ER Trip(s)

Last night at 5 pm, I woke Aubrey up so we could go get Dane at school. She had a raging fever (103.9 -- her whole body felt so hot) and terrible pains in her "waist". She had gone to sleep next to me an hour earlier saying her waist hurt then too, but as I massaged her a little, she fell asleep. When she woke, though, it had all escalated so quickly I thought something serious might be up. I quickly got a ride home from school arranged for Dane and hauled Aubrey to the ER.

We spent 5 hours there, ultimately getting an ultrasound to check for appendicitis and kidney infection. They sort of ruled out appendicitis after the ultrasound (but not fully -- I was supposed to keep monitoring her for symptoms like increased "waist" pain, nausea, vomiting, headache, more fever, etc.); her urine tested positive for kidney infection, and her blood test showed her white blood count up. They also found enlarged lymph nodes in her belly -- all of these things a possible reaction to the antibiotics she was on last week for Strep Throat (and a medical condition often confused with appendicitis).

They gave her a shunt early on and ended the visit with an IV drip of antibiotics. The shunt was the worst part for Aubrey. She cried in anguish -- and that's no understatement. She's usually good about shots and stuff but this was too painful for her (and scary looking, even though she tried to look at me while they inserted it and they covered it for her with gauze afterward). She kept saying it felt like it was on fire, and it was in her arm for 3 hours.

We eventually got to come home around 10 with Mick (he showed up about 8) with a prescription for antibiotics for kidney infection and instructions to come back if any symptoms increased.

She woke up at 3 then with a terrible headache, a fever that wouldn't come down with fever-reducer, nausea, and more pain in her right side. So, I decided at 4am to take her to the ER again. When we got there, she realized it was the ER and not just the doctor's office and she broke down begging me not to take her in because she didn't want another shunt. After lots of conversation, we decided to go in and tell them we wanted to avoid another shunt, if possible, but we understood they could help us. (The nurses earlier had been so proud of her -- they said she was "agreeable" even though she had to get the shunt and a suppository, which she later said wasn't that bad because it "wasn't a shunt and it felt cold and slippery like an ice cube.")

The doctor checked again to make sure there weren't signs of appendicitis and he thought she was okay to come back home with Motrin and Tylenol switched off every 3 hours to relieve the pain and reduce the fever. We got back at 5am and she slept soundly then, until just now (10 am). She's in good spirits, taking a much-needed bath and eating a popsicle.