Hospital visits with child (focus on dehydration)

Little Hospital Gown -- am I sick for thinking
this was too cute to not take a picture?

The saga continues ...

I generally don't like to post photos of myself or my child with our faces on this blog. However, I just had to this time to illustrate a point. Plus, it took forever to get them emailed from my phone to my account! Karma, don't bite me in the butt for this one! ... on second thought ... yes, I'm using the cheesy black bars.

Went to the doctor's office today because Monkey hasn't been peeing that much. They confirmed that he was dehydrated and needed to go to the hospital. So off we went.

Here are some things to remember when you go to the ER with your little one (some just apply if your child is dehydrated):

• Just because you are wheeling a stroller, doesn't mean the person that pulled into the parking lot at the same time you did will not race you to the counter to fill out the admission form first. We were called in first anyway! HA HA, woman with bad roots and unreadable poorly done shoulder tattoo!! (I get catty when anxious.)



• Do NOT sit any where near anyone else, especially their kids, unless you have no choice -- REGARDLESS if it's the last seat with a view of the waiting room television (my mistake). Inevitably, their kid will cough without their hand in front of their mouth about 2 feet from your child's face and/or stroller.



• DO bring plenty of toys and other supplies to the hospital to entertain and take care of your little one. I recommend cloth books and little toys if your child is an infant/toddler and going in for dehydration (see why later). For some reason, I actually had the sense to stop by the house and pick up a few more of these items prior to heading to the hospital. If your child uses a pacifier, bring a couple because they aim for the dirty floor where hundreds of sick people have tread. You'll thank yourself later.



• Bring pen and paper. Don't rely on the discharge instructions being as specific as what the doctor and multiple nurses will tell you (hence leading to confusion and memory loss when you arrive home and are trying to figure out what to do in order to prevent your child from going back to the hospital). I did not do this. And I SHOULD KNOW BETTER! My memory is crap!



• Take your stroller and/or car seat. Skip the car seat if your stroller reclines for baby to sleep. Consider it an extra set of hands and an absolute MUST if you and the babe are on your own for whatever reason. Thank goodness I thought of this! I surely would have been suffering greatly if I hadn't.



• If your hospital has them, ask if they have a room with a pediatric gurney available. I didn't realize they even existed and the kind nurses put me in a room with one this time (they didn't when we took him to the hospital at 4 months). It really helps to have at least a 2X3 foot area where you can block your mobile 7-month old (probably not needed for a 3-4 month old since they're not extremely mobile).



• I didn't have to do it this time but I've been in situations where I'd wished I had asked the nurse when we would be receiving our discharge papers the MOMENT treatment by the doctor was finished. The nurses this time just brought them in RIGHT WHEN Monkey was finishing his last IV treatment! It was AWESOME!




Monkey before the IV drip -- lethargic.



These tips are for strictly if your child is going in for dehydration



• Realize that they are most likely going to give them fluids intravenously and prepare mentally for that. That means the nurses will have to find a tiny little vine in a tiny little dehydrated body (can't be easy). This might take, oh I don't know, 1 ... 2 ... 3 tries (in our case it was 3). Then your child's arm will be placed on a soft splint and wrapped with that self-adhesive bandage stuff. This is primarily so your child will not chew and/or yank out the intravenous drip. But if they are dehydrated, they will not be too interested in it but still mildly amused (more to come on this).



• First they will take blood to evaluate the level of dehydration and then put a drip on while they wait for the results. Theory is a little more fluid couldn't hurt if they are only a little dehydrated.



• Depending on how dehydrated your child is, they will administer various amounts of fluid. If it is really severe and the kidneys have shut down due to the lack of hydration, your child will be staying overnight. Luckily, we were not in this predicament.



• For each bolus administered (HA HA -- remembered that medical term!), you will need to wait approximately 40-60 minutes. We needed two; the first took 60 minutes, the second they sped up to 40 minutes.



• I'm guessing it depends on the severity of the dehydration in your child, but at some point it's going to start working. And when I say "start working", I mean your little bundle of joy will become just that -- a little bundle of joy who now has complete interest and strong intent on yanking that tube, chewing on the ace bandage thingy, getting angry because they can't manuever with the splinted arm. This is also where the cloth books, small toys and pediatric gurney come in handy.




Monkey AFTER the IV drip -- bundle of joy.


• Ask for SPECIFIC feeding and changing instructions from your doctor. This is where that pen and paper will come into play. I got two different directions from the discharging nurse and the doctor. It seemed like I could play it down the middle. That is, until I got home and DH started finding holes in that theory, then when my memory failed me on what else was said and the discharge instructions didn't clear things up for us, we had to make not one, but two phone calls back to the ER to clarify. (DH is always getting onto me for not drilling the doctors like I'm in the army. I'm just not good at thinking of the follow up questions like he is. Or retaining pretty much anything but the basics.)

The local hospital here has been really great during the 4 times we've been to it in the past 7 months (once for Monkey's birth, twice for Monkey's health (this time and the time he fell out of his swing -- uh yeah, won't go into that one) and once for myself because I cut my hand while opening a new toy for Monkey (it was apparently mommy-proof packaging). The nurses and doctor were very nice and reassured me putting Monkey through that was the right thing to do. Which is EXACTLY what I needed to hear.

Overall, I think it was a positive experience and that I did a GREAT job taking Monkey to the hospital by myself. Yes, blatant pat on the back -- YAY ME! This wasn't the first time but the last time didn't involve multiple tries for a vein and I'm surprised that I didn't shed one tear or get majorly worked up in anyway. YES, dear, I will work on my interrogation skills with the doctors and nurses and this time, bring a pen and some paper. OR better yet! Maybe I'll buy one of those recorder things from that commercial! You know the one! Where the lady tells it her parking spot number and then joyfully plays it back ... again... and again ... and again.

Correction: We've been to the hospital FIVE times in the past 7 months. I forgot about the time when Monkey was only a week old and we were both nervous new parents who couldn't understand why he would cry for 4 hours straight and spit up everything he ate. Can anyone say GERD?