Last night, I had a mommy first. One I had hoped to avoid. I had to take Harper to the ER at 3am. It was probably my most terrifying moment as a mother. True to form, at the time, I handled it all quite well. But since we've been home today, I've had my "aftershocks". Before I tell you what happened, let me begin by telling you that she is sleeping peacefully in her own bed as I type this.
So Saturday, she started a yuck nose. No fever, no change in mood or appetite, just a runny nose. We had a normal Saturday and normal night Saturday. Sunday, went to church and when we picked her up from Waumba Land, we noticed that she had a goopy eye. For some reason, with both kiddos, if they get good and congested, it comes out their eyes. It's not an eye infection, just backed up sinuses. This didn't alarm me, just let me know this was most likely a full-blown cold and I was bummed for her. And, if I'm totally honest, for us. Jason's company is closed for MLK and I had taken a vacation day. We had planned on taking the kids to school and then having a date day. When I saw that eye, I knew she wasn't going to be able to go to school Monday. But still totally just thought it was nothing more than a cold. She wasn't running a fever and ate a full lunch and dinner on Sunday.
Sunday night we doctored her up good before bed and she went down with no problem. Woke up at 10 til midnight coughing pretty good, so we gave her some more medicine. Both Jason and I held her at this time, loved on her a bit, and got her back to bed. I did not take her temperature at this time, but she was not noticeably hot when we held her. Everyone went back to bed, only to be woken up an hour later, right before 1, to a very distraught Harper. I went in to her and she was burning up, I mean burning up. Took her temp and it was over 104. I almost died when I saw that. About 1:30, she threw up. She actually made it to the toilet, I was so impressed.
After she threw up, she seemed to perk up a bit and her fever dropped to a little over 103. I took her downstairs and we bundled up on the couch. She was breathing kind of weird, to me it sounded like how you breathe through pain, so I kept asking her if anything hurt. She said no. But at 2:30, she threw up all over me as she was laying on my chest. Thank goodness we have leather couches! I got in the shower and Jason got her cleaned up. By the time I got myself cleaned up, Jason had her in new jammies and back in her bed and she was fairly calm. It was at this point (around 3ish) that I was debating about whether I needed to take her to the hospital or just sleep in her room to better monitor her. When I went into her room to take her temp again (still 103 but a couple tenths lower), she was talking. At first, I wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying because I was distracted taking her temp. Then I started listening to her. She was hallucinating. Talking about seeing Mickey up on her wall, and it was her game and she was going to open the door. That was it for me. I went and got dressed.
Took her to Emory Johns Creek, which is about 10 minutes away, thankfully. Walked right in and was seen right away by an intake nurse who took her temp and by this time it was down to 101.4 But her pulse was 197!! The nurse said this was due to her really high temp and the cause of her weird breathing. Had to wait a good bit for the ER doctor who was upstairs doing a "procedure", but we were in a room with a TV and she fell asleep for a bit and was mostly settled. She did throw up one more time, but in the sink of the room. She was such a trooper.
Not long after she threw up, the nurse came in and said the doctor had authorized some Motrin and Zofran for her until he could get down to see her. She refused to take the Motrin, but took the Zofran and hasn't thrown up again. Around this same time her fever broke on its own-it was down to 99 by the time we left the hospital around 5:30.
The doctor came in and examined her and said he thought it was likely she had the flu and for me to follow up with her pediatrician. By this time, she had perked up quite a bit and was talking and drinking apple juice-more like her old self. She walked out the hospital under her own steam, clutching her big girl cup of apple juice.
We came home and she didn't want to go back to bed, so I set her up on the couch watching Mickey and she fell asleep in about 15 minutes. I went up to bed at 6:30. When Jason got up not long after that, she was still asleep and slept until 10, when we had to wake her to take her to the doctor.
We kept Garrett home from school in case it was the flu, we certainly didn't want to spread it any more than we already had! So we all loaded up to go to the doctor. By this time, I would say that Harper was 90% back to normal. Still a bit low, but mostly back to normal. They tested her for strep, the flu, and for a urinary tract infection. All negative. Whew! Doctor suspects that she has a viral bug.
The rest of the day has been fairly normal. She and I took a healthy nap on the couch for a couple hours this afternoon. Ate lunch and dinner and went to bed fever-free and calm.
I will be just fine if I never have to do that again. But am so, so happy she doesn't have the flu and that it was fairly short-lived. Doctor said her fever could come back for up to a week, but that she should be done throwing up. Still have a bucket in her room, just in case.
I will write more later on the emotional aspects of the night. God showed me something I want to share with you. But my night of no sleep has caught up with me and I'm headed to bed!
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