She started throwing up Friday afternoon. And she kept at it. She couldn't keep any liquids or solids down. She kept having some good chunks of time with no vomiting and we thought we were in the clear but then she'd start throwing up again. By Saturday afternoon, I started worrying. And by Sunday morning, I broke down as I saw her start throwing up again. I felt so helpless. I couldn't do anything to help my baby girl. She was thirsty and hungry but couldn't keep anything down no matter what we did. That evening, around 5:30 Dave took her to the ER. We had sent Emma to my in-laws earlier because I had started feeling queasy and we didn't want her to get sick too. Anyway, here's part of Dave's post on Facebook to tell his experience at hospital #1 since I wasn't there:
Jocelyn wasn't able to keep down food or water for over two days, so I took her to the ER at Mercy Folsom for dehydration. When we got there, they poked at her stomach and asked if it hurt, and she nodded yes (she had not complained of stomach pain up to this point). They did a chest Xray, ultrasound and urine test. During the ultrasound, Jocey was wincing and uncomfortable when they pressed down on her appendix. Eventually they told me they suspect she has mild appendicitis and needs to be transferred to UC Davis for surgery! They gave her some Zofran to calm her stomach and hooked her up to an IV. We rode in an ambulance to UC Davis, and Kathryn met us there. The pediatric docs pressed on her stomach and she seemed fine, so they immediately doubted the appendicitis diagnosis.
Ok, now back to my story. They told us Jocey would need to stay over night so when Jocey got into a room, Dave headed home around 11pm. The past two nights had been rough since Jocey was throwing up through the night. But Dave let me sleep in both mornings and let me sleep through the second night and took such good care of Jocey. I am so grateful it was the weekend so Dave was home to help with this. He was so good through the whole ordeal. Anyway, they continued to pump fluids into Jocey's body. They switched out the regular drip with a glucose one to help get her blood sugar back up. They drew more blood to see if she was improving. The wanted to look at her white blood cell count which if high usually means an infection, or appendicitis since that was her diagnosis. They were trying to rule that out since nothing seemed to really point to that. They said the ultrasound at Mercy Folsom had been inconclusive.
So after awhile, the doctor came in and said her white blood cell count was normal. Whew! So she just has a bad stomach virus. He did say if her stomach pain returned, to bring her back in. Honestly, Dave thinks the pain was simply the doctor pushing too hard on her stomach. It was already so weak so I'm sure the pressure didn't feel good. I'm just glad we didn't have to do surgery. The nurse said her blood sugar was back up so then they said that as soon as she can drink again they would discharge her. They gave her some water and was able to keep it down. So I called Dave to come back and pick us up and we left at about 3:30am.
We all went home and to bed and then we all slept in. When we woke up we still wanted to take things slow in regards to food and drink, so we made sure she could keep down some water first. She did good with that so we gave her some cheerios. She kept that down. So she eventually got to eat toast, yogurt, and some cheese. Everything stayed down and she was able to join us for dinner. We went and picked up Emma in the afternoon and she doesn't seem to have caught the bug.
Everything was fine through the night and morning, but come Tuesday afternoon, Jocey threw up again. I took it surprisingly well. I thought I would break down again but I cleaned up the mess and we started the slow process of liquid intake again. When Dave got home from work, I had him go pick up Jocey's prescription for Zofran and immediately gave it to her. I talked to my brother Brad, who's a doctor, and on Wednesday called Jocey's pediatrician's office for advice. She has not thrown up again. She has way more energy and seems to finally be in the clear. We are stopping the Zofran at the pediatrician's suggestion, to make sure she has actually stopped throwing up on her own and not because of the Zofran.
Here's hoping and praying, the nasty bug is finally gone. And here's hoping and praying it doesn't attack anyone else.
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