I wrote a novel

Where, where, where do I begin? I haven't posted anything because life since Saturday has been H-E-double-chopsticks (as Bart likes to say). That's h-e-l-l if you didn't catch on.
Soooo.....
Saturday was Bart's baptism. I'm going to write about that in a separate post because I feel bad enough that the crap hit the fan on his special day.
After the baptism we visited with Dad & Diane at our place & then I had to cook up some beef stroganoff and hightail it over to Super Saturday for our Valentine dance which we were hosting. Everything was going really well. Then George calls me, acting like a complete butt about when I was going to get home. He really ticked me off because I'm not at Super Saturday just because I love hanging around at teenage dances (I mean, I really do love being around the Youth, but I can think of a thousand other things that I could be doing that are less awkward than a Youth dance). I'm there because it's my church calling & I feel bad enough that I've had to miss some past Super Saturdays due to work and the like. So I was really happy to actually be able to be there and stay for the entire time.
So George calls back, only I didn't hear it ring, so he calls James who tells me George needs me to call him. Long story short, George is kind of freaked out because Lucy's temperature is 103 even having had Motrin all day and she fell asleep on the sofa and is being weird. So I'm pretty worried & we decide I'll take her to the ER (again), so I jet home.
She had been running a fever for several days and I had taken her to see her doctor the day before. It was pretty bad because they ran a whole bunch of tests on her and found that her white blood cell count was high, which indicated some sort of infection. The doctor thought due to the levels it could be either pneumonia or a bladder infection. They did a strep test (two, actually, which really pissed Lucy off), took blood, and (ouch!!!!!!!!) put in a catheter to get a urine sample. She came back negative for everything, but the doctor still felt like he was missing something. One of the first thing he had done was listen to her lungs, but he said they sounded OK. He told us to watch her breathing and to come back ASAP if there was anything amiss. I felt pretty freaked out and went to talk to my manager, who gave me the day off to stay with Lu.
So, back to Saturday.....when I got home, Lucy was awake but very clingy and VERY hot. The fever worried me a little because we were getting 103 with the forehead thermometer. So I took her straight to the ER, not even bothering to change out of my dress and stockings from church. She wouldn't let me put her down once I got home. The only way I convinced her to leave was to tell her we would watch Spongebob in the car.
Skylar came with us to help. We got to the ER and it was PACKED. Everybody and their mama was there. We went right into triage and Lucy had to have a rectal temp taken. She was an old pro at that by this point and didn't offer up too much protest. Her temperature was 103.2. They asked us a bunch of questions, got her weight, the usual. They took her back for chest x-rays which was tricky. She did not like it at all. Then back out the the waiting room where we waited. And waited. It was apparent that Lucy was in no imminent danger, so we weren't first priority. After a little while a nurse came out and gave Lucy Tylenol to get her fever down, telling us that there weren't any beds available, but as soon as one came open, they'd get us back.
Sky fooled around with my phone and snapped a picture of us looking fabulous.

Lucy drinking some apple juice on my lap while we wait.

So we waited some more. James was kind enough to bring Skylar some McDonalds, since she hadn't eaten dinner yet. By this time, Lucy had perked up a little from the Tylenol and ate a couple of fries and drank a little juice. It was just as Skylar was starting to tuck into her dinner that the nurse came to take us back to our room. I don' t know how long we were in the waiting room, but all I can say is thank goodness for my iPhone. It kept us all occupied and kept us from going insane waiting.
The room was usual, although a bit bigger than last time we were in the ER, only a few weeks ago. We were all becoming quite the emergency room conoisseurs. The nurses were wonderful.
We went through the rigamarole of getting an IV in her (I nearly cried when they told me). She hated the last IV, but did marvelously, considering. They had to draw blood twice, what seemed like such an awful lot from such a little girl.
The absolute worst was that they had to try to get a catheter in her. This time, I had to help hold her while two nurses attempted to insert it. I felt so awful. They could not get it in, so they decided to put a urine bag on her. If you've never seen one, it's like this plastic bag with adhesive on the top. You have to stick it you-know-where so when you pee, the bag catches it...at least in theory. Lucy has had it twice by now and both times the adhesive didn't stick well enough and the urine didn't go in. This time, Lucy went poo which made the adhesive come unstuck, so we got a bag full of poo, but no urine. I know, I know TMI. But if you're reading this blog, you probably have or have had kids so it shouldn't be that big of a deal.
After a long time, the doctor ordered antibiotics. They finally arrived and the nurses got them going in Lucy's IV. A nurse brought in a reclining chair for Sky so she could get some sleep, as well as warm blankets and pillows. I lay with Lucy in the bed, holding her. She fought sleep for the longest time and kept trying to pull on her IV whenever it came into her line of sight. Mostly I just tried to keep her arm under the blanket and stroke her hair. Finally, probably about two-thirty, she fell asleep. I had been dozing, too, and thought I should get up. Even though there were rails on the bed, I had this horror of falling asleep and Lucy waking up and tumbling off the bed onto the hard floor.
So I propped Lucy's head up on my sweatshirt and wrapped her blanket around her and went to sit in the other chair for awhile. That's when the doctor came in finally, when I was half asleep and not very coherent. He told me that Lucy did have pneumonia, which surprised me, because I just knew that they were going to send us home without being able to tell us what was wrong with her.
The doctor said she was also dehydrated, which made sense because she had barely had anything to eat in two days and had drunk only a fraction of what she usually drinks.
He gave us a lot of directions, and told me what medications she was going to get. She would have to take antibiotics, alternate Tylenol and Motrin for a couple of days, and have an inhaler and mask and Zofran for nausea, in case she needed it. He said that they didn't need to admit her to the hospital, that these days they were usually able to treat pneumonia in children outpatient, which was fine with me. I couldn't imagine having to keep Lucy in the hospital any longer than we had already.
They kept her awhile longer, and I used the opportunity to text friends and family to let them know the diagnosis. I also snapped these pictures with my iPhone.

Lulu wrapped in her favorite blanket, finally fast asleep.

Skylar was out like a light. I had a hard time waking her up when it was time to go.

I think we finally got home around three-thirty. Lucy went right to bed. She was very grateful for her own bed. Skylar and I had a quick bite to eat - we were starving - and got to bed by four. Like I said, a nightmare.
Lucy slept until about 1pm the next day, thankfully. Skylar and I slept until probably noon. We were all pretty grumpy all day.
Lucy's doing much better. She's not 100% herself yet. She's still really clingy and she didn't want to go to bed the first two nights home. George and I thought she was a little traumatized from the hospital because she only wanted to lie on my lap. Sunday night she didn't go to sleep until after midnight, which meant I didn't either. The next night was a little better. I had to work, so I wasn't there for bedtime, which actually made it a little easier, I think.
Anyway, that was our lovely hospital saga. Hopefully Lucy has gotten her fill of hospitals for quite awhile.

THE END