First Brush with the Emergency Room

We’d managed to spend the first 19 months of the Little Monkey’s life without the need for a doctor’s visit but that changed last week. Sure we’ve been going to the pediatrician and even had a check up when we were travelling with her in India, but not the emergency kind. Last Tuesday evening she got super cranky and started crying but I just dismissed it as being overly tired. Wednesday she was a bit fussy and then totally freaked out towards bedtime.  My mom ran to the pharmacy to see if perhaps some Gripe Water would help as we assumed it was just some indigestion or stomach  aches. Well Thursday brought on a fever and more crankiness and we didn’t think much of it. I thought she might be getting her incisors and blamed the fact that I had removed her favourite teething necklace (it came right back on!!).

She’d be fine one moment and not so much the next. We were having friends from out of town visit and were totally looking forward to spending some time with them and their little one. Super pumped to get the two munchkinz together. Friday came and our regular happy go lucky Little Monkey was no where near her usual self. Sourly, subdued and very morose.  Since her Grandfather is a Doctor we checked in with him and he suggested that we monitor her and ensure she’s well nourished but that nothing else jumps out. At this point she wasn’t eating much and would only drink milk. We also thought it might be the Fifth Disease as there was a chance that her Grandfather may have had it during his visit last weekend. Nothing to worry about but just to watch through the fever and see if any rashes appeared. If anything, I was the one in danger if she did have the Fifth Disease because it’s more harmful for pregnant women than anyone else. We barely survived the crying, shrilling yells and heart piercing growls on Saturday and even went out for a quick lunch. She seemed to do well when she was outdoors so we thought the distraction would help. Sunday was a big day. We had one of our favourite couples getting married and we were pumped for their wedding. We were also excited to take the Little Monkey with us for the wedding but things weren’t looking good. Saturday night saw her exhausted, extremely angry (flinging things) and her fever at a 101 F.

She woke us up early on Sunday with a fever of 103 and so we decided a cold bath was to be followed by a 8 a.m visit to Sick Kids. Our first ever emergency visit. One thing I can say is that Sick Kids takes care of  their little patients. It did takes us about 4 hours to get out but we weren’t a high priority as the Little Monkey just looked glum and was not yelling in pain. We met a couple nurses and finally the Doctor who tried his best to diagnose her. He gave her the full screening and just couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He went through all the regular ailments and asked us numerous questions but was a bit perplexed because she was clearly in pain (kept asking us if her fussiness wasn’t the norm) but she wasn’t showing any symptoms. Finally he suggested that we do a urine test. He then disappeared for a good 45 minutes. The clock was ticking because it was now noon and we were being picked up for the wedding at 3 p.m. AIE! Finally he returned and gave us the option of putting a bag on her and waiting for her to pee, or taking the catheter route. While the catheter freaked me out ( I was imagining the pain and horror from the Balloon catheter during my induction) we decided that it was the fastest and the option that would give a full diagnosis. The process was so simple and pain free. I’m not sure why the nurses induced a bit of fear in me with their talks of the catheter but the diagnosis came in 5 minutes later. She did have a bladder infection! Poor child. We should have brought her in much earlier. Antibiotics calmed her down significantly and we were kicking ourselves for not going in sooner. Last minute we decided to take her to the wedding and set up the travel crib in the groom’s dressing room so she slept through the dinner. She was fantastic at the Ceremony and a bit whiny at the reception but all in all I was glad I took her along instead of leaving her at home.

Our first brush with the emergency room wasn’t dramatic (luckily) but it did happen and I know that it won’t be the last. The freakiest part for me was how whiny, angry and shrieky she was. I knew she was in pain but I also realized how lucky we have it on a regular basis. There are some kids out there who on a daily basis act the way she does when she’s sick. Not sure what I’d do if that was the norm around our home! She’s bouncing back ever so slowly but not fully there yet. The new challenge is that we let her take her bunny and drink out of a bottle 24-7 because she was sick. Now that she’s getting back to normal I’m trying to move things to the way they were and well.. yes… that battle continues. 6 months of work eliminated in 1 week of sickness!