Veda's Hospital Stay

Poor Veda. She's had a rough time lately.

Remember that fun visit to the Adventure Science Center/Planetarium from the last post? Well, apparently Veda picked up a nasty souvenir while we were there... the stomach bug.

She started throwing up at my mom's house on Sunday night when we were there for Mother's Day. She seemed to improve on Monday and enjoyed a Pedialyte popsicle and some Gatorade. Having kept those down, I moved her up to the soy milk she was requesting. And then the puking resumed. On Tuesday morning she threw up again. All morning I offered her water, Pedialyte popsicles, Gatorade, juice, and Pedialyte. She refused it all. And in between crying every time I tried to hand her a cup, she was nodding off while sitting up - very not normal for She Who Does Not Sleep. She also hadn't peed since she woke up.


I once heard an NPR interview with a book-writing doctor who said that people tend to be either minimalists or maximalists when it comes to medical care. When it comes to my children, I'm the poster mom for maximalist, so I called the pediatrician around lunch time to see if they had any directions for me. The nurse suggested I make an appointment "just in case there's something else going on." So I did. After dropping Linus off with Granny, Veda and I set off for her appointment.

The pediatrician gave Veda a dissolvable Zofran tablet to help with her nausea and brought in a popsicle to see if Veda would take it. No go. I must have asked her to eat it twenty times. Then the decision was made to send her to Children's to hook her up to some IV fluids since she "looked a little dry". Finally, little Veda had the first of what would be many finger sticks to check her glucose (a low glucose would have meant transport by ambulance).

We waited in the ER waiting room for what seemed like a looong time. Then when we finally made it back to a room we waited for a looooooooooooong time on the doctor, on test results from her being catheterized (awake and without anesthesia!) to test for a UTI, on blood work results, and on results from an x-ray searching for an intestinal blockage. And the whole time Veda was either completely still or crying. Every time I looked at her, she looked worse. By this point I was getting a little scared and impatient.The x-ray and urine tests were normal, but her blood work showed that she was experiencing "moderate to severe" dehydration. Finally the IV was started and the ER doctor announced that she would be staying overnight.

With a hefty dose of fluids being pumped into her, Veda went from looking pretty haggard to noticeably puffy. Glucose sticks showed wild fluctuations from a low of 42 to a high of 171. Between sharing a stiff hospital bed and being woken frequently for vitals, IV checks, and glucose sticks, neither of us slept much that night.

By the next day, Veda was much perkier. The IV was turned off to see if she would take in fluids on her own, but she still wasn't eating or, much more importantly, drinking. She was, however, bored, so when my mom came by to let me go down to the cafeteria, I also stopped by the gift shop to pick up a couple of toys. The winner? Magnetic paper dolls. We eased many hours of hospital boredom with the "ladies" and their outfits. The "ladies" couldn't convince Veda to drink, though, so we stayed another night and she went back on the IV.

It was another miserable night of much of the same, though minus the glucose sticks (thank goodness).

The next day she was acting more like herself and asking for breakfast. And.... DRINKING! Woot! After drinking some soy milk and water and picking at her lunch, she got the okay to go home. What a relief. She's more or less back to her normal self, though I'm afraid she may have a permanent aversion to all things medical. Linus and I did catch a lesser version of the virus, but we're all on the road to recovery.

Here are a couple of photos I took on her last day in the hospital with a little point-and-shoot.

Also, a special thank you to the grandparents. We wouldn't have made it without them. My in-laws graciously kept Linus and even took Mimi to the groomer. My mother came to the hospital so that I could do stuff like take a shower and go to the cafeteria. So glad that if this had to happen, it happened while we were close to family.