Back To The Hospital

We have had a lot going on this week. I am glad I have this blog so in addition to connecting with other bloggers, I have a way to keep friends and family up to date with what is going on.

Last weekend Lauren had a fever. I took her to urgent care. They sent us right to the ER. At the ER they did all kinds of tests. The kept us in the room with her for everything except the lumbar puncture (also known as a spinal tap). It was really hard for my husband and me to stay in the waiting room while they did this.

Once they were done, the doctor came and got us. She looked upset. Apparently they could not get what they needed from the spinal tap. They decided to call in another doctor to try it. While I was not happy that they had to do it again, I understand that sometimes things do not work as planned and I am glad they were honest with us.

We had to leave the room again for the second attempt. It felt like it took longer. Luckily it worked that time. They then took a bunch of blood, put in an IV, and admitted us to the hospital.

The first night was rough. She obviously did not feel good and made sure everyone knew that. The next day my mom called me to let me know Luke (her twin) now had a fever. I knew the drill. She took him to the ER. While there, I got a nurse to watch Lauren and went down to take care of Luke while he was in the ER.

They did all the same stuff to Luke that they did to Lauren. Luckily, they only had to do one spinal tap as it worked the first time. This doctor did not make me leave the room. I am glad. While a spinal tap is no fun, it was worse in my mind.

The hardest part about his time in the ER was when they had to put in his catheter for a urine sample. While they did it, he looked right at me. I have never seen him in so much pain and it broke my heart. I would have done anything to make the pain go away. It was really hard not to fall apart.

Unfortunately they could not get what they needed from his catheter. Before they did it again they went ahead and got his blood drawn and IV put in. The second time they did it, I held his hand and put my face on his cheek so neither one of us would have to see what they were doing.

After they finished all the tests, they admitted him. He had to stay in a different room than his sister but luckily they were able to stay in rooms next to each other. Having them both there was still difficult. They were both supposed to have an adult in their room at all times. Unfortunately I have not yet figured out how to be in two places at once. Thankfully my parents were there to help.

While in the hospital, I found out that while doctors and nurses are great, you really have to advocate for your kid(s). For example, one night Luke was screaming his head off and obviously felt like crap. He is normally a very quiet baby and I could tell he was miserable. They did not want to give him Tylenol because they do not like to give it for fevers under 102.1. His was 101.8.

If they knew him like I did they could see he needed it. I decided to open his door and keep it open so everyone could hear him scream. Within a few minutes they decided to make an exception and he got some Tylenol, which did help him feel better.

I also found out that hospitals like to assume worst case scenario for pretty much everything. One day a doctor listened to Luke’s heart and heard a murmur. Prior to this I have not worried about their hearts. When I was pregnant I had a very detailed fetal echo on both (they do that for all IVF pregnancies) and all was normal. Also, as far as I know, he has not shown any other symptoms of heart issues, although I acknowledge I am not a medical doctor so I may not know what I am looking for.

Anyway, they decided he needed an echo cardiogram. This was scary. The tech took forever. When I asked her if it looked okay, she told me that she couldn’t say anything and that the pediatric cardiologist would look at the test and come talk to me that day. I worried about it all day but the cardiologist never came. That evening I asked one of the nurses about it. She pulled up the record and said that the cardiologist noted that everything was normal. I do not know why they never told me.

Today we finally all got to go home. It has been a long week. I hope we never have to go back. Here is a picture of them before all of this happened. It’s nice to see at least one of them smiling, especially since I watched them be miserable for the last week. I am still trying to get a picture of both of them smiling at the same time (hopefully that will happen soon). Today they are 12 weeks (6 adjusted) and were about 10 weeks ( 4 adjusted) in the picture.

Some people who saw pictures from my last post actually emailed me to ask if he has been evaluated for torticollis. He has and does have it. It’s likely from being breech. We are working on treating it and it should get better. He also may end up with a cranial cap. We were supposed to get that checked out this week but rescheduled it for next week.

I hope everyone had a less stressful week! Hopefully things will calm down for us and we can get back into our routine. – Jennie