Fight or Flight..

Sophia is sick. She came down with high fevers early Sunday morning combined with vomiting, leading to a limp lethargic little girl. These high fevers continued on into Monday which landed us in the ER for chest X-rays, blood tests, RSV/Influenza test, urinalysis and me spending the day clutching, whispering and kissing my girl. They gave her an IV with two bolus’ of fluids because the blood tests came back showing she was severely dehydrated. Chest X-ray, RSV/Influenza and urinalysis came back negative for any infections. Since she still had a semi-high fever they were giving her Tylenol, they then wanted to try with oral ibuprofen. Which up until this point Sophia had vomited twice (once on Sunday and once on Monday), both times after giving her medications for her fevers. I let the nurses know this and they still wanted to give her some oral medication. They tried giving her this medication, and were unsuccessful. She vomited again, this time it had some dried blood in it. I knew immediately what it was and just about lost it. The thing is, hospitals are always alarming when you’re there for your child–even if you know it’s going to be perfectly alright. It’s a place where all the bumper pads of emotional protection and that-would-never-happen-to-us thoughts are stripped down and what’s left is the raw flesh of what-ifs.

The doctor immediately confirmed there was a little bit of dried blood in her vomit and said that we would need to be transported to Children’s hospital (Que me crying again). He stated that Children’s hospital was better equipped for pediatric cases and would be the best place for Sophia. He then did a few other exams confirming Sophia was not bleeding internally anywhere, and suspected the dried blood was irritation from them swabbing so far up her nose for the RSV/Influenza test or it was irritation in her stomach from two days of no eating with medications being given. 
                                                              
But the other amazement in all of this is the instinctive initiation of the Fight receptors in the sudden surge of Fight-or-Flight that ensues when your baby gets sick or falls. You fight, without even knowing it. You rise to the occasion. You jump in, save them, wipe tears, call doctors, hold compresses, pull yourself together and you fight. As “minor” in the world of parenthood snafus as our trip to the ER was, I couldn’t help but recognize the fight that commences and the calmness that deploys. You just know what to do, you advocate for your child– attentively, fiercely, fully.

After being transported to Children’s hospital with 3 days of observation, it turns out Sophia is ok. Day one and day two she was not completely herself, just wanting to cuddle and sleep with some drinking juice in between thankfully so she didn’t need her IV put back in. By day 3 she was more like herself, walking around wanting to play and color and her fevers had subsided in the middle of the night. We were discharged and she is on the upswing. Her spunk is coming back and she is drinking more. The diagnosis was viral gastroenteritis, and they said  since the little bit of dried blood was a one time occurrence, it was inflammation and irritation from the virus and the medications. Not to worry my girl is perfect and it only happened that once. They sent us home with Prevacid, an antacid for her to help ease her stomach and let things heal, and off we went!

**Update 05.30.11: Once we got home, you could tell Sophia was relieved, as were Nate and I. Her naps were cut shorter (normal naps) and her goofiness is back! By Saturday and Sunday she was literally eating all day, making up for the lack of food during the week. Praise the Lord, we are so happy she is healthy and happy!**