Our Baby Girl in the Emergency Room

Here is the beginning of a big catch up session. Sorry it has been so long.

S came down with a mysterious illness, causing stomach pain and a fever of 105. She had been suffering with a mild tummy ache (a poorly tummy-said my little brit.) for almost two weeks. I thought it was constipation and nerves from school. (She cried everyday of her third week of school. She left school happy at the end of the day however.) Then three weekends ago, it really became sore. Monday night her temperature hit 105. We brought her into the ER Tuesday am. I was there with both kids for 7 hours. VW came back and forth. He had some important work stuff that day and all we did was wait anyway. We saw 4 or 5 nurses and 4 or 5 different nurse practitioners and I think one doctor. We left without a real explanation. She continued to have an up and down fever 101-104 until Tuesday afternoon, when I took her in again. She was in terrible stomach pain and we worried about appendicitis. VW’s burst when he was her age. (By this time, my parents had arrived for a planned visit and kept X home with them, thank goodness. More on my parents later.) Finally, we saw a doctor. He determined she had an infection that was swelling the glands in her stomach. Within two days of starting penicillin she was on the mend. I bet she lost 3 pounds, she was so thin! It was only her second time on antibiotics in her life.

Everyone was so nice and helpful, but I wouldn’t trade the US healthcare system for anything. Also, I thought it was interesting that no one had heard of Tylenol.