Weekend from HELL

Thursday when I picked up G from DC she seemed just fine, but by the time we got home she was burning up with a fever. In fact, she escalated so quickly that I had Ben take her to InstaCare. I was very unimpressed with their level of care - they sent her home telling us she had a virus (never mind the fact that she had no cold/flu symptoms). She had a difficult time falling asleep, so I laid down with her.  About midnight,  she sat straight up, pointed to the window, and whispered "mommy, do you see that?"  Of course I didn't see anything - but she protested that there were alligators trying to come in her window.  She started getting hysterical, and they puked all over her bed.  I took her to the bathroom to get cleaned up, and I took her temp - it was 105.  We had a very long night. She kept thinking there were monsters in her room trying to get her.  Finally about 6am she was delirious, and saying things that didn't even make sense.  She was talking in a weird gibberish-alien language. I took her temp again and it was over 106 on Mortin and Tylenol.

I kind of freaked out a bit - isn't that the level where a fever can "fry your brain?" So, I got the kids packed up and I took her to the ER. They got us back almost immediately.  Since she had no cold/flu symptoms, the doctor initially thought UTI. In order to get a  clean sample, they had to put a catheter in while she was fully awake.  Poor girl screamed and cried - her tummy muscles were flexing so badly.  We waited over 45 minutes for the results.  Finally the doctor came in and told us the urine was clean, and he wanted to do blood tests and a chest x-ray. Poor girl did not handle those well at all.

 

The worst part of the day though was that we were across the hall from the main trauma room, and we could see and/or hear everything. They wheeled an old man in from the ambulance who looked like hamburger. Turns out he had been run over by a semi truck (see article). He was alive when they brought him in, and we basically heard him die. After he died, they wheeled him into the hallway in plain sight of us. His obviously dead body was barely covered by a sheet, and G kept asking my why the poor man had a sheet on his face. He was replaced by a combative man who'd been in a gang fight. He screamed and shouted obscenities for 90 minutes while being restrained by about 6 police officers.

We ended up spending over 6 hours in the ER.  Turns out, G has pneumonia, which is so weird because she doesn't even have a cough, and has been healthy for about a month. They gave her antibiotics at the hospital and sent us home. On the way back from the hospital, we stopped off at my ILs house to pick up Bryn (who had so kindly taken Bryn to their house). While we were there, someone broke into the neighbor's house across the street. The mom had just taken the kids to the park for about an hour, and came home to find their house ransacked. The thieves must have been watching the house for awhile, because in a few minutes they were successful in stealing a ton of stuff - in broad daylight. So scary!

Anyway - back home G wasn't any better. Her fever spiked at home again, and got up to 107. It really scared me. She was already hopped up on Motrin and Tylenol, so I put her into a cool bath. But, her fever was still 107.1, so I called her doctor, who told me to get medical care immediately. SO, we hustled back to InstaCare. I don't think anyone believed me that it was that high, and they treated me like I was an idiot. She was "only" 105 by the time we got there, and they told me to go home - that they couldn't do anything else for her that I hadn't already done. So, we took her back home, where her fever did drop to about 102-03. She actually slept all night, and woke up happy.

 

She's feeling better, but still sick.  She look so pale and sick.  She's not eating very much and seems to get tired easily.  I did take her to daycare for ? day today, but we're following up at 2pm with her regular ped.  I hope this is the end of our sickies for awhile.  Its supposed to be in the 60s all week.  I'm ready for some warm.

All this happened on the same day as my oldest nephew's birthday, so we called that night to wish him a good day. When we called, we found out that he had gotten beat up by his mom the day before his birthday - bad. Then she locked him in the garage where he bled all over. She finally let him in the house, but not before making him clean up his own blood. He called his dad (my brother) to get him. He's called DCFS and his attorney has filed papers to give emergency custody to my brother. They're also filing criminal charges to my ex-SIL on child abuse and neglect. Just the instance a couple of weeks ago where the 6-year-old almost died is probably enough to get full custody to my brother. And, the icing on the cake was that she didn't even buy him a birthday present.  What an evil woman.

 

In the midst of all this, I did manage to get my run in on Friday and this morning (even though today it was like getting up at 3:30am because of day light savings time)  UGH.