said...

Oh my goodness!!! Glad he is doing better! So hard you had to go through all that. Good thing you got it out of the way when you had good insurance, eh?!

Ammon & Ali said...

Carrie, so sorry to hear about your horrible week! It breaks my heart for you and little Parker. I hope all is well now.

larene said...

I don't think there's anything scarier than dealing with a sick child in the hospital. You feel so helpless.
Glad Parker came home and is doing better. Poor little guy.
It's amazing how grateful you feel too with just a normal life after dealing with something like that.
I'm sure it feels great to be home!
~LaRene

anilokin said...

You guys have sure had some hard and stressful times lately. We are so sorry you have had to go through this and so glad that Parker-boy is doing better. I bet Taylor troubles sound fun and innocent by comparison.

We love you and are thinking of you,

Landon and Lina