We've Got a Puker

Kate and I were in the ER last night. Uncontrollable, frequent vomiting for hours. I'm really very tired and don't feel like blogging . . . we didn't return home until 12:30am . . . but I feel I should write about it. Really, I feel like I should warn you moms and dads out there in the Atlanta area . . . when you have a sick kid and you are really worried about him/her, go directly to the Emergency Room.

My poor Katy-did is doing much better today . . . but 12 hours ago, she had only finally stopped puking and was just miserable.

The whole ordeal started at 2:30pm when I heard a all-too-familiar coughing sound coming from Kate's room . . . followed by a wail, some crying, and more coughing. I knew before I entered her room what I'd find. What I didn't know was that it would continue in 15-20 minute intervals for the next 90 minutes. By 4:30pm we were at the Children's Hospital Urgent Care Center. Four LONG hours later we were at Scottish Rite, and Kate was still vomiting. Finally at 9:30pm a nurse gave her some anti-vomiting medication . . . and she stopped. We got about 5 oz of gatorade in her over the course of the next hour. By midnight it was determined that it was just a really bad bug, we were given prescriptions to help stop more vomiting should it reoccur, and we were sent home.

All in all, Kate was such a trooper. She sat pathetically in my lap for hours and wretched through each miserable episode. It was terrible. But somehow she and I endured the 7 hours together, and she is OK in the end. (I am too, by the way.) Today she ate some food and drank a lot of pedialyte . . . and now she seems to be resting comfortably in her bed. In the middle of the evening yesterday it felt like she was never going to get better . . . but I think it always feels like that when your child is sick. You want them to be well ASAP because seeing them so ill is pure torture for a parent. They are never well fast enough -- because you never want them to be sick in the first place.

Kate survived. I hope we don't ever have to have another experience like that again. Well, actually, I know we won't. If ever she is that sick again, I won't handle things the same way.

Here is the moral of my story: DO NOT GO TO URGENT CARE. Maybe if your little one has a fever or you just need some after hours antibiotics . . . maybe then it would be OK to go to an Urgent Care facility. But if you have anything else, just go STRAIGHT to the hospital. I'm not kidding.

Our timeline yesterday:

2:30pm -- vomiting begins

4:00pm -- call the pediatrician concerned about the vomiting. they say go to Urgent Care. panic ensues . . . I find someone to watch Meg . . . and Kate and I head to the doctor. (She threw up 3 times on the 20 minute ride, by the way).

4:30pm -- arrive at urgent care. see a triage nurse right away, but nothing is given to Kate to stop the vomiting (regardless of the fact that she vomited at reception AND in the triage room).

8:00pm -- FINALLY SEE A DOCTOR. I kid you not, we waited in that waiting room for THREE + HOURS before they even LOOKED at Kate. The doctor did NOTHING -- just took one look at Kate, watched her vomit green bile, and sent us back in my car down to Scottish Rite.

8:30pm -- arrive at Scottish Rite. Quickly become the squeakiest wheel in the room -- I was on their case every 10 minutes until they got us out of the waiting room. I was NOT going to let Kate continue to puke into a hand towel in yet another waiting room.

9:30pm -- get to a nurse, get meds to help Kate stop vomiting. Finally, after so many pukings that I lost count, she stops (they asked me how many times she'd puked at that point, and I totally went off on them about how looooong we had to wait). Jim arrived at they hospital to be with us at this point -- he had a flight connection in Atlanta that he was able to rearrange and turn into a layover. He met us at SR at 9:30pm, helped with Kate, then flew out again at 7am today. What a man.

10:30pm -- start giving her gatorade, 1 oz at a time

12:00 -- doctor decides that since the meds worked, it was probably just a BAD virus. The pediatrician said some kids can just be more prone to vomiting, and it looks like we might have one of those kids. In essence . . . looks like we've got a puker at the Dahlby house.

Forgive my overuse of capital letters. But when you are writing about the health of your baby, capital letters are in order, I think.

And before you think I'm one of those parents who thinks MY kid is the most important . . . take a step back and realize that I had a 15 month old with continuous and uncontrollable vomiting for SEVEN hours. I'm sorry, but we should have been seen at Urgent Care WAY before the 3 hour mark . . . they saw us puking in the lobby, for pete's sake. They wasted our time. When you have a sick kid -- as sick as Kate was last night -- there is no time to be wasted. I was PISSED when I left there. Beyond pissed.

Anyway -- for those of you reading that live in my area -- please learn from me. At Urgent Care, they really cannot do very much for your child. They will write prescriptions if you just need an antibiotic to get you through the weekend with a sick little one. They can take an x-ray of an injury, but they'll send you to the hospital if there is any treatment needed. They'll let you sit in the lobby for 3 hours and see a doctor, but if your vomiting baby needs fluids, she has to go to the hospital for that. From now on, if my pediatrician is not available or recommends more serious care, we will go directly to Scottish Rite. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

And now that I've issued my public service announcement of the week, I'm going to bed. I'm so very tired. I didn't puke, but the night still took a LOT out of me.