If I never saw anymore puke or poop for the rest of my life, I would definitely be ok with that.
Sunday night (the 5th) Fiona started throwing up. As you know, throwing up happens alot here. But this throwing up was different. Usually she throws up mostly when she coughs or gags on something. This time she was just throwing up out of no where. I finally got her to go to sleep around 11 pm. She woke up at midnight and threw up all over herself and we had to change her trach. I got her back to sleep only for her to wake up again at 2:30, once again puking, and we had to change her trach ties. The rest of the night is a blur. I have no idea if I even slept at all or how many more times she threw up.
Of course Tom had to go to work for a couple hours on Monday. But the throwing up continued. By this time I was getting worried because she wasn't keeping ANYTHING down, not even Pedialyte. So when Tom got home we took her to the ER. She was just about at the point of dehydration. They started an IV (which is a whole other story- our local ER is awful at getting an IV in her. I had to hold her on my lap in a bear hug while Tom held her legs down. They tried once in her hand and I told the nurse she had to stop because she was poking around), did lots of blood work, a chest x-ray, and a belly x-ray. They started fluids and were thinking about doing a cat-scan of her belly. Apparently the radiologist saw something that he wanted a closer look at. Luckily they decided not to do it because they were going to have to sedate her for it. We had an AWESOME doctor (which doesn't happen much there) and he was trying to get her admitted to our hospital just for observation overnight. But they won't even think about it because of her vent. So then he was debating whether to send us home or to Pittsburgh. Luckily he just sent us home. So after 6 hours in the ER and some fluids she seemed much better and we assumed that we were just dealing with a stomach bug.
We got home around 8 pm. Very shortly after that the diarrhea started. The first couple times we thought it was either just the bug or from the fluids. By this point ALL she wanted to do was drink. Which is unusual for her because she really doesn't drink that much during the day. We gave her a bath because her little bum was getting so sore from pooping so much. She even took her cup in the bathtub with her. She would not let that thing out of her sight. But as fast as she was drinking, she was just pooping it back out. I was changing her diaper about every 10-15 minutes.
I got her to fall asleep around midnight, but she woke up at 1 am screaming because she wanted a drink. She then started to throw up again. But if you took the cup away from her she would scream like I have never heard her scream before. I had never seen her like that. Her face was pale, her eyes were dark, and the rest of her body was blotchy. Her hands and feet were cold, she was screaming, and her whole body was shaking. We took her to the ER again around 2 am. We actually packed our stuff for Pittsburgh because we thought for sure that they would be sending us this time. But he didn't really do anything. Just told us to only give her little amounts to drink because she was drinking too fast and her stomach was too full and that's why she was throwing it back up. We were back home by about 4:30 and then it was time to try to get some sleep (yeah right!). This part is kind of a blur too. I have no idea if I slept or how many poopy diapers I changed. She was actually pooping in her sleep and didn't even know it.
Around 11 am I got a call from our ER that they were rechecking her x-rays and they thought that her liver might be enlarged. I called her surgeon and they called me back and said he wasn't so concerned about her liver, but he wanted to make sure she didn't have an obstruction somewhere in her intestines. So we packed up all the rest of the stuff we needed and headed to Pittsburgh.
We got to Pittsburgh around 4:30. They started her on IV fluids, did more blood work, cathed her for a urine test, tested her poop, and did more x-rays. She was still pooping SO much and her poor little butt was so red that it started bleeding a little while we were there.
We finally got into a room in the PICU around 8 pm. She has to go straight to the PICU, even if she isn't that sick, because of the vent at night. She is already so terrified by doctors and nurses and to make things worse she was in isolation because of them thinking she had c. diff. This meant that everyone that came in her room had to put a gown, mask, and gloves on. What 2 year old wouldn't be afraid of that? The poor thing was so exhausted, but I swear every time I got her to fall alseep someone would come in a wake her up. They have to do vitals every 2 hours in the PICU and that doesn't include the respiratory therapist or doctors checking on her. No one really got any sleep that night.
We finally got into a room in the PICU around 8 pm. She has to go straight to the PICU, even if she isn't that sick, because of the vent at night. She is already so terrified by doctors and nurses and to make things worse she was in isolation because of them thinking she had c. diff. This meant that everyone that came in her room had to put a gown, mask, and gloves on. What 2 year old wouldn't be afraid of that? The poor thing was so exhausted, but I swear every time I got her to fall alseep someone would come in a wake her up. They have to do vitals every 2 hours in the PICU and that doesn't include the respiratory therapist or doctors checking on her. No one really got any sleep that night.And then they ordered blood work for 6 am. And guess what? Her IV wouldn't draw back so they had to poke her again to get the blood.
I can't even put into words what it's like to hold down your baby girl while she is screaming "Mama up, mama help, MAMA PLEASE" while you are saying "It's ok, it's ok" knowing damn well that it's not ok and you want to cry right along with her. (And then multiply that by about 20 times just this hospital stay)
And of course as soon as I got her back to sleep her nurse came in to do vitals and woke her back up. I know that they need to do vitals, but how is a kid supposed to get any better if they won't let them sleep? The rest of the day was pretty awful. It is pretty hard to keep a 2 year old entertained in a hospital bed. She couldn't even stand up because her IV was in her foot. She was pretty mad about that. And to top it off, Tom was sick. Tom hardly ever gets sick, but he couldn't even move off the couch. So if it wasn't already hard enough, it was like I was there by myself, BUT I also had to take care of him. At some point during the day we found out for sure that she did have c. diff-
Clostridium difficile (klos-TRID-e-uhm dif-uh-SEEL), often called C. difficile or C. diff, is a bacterium that can cause symptoms ranging from diarrhea to life-threatening inflammation of the colon. Illness from C. difficile most commonly affects older adults in hospitals or in long term care facilities and typically occurs after use of antibiotic medications.
In recent years, C. difficile infections have become more frequent, more severe and more difficult to treat. Each year, tens of thousands of people in the United States get sick from C. difficile, including some otherwise healthy people who aren't hospitalized or taking antibiotics.
We had to start giving her a medicine called Flagyl. We already have a hard time giving her meds because of her eating/gagging/throwing up issues. She was not happy and fought us as hard as she could, threw up, and fought us some more.
(This was one of the happier times during the day!)
She did really good during the night so they stopped her fluids in the morning and then decided that she could come home on Friday afternoon. For some reason this was one of the worst hospital stays we have had. She was miserable and Tom and I weren't much better. I think alot of it had to do with not getting any sleep. Tom and I had to sleep in her room both nights switching between the couch that turns into a "bed" and the "recliner".
She is still pooping like crazy. And our biggest problem has been getting her to take her medicine. I actually tasted it to see why she was gagging and it is seriously the worst thing I have ever tasted in my life! Even I gagged on it! And we have to give it to her 3 times a day. We had a couple tricks that worked at the beginning like putting it in pop or giving her ice cream to get her to open her mouth and in between squirts, but those only lasted so long because she is one smart girl! I posted a couple different places online looking for suggestions or tips, but nothing seems to work. Our "trick" that has been working since last night is to use the tiny little syringes and almost stick it down her throat. That way none of the medicine touches her tongue. It still sucks, but she hasn't thrown it back up that way.
She seems to be doing much better, despite the pooping. She is back to playing and being her crazy little self! It's so good to see her smiling again!
So there you have it- a week in the life of a medically complex kid with c. diff!
This was Fiona's first outfit, but I didn't get a picture BEFORE she threw up on herself haha!