Tonight may have been one of the scariest nights in my life. Hana had a fever, without any other symptoms, for a couple of days, but (with pediatric advice) we were able to lower the fever with the help of Tylenol and Motrin. Conrad went into Hana's room to feed her at 11:30 pm and picked her up. Hana didn't have a fever, but she was shivering. It was really scary. Conrad decided she needed to go to the Emergency Room. Thank goodness he had the insight to bring her into the hospital. When Conrad placed Hana into her car seat, Hana's arms were so rigid that they stayed in the position like she was still holding onto him. I was really worried that Conrad would not make it to the hospital before Hana had a seizure.
In the 10 minutes that it took for Conrad to get to the hospital, Hana's temperature rose to 105.2 degrees. The ER staff were really diligent. They gave her Tylenol and Motrin, got an IV line in on the first try, took a blood sample, tested for RSV, and collected a urine sample through a catheter. The nurse thought that Hana had a urinary track infection because the urine collected was cloudy. The ER doctor found that Hana had an ear infection in her left ear.
Day 2 - Friday - 4 March
From the blood sample, the doctors in the ER found out that Hana's white blood cell count was 21,000 (a normal count is 10,000). This morning, before Hana was admitted to the pediatric ward, we found out that the RSV came back negative. Thank goodness. The urinary track lab did come back positive for an infection. So, Hana definitely had a UTI. Once Hana got to the regular pediatric ward (around 5 am), they administered her first round of antibiotics.
I was home to take care of Hayli while Daddy was taking care of Hana in the hospital. I was worried about how Hayli was going to react with Hana gone. A small part of me hoped Hayli would not even notice. Well, of course Hayli noticed! Hana greets Hayli every morning. When Hayli got to the loft, she asked me right away "Where is Nana?". I had to wipe a tear because Hayli was so sweet and concerned. I told Hayli that Hana was very sick last night, and she had to go to the hospital. Daddy was with her and taking care of her. From that conversation, Hayli took away that Hana had fallen and hurt herself. Hana was now at the doctor's office for her boo-boos and Daddy was talking to the doctors.
Hana had an ultrasound done on her kidneys. The technician told me that the ultrasound would show infection, any scarring in the tissues, and the blood flow to and from the kidneys. The technician told me that Hana was the best baby she ever worked with. "What a good baby! And no crying!!!" At first, we thought the doctors wanted to check if the infection was present in her kidneys. In the end, the doctors knew the infection did go to the kidneys due to how high Hana's fever was and how long Hana had the fever and the reason they wanted the ultrasound was to detect if any scarring was present in Hana's kidneys. If scarring exists, then it is an indicator that this is a chronic illness.
Daddy came and took over at 6pm so I could begin putting Hayli to bed. At 8pm, Hana got antibiotics. What a long day!
Day 3 - Saturday - 5 March
On Saturday, Hana began to feel better. She was still tired. Hana's body was working overtime to heal.
Hana was able to stand up and hold on to objects in the bathroom while we were in the there. I did not realize until today how little Hana is compared to the IV line until I took this photograph. It is so sad! Must have been so frightening for Hana!!!
Hana also started to get her appetite back. She ate some bananas, mac and cheese, and bread. We were happy to see that she started to want to eat again!
Hana also started to play. She has a lot of fun with her hospital room window... who would think this would provide for hours of fun?
Day 4 - Sunday - 6 March
Sunday was our projected release date. Unfortunately, Hana was not released because she still had a fever on and off. Hana is in good spirits though.
It is became increasingly more difficult to stay in the hospital. Hana was feeling better so she was wiggling around, twisting her IV line, and even trying to chew on her IV line. Today Hana even kinked her IV line. Hana's nurse, RN Jacky, came in to fix the line by pushing saline solution through the line. When she looked at Hana's IV line, she decided to take some of the tape off. The tape rubbed on the same spot over and over again until it pulled skin off. RN Jacky thought for sure that Hana would cry when she pulled the tape off. Hana did not even whimper when the tape came off. I think she was happy to get that off of her! It looked really bad though!
Today was RN Jacky's last day before she was off for two days. Sure hoped we would not be still in the hospital when she returned. So happy she had the guts to do what she did for Hana those first hours of her stay. She made a big difference to Hana's care. We will be forever grateful.
Day 5 - Monday - 7 March
HOORAY!!! Discharge Day!!!
Dr. Settles came by on Monday morning to let us know that Hana will be discharged today. We are so happy that we get to bring our little baby home. I dropped Hayli off at school (the director let me bring her even though it wasn't her day to go to school), and I went straight to the hospital to get Hana. Before we could leave though, Hana had to get a kidney reflux test done. That was no fun at all!!! Hana hated this test so much that she put a kink in her IV line, which made its alarm go off... The doctor doing the test said that he saw no evidence of kidney reflux, but the official results would be sent to Dr. Settles. After what seemed like forever in the x-ray room, we were allowed to go back to the room. Nurse Sabrina unplugged Hana's IV line, since we were going home anyway. She gave Hana some time to calm down after the kidney reflux test to take all the tape, the stint, and the IV needle out. After Nurse Sabrina had all the discharge paperwork done, she removed all the stuff off of Hana's arm. We were free to go. We were all so happy to leave that hospital room!!!
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