Thursday, December 27, 2007

poor sick little baby



So apparently--when you have a newborn ( under 2 months of age) and they get a fever, you are suppose to rush them into the emergency room.
Lucille got a fever yesterday when we came home from the store. I pulled her out of her carseat and she was hot. so i called the pediatrician, and he told me that its quite serious when newborns get fevers. i told him that Ezra had just recently got a fever followed by a cold. But he still said that i have to take her in to the ER if her temp was more than 100.4. her temp was not quite that, so i watched it all night, finally at six am , after no sleep all night, an irritable baby, i decided to take her temp again, and it was 101.
so i got up , got dressed and took her in. the hospital staff told me i did the right thing.
but i was not very happy that i rushed her in when it took them four tries to get an IV placed------and then they said she had to have a spinal tap!!! i was not happy about that at all. i know they were just trying to rule out menengitis, but i told them that if at all possible, i did not want that test.
its funny because when you tell the people in the hospital that your daughter previously had leukemia, they are much more sympathetic about not putting you as a parent through any more needless or traumatizing tests.
and its not like i wouldnt have let them do a spinal tap if there were enough legitimate reasons to. but i find it ridiculous to do needless tests.
Lucille was so traumatized by the needles that had four times been unsuccessful. it was really stressful for her and for me.
but her fever went down and the ER reluctantly let us go home. ( we are still waiting for the blood test results.---but over all she is still feisty and eating well---so they are not that worried. )
the moral of the story is, dont let your newborn get a fever.
i feel like its my fault. i have let kids hold her, and my kids have been around her kissing her on her face and such.
im going to be a little more protective from now on.

4 comments:

Natalie Hall said...

Jill I am so sorry.
It is the worst, sitting there with a sick baby, wondering at what point you go to the dr, or not. If anyone has been through the worst of worst, that would be you. Hang in there, I sure hope she is feeling better.

kateworthi said...

Seriously, I think when you have other kids it's kind of unavoidable. Spence got a fever when he was that age. I just so happened to be going to my doctor that day for some sort of check-up, and he said I should go to the ER if I was worried. I figured he'd be okay - I didn't want to go. I think there's something about those words 'spinal tap' that really send you into a panic. I wanted to avoid it at all costs - and I haven't even been through it like you guys have. I'm so sorry. I hope she gets feeling better soon.

Hillarys little Paynes said...

hey jill, congrats on lucille, im so sorry your having to deal with sick kids, i really hope she gets better fast! lucille is such a cutey. Three kids really is a fiasco. I really feel the hardest part is going out of the house, i just dont have enough hands, or space in a shopping cart. And my kids are close in age too, i dont think quite as close as ezra and lucille but im not sure. Jack is three soon to be 4, tyler just turned 2. its good to hear from you, i wish we saw you more often, take care and I hope she gets better soon.

Anonymous said...

she just needs a good fed of c-m I will gladly provide mine