To be honest, it all started around 8pm last night. I was reading Blake his bedtime stories when I noticed he kept sticking his tongue out like he had a hair in his mouth. I didn't think much of it and tried to fish around in his mouth to see if there was anything in there that shouldn't be. No luck. Before I laid him down I took him into the kitchen for a drink of water to clear out whatever was in his mouth that had become so bothersome. And then he puked.
All of his dinner. Refunded. (Note to Blake: Let's try chewing your food from now on, k?)
I yelled to Evan for backup as Blake stood and pointed to the contents of his stomach now occupying the kitchen floor saying, "ewwww!". We got that mess cleaned up and swapped the barfy pajamas for some clean ones. Blake didn't seem to think he was sick as he ran around and played like normal. Freak barfing? We at the Jordan household are veterans when it comes to barfing so we took his temperature, gave him some water and decided he was probably ok since he was acting like he felt fine. Into bed he went.
30 minutes later: vomit.
This required the changing of sheets and new pajamas.
More water, mess cleaned up, no sheets-just a towel this time-and he was off to dreamland.
And then he threw up again. At this point there wasn't much left in his little tummy and it was horrible to watch him struggle. We decided to get him some pedialite and keep him up for a while to see if he'd keep it down. We finally wised up and followed him around with a little bucket to catch any upchuck that might decide to spew from his little body. Sure enough, he threw up a few more times before conking out.
Evan and I hopped into to bed and I said a quick prayer for Blake to be able to sleep through the night.
At 1 a.m. I awoke to the sounds of, well, you know. I called a 24 hour nurse hot line to get some advice on what to do. I really didn't want to take Blake to the ER, but he could not keep anything in his stomach and he was so exhausted that I was getting nervous that he'd need medical attention immediately. The decision was made to wait a while longer to see if he'd go back to sleep, but he threw up again for the seventh time. I tried to call the on-call pediatrician, but didn't get a return call until 2 hours later. By that time Blake was asleep and it was 5:30 in the morning. He had been asleep for 2 hours so I thought it was ok to wait and take him to the doctor when they opened.
Blake woke up around 7 and ate a light breakfast before we headed to the doctor.
Diagnosis: chest congestion brought on by seasonal allergies and drainage of mucus into the stomach causing nausea.
Treatment: nebulizer treatments 3 times a day for a week, antibiotic once a day for 5 days, prescription cough medicine 2 times a day for 5 days, and allergy medicine once a day until the end of November.
The nebulizer treatment is enough to make me want to assume the fetal position and hum to myself.
5 comments:
Ugh! I am so sorry! Vomiting -- in the middle of the night, no less -- is the worst. I'm glad there's remedies, though, even if one of them is a nebulizer. If my experience with all the times my boys get bronchitis and resulting nebulizer treatments, it does get easier. It's like after a few days they just resign themselves to their new fate and deal with it. Good luck!
Oh my goodness Whitney, I'm so sorry. I would have been terrified although I also would have avoided going to ER at all reasonable costs. We've made two trips there since Scarlett was born...that equals a total of 13 hours at the ER. I loathe the ER with a deep passion and hope I never have to go there again! I don't know what a nebulizer is, I'll have to look it up. It must be pretty bad to though! Hopefully, things will look up in the next few days as his system absorbs all of the medicine.
You deserve 50 bags of m+m's for that!!! I'm sorry he was so sick! And all that medication? Our families have WAAAAAAAAY too much experience with nebulizers. If my chest cold doesn't clear up by the end of the week, I think I'll go to the doctor. Hope I don't have to get a nebby!!! But I'd take one for Blake any day!!
Ick. I love your imagery of humming in the fetal position. I think I'll do that some time soon.
So sorry. That's horrible, and I hate the feeling of helplessness when your little ones are sick. And just a medical side note, you shouldn't give kids water after throwing up. It causes them to throw up more since their stomach muscles are already inflamed. If you are worried about dehydration, a small amount of pedialyte or ginger ale are the way to go. (there's your unsolicited advice for the day)
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