It's been a rough couple of days for Alison. She started throwing up Friday night, eventually getting to the point where it happened every half hour like clockwork. I called the ped and he said to take her to the ER. By the time I talked to him, she had finally gone to sleep and it had been more than an hour since the last time she threw up, so we thought it might be done. Unfortunately, she woke up and threw up about 20 minutes later, so we packed her, her blanket, and a puke bucket into the car and off we went. She was puking her guts out on the way to the ER but was still able to get excited about passing the building where she goes to PT. One would have thought that by this point in the year this nasty virus (I was almost positive that's what it was....not a shunt problem) wouldn't be hanging around, but apparently that is not the case. The people who came in to the ER behind us were there with the same symptoms.

We got taken to a room fairly quickly and waited to be seen. Alison threw up a few more times while we were waiting. She was begging us for something to drink but she couldn't keep anything down. The doctor finally came in and checked her out, agreed that it didn't appear to be a shunt problem and was probably the gastrointestinal crud that had been making the rounds. He gave us a script for an anti-nausea suppository and had the nurse give her one while we were there. I don't know if it had time to work completely or not because she pooped it out about 10 minutes later. She also threw up twice on the way home. We were discharged with the instructions to keep her on clear liquids and if she had not improved by Sunday to bring her back to the ER. Thank goodness Walgreens pharmacy is open 24 hours so we were able to get the script filled on the way home and not have to worry about it later in the morning and we were able to pick up some Pedialyte. She (and we) were able to get some much needed sleep once we did get home.

The suppositories must have been working because she started improving on Saturday. She hated the straight pedialyte, she didn't care for the jello we made for her, and she didn't like the pedialyte popsicles either. We could get her to drink some Kool-aid, so we went with that. She perked up quite a bit in the afternoon, but threw up a couple of times before she went to bed. Still, she was able to get a half-way decent night's sleep.

All was not well Sunday morning, though. After throwing up for the third time in 45 minutes, we threw on some clothes and headed back to the ER. We were taken back to a room almost immediately and finally saw a doctor about 45 mintues later. When we did see him, he told us that he had just come on duty at 10:00 and Alison was the 4th patient he'd seen with the same symptoms. He ordered some blood work, and since Alison was pretty dehydrated he also ordered an IV to try and "top her off" a little bit. Unfortunately, because she was so dehydrated it was nearly impossible to get the IV started and they ended up having to stick her finger to draw her blood because they couldn't get a vein. It was agony for her. I will have to remember, should this ever happen again, to demand they use a numbing agent before digging around in her arms with needles. After the trauma was over, Alison went to sleep, and slept for most of the rest of the time we were in the ER. At one point, the nurse came to check her blood sugar. Who would have ever thought we would have been happy that Alison has no feeling in her right foot? The nurse was able to stick her toe and she never even knew anything happened...she slept right through it. Once Alison's bloodwork came back it was apparent that she was going to need more than a few hours with an IV to get her leveled back out, so the decision was made to admit her. Her ped was on call that weekend, so he came over to see her before we left for our room.

We got all settled in our room. They had actually set it up for her to be sleeping a regular bed instead of a crib, but since we were alone in the room, we were able to put her in the crib anyway (and I got to sleep in the regular bed instead of the pull out bed!). The fluids helped tremendously because Alison perked up towards the evening. By the next morning, she was starting to eat again. While I was away at an appointment of my own, and Kevin was staying with her, the ped came by and said she could be discharged. Unfortunately, he didn't write it down in his notes, so they had no record of it at the nurses station so we had to wait for the doctor on call to come back and discharge her. That was supposed to happen by lunch time. Well, it didn't. Alison ate her lunch and I kept her up for a while, thinking the doc would be there any time, but when it became apparent that she wasn't coming any time soon, Alison went ahead and took a nap. So of course she was sleeping when the doc came to see her. And the doc had the nerve to say that she seemed cranky. Well, wouldn't you be cranky if someone came in and started poking and prodding at you while you were sleeping? The last thing she said to me was that "we'd see" if Alison was going to go home or not. I was livid. She apparently ordered more bloodwork because the next thing I knew a phlebotomist arrived to stick Alison. She ended up having to stick her finger because she couldn't get a vein. Alison was so upset that she ended up making herself sick. Just what I wanted to have to do....go out and report to the nurse, in front of the doc that I wanted to let her go home, that Alison had just thrown up again. After that, Alison didn't want anyone who remotely looked like medical personnel to come near her. I promised her that she was done having blood drawn. Big mistake. In came another phlebotomist to get more blood becasue they couldn’t run something they needed run. Luckily, we were saved by the nurse, who went to call and see if it was really necessary and came back with the news that we could go home. No more pokes!

This morning, Alison started throwing up again. So I put a call in to the ped. I still couldn’t get her to drink any Pedialyte, so she was drinking plain water. I learned something new from the nurse today....plain water will not stay down on an empty upset stomach. Since she didn’t have any diahrrea, I got the go ahead to mix some Pedialyte with some juice, got her to drink it, and it stayed down. I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. We go back to see the ped for a follow-up on Thursday.