Well... we're home!

My Mushka ran 3 fevers recently-the week before thanksgiving when ODD also ran a fever, the next week on thanksgiving itself, and this past Sunday-Monday. The first and second times, I chalked it up to ODD/teething/what have you. The fevers got high but were gone within 36-48 hours. Same thing this week, the third time, but I decided it was time to take a trip to the doctor. On Monday morning her fever got up to 103.6 F.

So we get an appointment Monday afternoon, go in, they do a finger prick and draw blood. The nurse comes back in, says 'We didn't take enough' (mind you, they took 3 of those tiny plastic tubes). So they prick her again, take 2 more tubes, do a flu swab. The doctor comes back in a few minutes later, says 'Her iron is very low, but we're not sure if it's our machine or her, so take her to the ER and get the results double checked.'

Ok, so dumb me, not thinking anything about it, we head to the hospital (same hospital that they were born in, first time going there since taking them home from the NICU. A very strange and slightly traumatizing drive.) Anyways, we get there, get taken in, they get in a line and draw tubes and tubes of blood while another nurse and I hold her down for 45 minutes. Next thing I know, the ER doctor comes in to tell me that she is going to be admitted for a blood transfusion because her iron levels are dangerously low.

The shift changes, another nurse comes in, looks at the IV line, says it's no good and we need a new one. Repeat the process of holding her down for 45 minutes, till they get the line in, draw MORE blood. It was horrible. By now it's 830 pm and I haven't been home since 2 pm, DH put the kids to sleep but then he had to leave because he teaches a class Monday nights and it was too late to cancel, so there is a babysitter at our house. A good family friend of ours came at around 9 to stay with Mushka so I could go home and get some food and other necessities for the night, nurse Chana'le and come back. By the time I leave the hospital and get home, it's close to 10, DH is home. I take a quick shower, feed Chan, pump, pack up some stuff, and leave to get some food. While I'm getting the food, my friend calls and I hear Mushka crying in the background, so I hightail it back the hospital.

(It was a drive from hell-I had to get gas because I took DH's car so he could have the van with the carseats, and his car had no gas left. Then the on-ramp to the highway was closed bc of construction, so I had to go in the wrong direction for a couple of miles, get off, turn around and go back. All I could think about the whole time was my baby screaming )

So I finally make it to the hospital at around 11:30, she got a bed in PICU and is upstairs (literally a ten minute walk from where I parked). I get up there and there are 3 people holding her down because her line came out and she is screaming, but she is also getting dehydrated and her blood pressure is really low, so they have to do it now. They got a NICU team to come put in the line because her veins are so tiny. I tell them to stop and hold her for a few minutes to calm her down, then they do it again and finally get a line in her scalp.

My friend tells me after that the line they got in the ER popped out by itself, blood spurting everywhere etc, the nurses spent another freaking 45 minutes holding her down and sticking her trying to get a line till my friend told them enough and made them stop. My friend said that she was almost on the floor watching all this and thank G-d I wasn't there or I would have freaked.

So they start the transfusion, give a round of antibiotics, a round of regular IV drip. She spiked a fever around 430 am, back up to 103.7, but we gave her tylenol and motrin and it went back down thank G-d. The rest of the stay was pretty uneventful, we were there from Monday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon all in all.

The hematologist thinks that she had low iron to begin with, then got sick because of it, which made her iron get lower, then got sick because her iron was low, then her iron got even lower....basically a cycle Thank G-d I brought her into the doctor. She is on abx and iron supplements now, and we have a follow up appointment next week. Plus, I'm getting my other kids tested for low iron too, just to be sure.

Anyways, if you are still reading this crazy long story, thanks. Just had to get all of that out. I'm so thankful it wasn't a hugely serious thing that was making her sick, but it's been a pretty traumatizing 48 hours. Mush is ok now, still a little listless and VERY anxious about being separated from me/strangers approaching her. Chan also has some separation anxiety now . But all in all, we are hanging in here and very thankful it wasn't something more serious.

 

I'm so sorry you and your baby had to go through that. Poor Mushka! One of our twins has had several hospitalizations and IVs/blood draws are the worst. I actually have them do it through her scalp as much as they can since it is much quicker for her than digging around in her arm veins.

Enjoy being back at home. I hope you don't have any more time at the hospital!

 

Oh, Miriam! That sounds absolutely traumatic! I'm so sorry! :grouphug:

 

Oh man, I am so sorry you had to go though such an experience, it sounds scary, poor baby. I hope her iron level stays normal with the suplements and you won't have any other issues related to that. Hang in there! Hugs to you and her!

 

Miriam,

I am so sorry you and Mushka had to go through that. Poor thing. Even without the trauma of getting blood it would have been a scary trip to the hospital, add the trauma.. you must be exhausted. :hug:
I hope she is feeling better soon.

 

:grouphug: Miriam I'm so sorry y'all had to go through all of that! I can't even imagine! !!!!!

 

Miriam,

That is awful. I'm so sorry - it's so hard to see our babies sick.

Is Mushka on liquid iron? That stuff tastes AWFUL. Also, can constipate like no other.

 

Oh no, so sorry! I hope she's back to 100% soon!!!

 

Miriam, I'm so sorry your family had to go through that whole traumatic ordeal! :hug:

 

Thanks everyone. The whole thing seems kind of surreal now, but I am still beyond exhausted and there is not just one, but two freaking mountains of laundry to catch up on.

Tomorrow is the apt to get my other girls checked, I'm really hoping they are both ok. I'm not so sure about Chana'le though. It's weird, because the twins have this THING with eating chalk. Like, when we sit outside with Rivky while she draws with chalk, they search for more chalk in the grass and chew on it. I just thought it was a baby thing. So when I was talking to the resident hematologist the whole thing just clicked and I was like---waaait- anemia...pica...right?? And she was like YES!

I was talking to my friend who came to hospital- she has acute anemia and gets shots for it. She told me she sometimes has this texture craving that no food can fix for her.

Also, in the hospital I remembered taking pictures of the girls when we went to the park back in late August. Mushka came out so white in the photos that she looked like a ghost, but I just thought it was the bright sunlight/over exposure. So I'm kind of wondering how long she has been low on iron for. Now Chan looks a bit pale to me too lol. Guess we will see what happens tomorrow, I will keep you all posted.

 

Yeah, she's on the liquid iron. I tasted it and the aftertaste is horrible, but she gets to chase it down with the abx, which taste a bit better lol. Unfortunately, all of the abx are giving her diarrhea right now but I'm basically shoving probiotics down her throat every chance I get so I hope we will be done with that soon. Then we will probably have to deal with the constipation

 

Oh no! sorry you had to go through all that!

 

I meant to ask you, Miriam, do they know why she has low iron? What caused it? I hope she's feeling better already.

 

Sounds like a crazy experience-so sorry you had to go through that! I hope everything evens out with the iron. Congrats on being home and together again.

 

So--we got my other kids tested today. I think the normal # is 12, Rivky was 10.8 and Chana'le was 11.2. So now I am going to get much much better (read: I didn't give them before at all) about giving vitamins.

Monica, basically (what I understood from the ER doc and the hematologist) the bone marrow stops new cell production when someone is sick, I guess to give all resources to fighting the virus/infection. So the assumption is that she probably had fairly low iron to begin with, which affected her immunity. Then she got sick and her iron got even lower because her cell production stopped, which in turn made her immunity lower, which got her sick again, and then again. Basically a self-destructive cycle to the point where iron got dangerously low (less than half of what is was supposed to be).

In other news, we are pretty sure that Mushka is allergic to Augmentin, because she's had several rounds of it and has broken out in hives all over. We originally thought it was a reaction to the transfusion or a reaction to a new detergent I started using at the beginning of this week, but the pedi decided that it's the augmentin, so she's off of that and now we need to watch for fever. Sigh. I'm so thankful that this was nothing more serious, the nurses kept saying how nice it was to have a healthy baby in the unit. But I'm ready for all the drama to be over lol.