A Look Back...

When G was 15 months old she came down with a flu. She got sick on a Wednesday and by Friday she was in the midst of it and really feeling bad. I took her to the doctor knowing that she needed antibiotics and not wanting to have to wait till Monday...or worse end up at the emergency room...to get her on the road to recovery. Sure enough her doctor said she looked pretty bad and her fever was up to about 101. They prescribed amoxicillan..(we all know that 'pink stuff')..and told me she should be fine. I figured with the antibiotics going in to her she should be feeling allot better by Saturday evening. Saturday came and she was still really sick. I began to get that 'mommy alert feeling' that something was up. My hubby and I had been arguing, (can't even remember what it was about now), and now he also didn't agree that she was getting worse, he thought I was over reacting. I understand how he could think that because I had no exact complaint as to why I felt she was worse other than a 'feeling'. I couldn't pin point it but my mom alarm was definitely chiming. I stayed with G in her room that night. Sunday morning came and she seemed a bit better...she still didn't want to eat though...and her temp was still up. Around 1pm on Sunday it seemed she just crashed, all she wanted was to stay in my arms. I knew I needed to take her in right away so off we went to the emergency room at NFRMC. I had no idea we would not be going home again for 8 days!

We got to the er at about 5pm. We sat in the er, my mom, G and me, until 9:30pm while everyone else was seen before us. G was mostly sleeping but her temp suddenly went from 102.3 up to 104.9. I could literally feel her body heating up in my arms. The charge nurse just gave her Tylenol at 8:30pm even though I had just given her some at 6:30. At 8:45 G threw up and I started to get scared. I knew she was rapidly getting worse. I went to the charge nurse and demanded they see her right then or I was going to call an ambulance to come and take us somewhere else. They took us back and after an exam and chest x-rays told me that she was really sick and would need to be admitted. They also told me that they were going to transport G to Shands because NFR doesn't have a pediatric unit. They called for an ambulance but we had to wait until Shands had a bed for her and the transport ambulance to arrive. Her temp was now pushing 106. I remember it was about 1am when we were finally in the ambulance going to Shands. I was in the back on the gurney with G on my lap. Her temp was now 106.1 and even the paramedics seemed nervous before we left about taking her with a temp so high. I was trying to watch out the small back door windows as we were driving to keep track of our route and where we were. I remember getting on I-75 and getting off onto Archer Road. There was a liquor store named ABC Liquors on that road and when the ambulance went by the sign it illuminated through the ambulance window and G said, "look mommy...it says ABC". The paramedic and I looked at each other in awe that my very sick little 15 month old was even alert enough to notice the letters. We pulled into Shands and we rolled right on through the er up to the pediatric floor. They rolled us into an empty room with a metal crib in it that looked more like a cage than a bed, and nothing like G's pretty pink crib at home with ballerina bears dancing all around it. We got off the gurney and the paramedics said good luck, the hopital attendent said someone would be right with us and there we stood, all alone, looking out the window at the lights below.

I stood there with G in my arms for what seemed like and hour, but in reality was about 5 minutes. The floor nurse came in and took her vitals. Blood pressure was low and temp was really high still up at 106.3. The floor nurse was really sweet. She was an older black lady and she looked me square in the eyes and said, "Honey...we got to get this child's temp down now!". She stood there with me for an hour while we sponged G off . The doctors came in and explained she had bacterial pneumonia. Nurses came in and started her on two different antibiotic drips and gave her a tylenol suppository, all the while this wonderful kind lady stayed with me and helped me sponge down my child. After an hour and half G's temp was down to 103.9. It was now almost 4am so G and I tried to get some sleep in the iron box. She had a board on her arm to support the IV and a BP cuff on her leg along with the blood oxygen thingy taped tightly on her big toe. Still we snuggled up together and slept until almost 7am. This was when a new nurse came in to check her vitals. Apparently G's blood oxygen was too low so they put her on oxygen and her temp was going up again so they gave her another suppository and I started sponging her down again. This was our routine for the next 5 days. I never left G and she and I never left the peds floor. Hubby would come and stay all day with us to help and then go home at night to stay with the girls. The fever kept coming back. We would sponge her off and it would come back again and again. My hubby and I got to the point where we could tell the minute the fever was beginning to climb again and we would buzz the nurse to bring the tylenol and start sponging her down again. We would take her on walks carrying her around the peds floor but after about 5 minutes we could tell she was getting tired.

The room mates were a whole other story. When we first arrived we were alone but on the second day they moved in a young boy about 9 or 10. He had just had some sort of intestinal surgery. At the time I was annoyed because they kept their tv on till about midnight every night and kept the volume a little too loud. I didn't know then that they were to be the best room mates I would have. They were moved out on day 3 and a teen that had tried to commit suicide was brought in. She had an 'attendant' that had to stay with her at all times. She was very sad and depressed, I felt bad for her but was relieved when she left the next morning. My last room mate was the worst by far. She was a sweet little girl...about 3 years old and mom was there too. When they first came in I, of course, went over and introduced myself after they were settled. We talked a little and I thought that I finally had someone in there that would be okay....then the nightime came and this young mom must have had 15 of her friends up there. They were loud, they were cussing, talking and saying things I didn't want my child to hear and I was horrified. I complained when the nurses would come by and they would assure me they would say something but no one ever did. I sat on my side of the room with G in our iron box watching the clock...waiting for 9pm and visiting hours to end. I was honestly a little intimidated to say something to this group of people. Every once in a while one of the young men would peek around my curtain and look at G and me and that really scared me! 9pm came and left but the party continued. Finally at 9:45 I picked up G and her IV and I carried and rolled my child down the hall to the nurses station. I stood there in tears and asked them how they could allow that to go on? There are sick children here and I knew they heard all the loud talking and laughing. Half of the people from my room were standing in the hallway so I knew that the nurses could hear it all! Finally one of the nurses told the crowd that it was time to go and G and I got some sleep. The next day the head floor nurse came by to talk to me. Apparently allot of parents had complained by calling downstairs too. They aplogized to me and moved that room mate out that day. The rest of our stay was room mate free.

After the fifth day the fevers began to subside. G started feeling better and showed some interest in eating. G still was too weak to walk so we borrowed a cute little push car from the peds play center that she adored and we took her on a tour of Shands. The doc warned us not to have her gone too long but it felt so wonderful to her and me to finally be off that peds floor. We even walked outside a little and I believe that getting out helped us both. We went to the Wendys downstairs before we went back to her room and when we did get back G and I sat together in the big rocking chair in her room and she ate chicken nuggets. I was so happy she was eating!

Two days later we took our beautiful little girl home. She was 5 pounds lighter from her ordeal and still pretty weak. She could only walk about 50 feet until she pooped out. She still remained on antibiotics for 10 days afterwards.

The days we spent in Shands were eye opening for me. I know I never want to go through it again. It broke my heart to see all the children there that were alone. I would see them in their rooms all alone while I was walking with G. Some of them were around the same age as G, in big, cold, metal cribs all alone. They seemed so sad. I also know that despite the lack of bedside manners of the staff this was still where I would take my child if they needed emergency care or hospitalization. They have the brain power and technology...they just tend to lack compassion. The pictures above were taken on the day we were getting released...

I know it was long....thanks for letting me share it with you.