We have been trying our best to get fluids into her, offering her anything and everything. Ice cream, ice pops, applesauce, soda. You name it, we have tried to get her to take it. The most she would do was take a few sips and refuse anything more. She peed a few times before bed, but each time was not a lot. I knew if this kept up, we would not be able to avoid going to the Er.
Friday was no different than Christmas day. Phoebe was still swollen, in pain and still not drinking. We continued to try to get to her to drink, but it was harder than the day before. By 7:30 Friday night, Phoebe had only peed once that day. I asked her to stick out her tongue, and I could see how dehydrated she was. Her tongue had the indented ridges going down both sides. I immediately put her shoes, hat, gloves and coat on and off to the ER we went.
As soon as we got to the emergency room and I explained all of Phoebe's conditions we were brought straight into a room in the children's ER and a doctor immediately walked in to examine her. She was dehydrated. Her breath even had the odor some people get when they don't have enough fluids in them. The doctor ordered a CBC, a urinalysis, a Strep test, IV fluids and cultures of her blood to see if any bacteria was growing.
The Strep test came back negative and her CBC results came back typical for Phoebe. The cultures would take a few days to see if anything grew in the vial and with a dehydrated child, you are not going to get a urine sample so they didn't run the urinalysis.
Two IV bags later, Phoebe was asleep in the hospital bed and they were planning to discharge her. Their main concern was getting the fluids in to her since her labs were not indicating anything. They were trying to avoid admitting her because with an immunocompromised child, their body is at high risk for nosocomial infections. We were discharged at 1:40 in the morning.
They wanted us to follow up with her doctor today, so when we woke up this morning I called her pediatrician and got her an appointment right away.
Phoebe is still not drinking, is still swollen and in pain and she is now really pale with big dark circles under her eyes and very cranky. The pediatrician said she is hydrated enough from the fluids she got last night that we have at least a day to two days before we would have to be concerned about going to the ER again for more fluids. He said the main thing is to keep ahead of what's going on with her before it gets out of hand. He said he agrees with the ER doctor that that is exactly what I did yesterday. We got her to the ER before her dehydration got so bad that she would of had to be admitted no matter what.
Now we just wait and hope that she starts to drink more.
Photos: 1- In the ER after being seen by the doctor
2- IV line started, blood drawn, now just waiting on fluids
3- Exhausted