Gemma's latest medical adventure

a couple of weekends past, gemma came down with a fever. she rarely ever has a fever. i think maybe only once or twice in her almost two years, and both were due to shots.

the weekend started with a trip to globe. she played at grandma susan's house with her cousins. later that evening she went to grandma sharon's while linc and i went to a movie. when we came back she was sleeping on the couch (she didn't nap at grandma susan's, too much going on). when she woke up she felt a little warm.

the next day, she was up at her normal time and playing and being her normal self. then she fell asleep in our bed while we were getting ready for a cousin's birthday party. when she woke up she was burning up!

monday lincoln took her to the doctor. we were thinking maybe, just maybe, her teeth were the cause. she has several molars coming in. the dr wanted to do a catheter to test her urine because everything else looked clear. linc refused because he didn't want to put her through that if it was something else. doc said to call if she wasn't feeling better by wednesday.

for the next 2 days her fever would come and go. she would sleep all day. and drink tons of water. and just say owie over and over. she would spit out the motrin. she would even thrown up the water. and my girl loves to eat, but not now, she would barely touch anything we gave her.

i took her in wednesday. just me and the kids. she cried in the waiting room because she wanted to go play but had to stay on the "sick kid" side. she cried when she saw the nurse and really cried when she saw the dr. the whole hernia surgery has really made her afraid.

we had to hold her down to do a catheter. it was traumatizing for all parties involved. even calder. he cries whenever she cries.

the quick test came back with a sign of bacteria in her urine but it would take a few days to get more answers. they gave us an rx for bactrum and said they would call friday with more answers.

gemma hates taking medicine and it was quite a struggle. she would spit it out or get so worked up she would throw it up. a few times in the next couple days i really considered just taking her to urgent care because she just wasn't getting better.

her fever would spike and she would get these horrible chills where her lips would turn purple and body all splotchy and she would be shaking and moaning. it was awful.

friday afternoon i gave her a dose of motrin which she took. by that evening she was eating and playing and laughing. our dr called. he was very concerned and told us we should take her to the er if the fever comes back. having a fever for this long (going on 7 days) is not good for someone so young. i called lincoln and told him to be prepared. we might be going. but by bedtime, the fever had stayed away. she ate dinner, took her medicine. even went to bed in her own room instead of mine.

the hansen family reunion was this weekend. i had already told linc i would stay home with the kids. he was planning on heading up 1st thing in the morning. i asked him to stick around until 11 or so, just to play it safe. i didn't want her fever to spike while it was just me and the kids.

he checked her at midnight and 2am. no fever. for whatever reason, he woke up at 5am and checked her and she was 104 (or higher). plus she had thrown up in her bed.

we quickly got ready, threw together what we could, and checked into the er around 730. she was at 103.

the er nurses at cardons were great. but gemma wasn't having it. they needed to get another urine sample. linc held her down, i held her arms, a nurse had her legs, while another nurse was getting ready to insert the tube. gem peed all over them. it shot out like a boy. she had been chugging lots of water. with some quick thinking on the nurses part, they were able to catch it and use that for the test. saved gem some pain. and gave us all a chuckle in a scary situation.

fortunately calder slept for most of the morning. because we waited and waited. gem was crying for food but the nurses said no. she wouldn't drink her juice or water. they had hooked her up to an iv so she was pretty mad.

the dr came in and said he was trying to get the lab results from our dr to see what type of bacteria she had. he said she could eat but no one ever came by with a food menu. linc snuck down to the cafeteria (we all were starving and thirsty) after several hours and gem had just a few bites and was her silly self.

it turned out the bacteria she had just happened to be resistant to the antibiotics she was given. she would have to be admitted and would have to stay until she had no fever for 24 hours.

we waited for hours for a room. all exhausted and starving. i had only brought a few bottles of milk for calder. my pump was in the car. i could nurse him if it came to that, but like i've said before, easier said then done.

finally in the afternoon, we are able to go to our room. then a nurse tells me that calder isn't allowed to stay over so i would have to leave around 8-9 with him. i was devastated. i didn't want to leave either of my babies.

they took linc and gem down for an ultrasound of her kidneys to make sure the infection hadn't spread. linc had to hold her down for the entire 25 minute procedure.

my mom came down saturday night to take calder for me. sunday gem looked great. the dr said as long as no fever we could go home monday morning. then she had a fever around 6pm. so it would be monday evening.

linc couldn't take any more time off, so my mom stayed over sunday. she took care of calder and lincoln went home to catch up on sleep. i stayed. i was a wreck. and exhausted. but at midnight she had another fever of 104. so that meant another night. i almost called lincoln to make him come back to the hospital and stay with me. they gave her some tylenol so she was up for two hours in the middle of the night begging for food. all i had was string cheese (she ate 3) and some graham crackers. she was begging for bananas.

i would get gemma to sleep by singing rockabye baby over and over. everytime the song would end she would ask "more baby?" until she got quieter and quieter. when she stopped asking i knew she was asleep. then a nurse would come in and wake her up again.

she hated them all. she would cry when they took her temperature or listened to her heart and legs. she would tell the dr bye bye whenever she saw him. plus she was stuck to an iv so she couldn't go anywhere.

at one point lincoln borrowed a wagon and took her and her iv pole around exploring.

monday my mom brought her some bananas and she scarfed 2. and more string cheese.

the dr said around 9 she could be taken off the iv. the nurse didn't do it until almost 4. gem was much happier when she could roam around. plus she was in a crib so we couldn't lay down with her.

she watched a lot of netflix (thank you verizon 4g network) and some cute movies on the tv. she was either happy to see her brother or mad that i was holding him.

grandma susan came down monday night to help lincoln with calder and to watch him while we waited to get the word on our discharge. we also had to move floors because of some construction.

we all had our fingers crossed for no fevers. when the cna would come in and no fever i wanted to hug them. or at least high five.

tuesday morning, gemma was up and dancing and eating her big breakfast and looking out the window for airplanes. we saw the dr around 8-9 but had to wait for him to put it in the chart that we could go home. and home we went. and we all took 3 hour naps.

it was the longest week and a half of my life. poor goose. but she is definitely on the mend.