There's Nothing Like Spending Thanksgiving in the Hospital to Remind You of What You're Thankful For

As I mentioned in my previous post, Trout had developed pneumonia and started antibiotics for that on Monday. We had figured that she'd be on them for 24 hours and be visibly better, just like Little Man did, but it was not to be. She continued to run fevers. Wednesday her temp dropped to about 101 during the day, so I figured it was a downward trend and didn't call the doctor. Big mistake. She spiked back up over 103 that night, and was still 103.3 when I called the on-call pediatrician Thursday morning, and he sent us to the hospital.

Our hospital has a separate pediatric emergency department, so we had no wait at all, and within 30 minutes we had the chest x-ray the doctor ordered. The doctor came into our room, kinda leaned up against the wall, shook his head at me, and said "She's going to be here for a few days - she needs IV antibiotics."

So upstairs we went, where she received huge doses of IV antibiotics, plus oral antibiotics, plus fluids, plus a lot of really, really crappy food. Seriously, you'd think it'd be impossible to mess up a pb&j, but you'd be wrong. BigDaddyFish brought over a care package of pb&j sandwiches for her and honey baked ham on rolls for me so we'd make it through. My sister-in-law came with her daughters so we had a bit of visiting time, and they brought presents that Trout loved. It really helped pass the time.

 

It was hard. The pullout chair that the parents sleep on is an instrument of torture - my back may take a week to recover. BDF says it's really ridiculous they don't just make bigger, double size beds because you know the parents would rather sleep with the kids, and more than a few kids would like their parents that close, too. You can never sleep in a hospital, there's always something beeping or someone coming into the room to take measurements or too much light. Or, in this case, someone vomiting quite loudly in the next room, or a neurosurgery patient whose brain was rather vociferously not reacting well to his surgery. And still the doctor seemed not to understand why we were champing at the bit to get out of there.

As a result of our blessedly short stay at the hospital, here's a list of things for which I am thankful:

• I am thankful that there are hospitals with full-time staff to help people who are sick on holidays
• I am grateful for my Kindle, loaded with The Princess Bride, which I read aloud to Trout and which I enjoyed as much as she
• I am thankful for hot tea
• I am thankful for the overall general health of my kids and husband, despite our trials of late
• I am thankful for my bed
• I am thankful for five year old boys who come into my bed in the middle of the night and kick me all night
• I am thankful that the problems my kids have are relatively minor in the overall scheme of things
• I am thankful for good food and clean water and hot showers

I am also thankful for each of you who spends the time reading about my crazy family. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Oh, sure, it looks like an innocent chair, but I tell you, torture device.

 

 

Comments

[jodifur]

Oh, I hope she is ok and you are ok, and Happy Thanksgiving. Please let me know if you guys need anything.

[hokgardner]

I am so glad you are both home in your own beds now. And the last time I was in the hospital with Ella, I gave up on the pull-out "bed" and just climbed in with her.