CHOP

Because Reese was born on Halloween, we call her our best Halloween treat ever.  I guess the "trick" came a few days later (when she was only 8 days old)...

Reese's appetite decreased significantly, she was lethargic and started running a temperature (between 99 and 100 degrees F).  We took her to the pediatrician, where they measured her temperature at 101.4 degrees F.  The doctor told us to get her dressed - we needed to take her to the Emergency Room.  We quickly made arrangements for Colden until mom could get to our house.  Mom then stayed with Colden.

We drove 40 minutes to the ER at Abington Memorial Hospital because the hospital where she was born (Doylestown Hospital) does not have a pediatric unit.  At Abington, they ran some blood and urine tests and they performed a lumbar puncture.  I can't even tell you what was running through our minds as they listed off the possible risks associated with the lumbar puncture.  They let us stay in the room during all of the tests and I will say that while she cried as they were inserting the needle for the lumbar puncture, she slept through the rest of the procedure.

They then gave us a choice:  (1) Stay at Abington - but because they don't run a certain test in-house, we would have to stay an extra 2 days while we waited for the samples to be sent out to another lab and for the results to come back; or (2) Get transferred to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where they run the specific test we needed daily.  

Either way, we were told that we would have to stay at the hospital under observation for a minimum of 48 hours.

We decided to get transferred to CHOP.  That way, we wouldn't have to stay an extra 2 days...we would be in the best hands...and it put us at ease knowing that we have two family members who work at CHOP (Uncle Larry and cousin Karen) - who were going to be looking out for us. 

After approximately 6 hours at Abington, an ambulance finally came to transfer us to CHOP:

Reese's carseat was strapped onto a stretcher...

 ...And she was loaded into the back of an ambulance.  There were two people in the back with her.  There was only enough room in the ambulance for one parent, so I rode in the front while Mike drove home to get our bags.  Mike met us at CHOP.

We arrived at CHOP around midnight on 11/8/12 (it was about a 30-minute drive between hospitals).

I didn't think so many wires could be hooked up to such a tiny baby:

Reese was so tired and worn down that she wasn't nursing well.  I decided to pump and try to feed her milk from a bottle (which the nurse told me might be easier for her to drink from).  This wasn't how we planned on giving Reese her first bottle...

It was a long two days at CHOP.  We were all physically, mentally and spiritually drained.  

Because of her age and the fact that her fever was of unknown origin, the doctors ran a bunch of different tests just to rule out every possibility.  Results from the urine and blood work came back fine...  Reese had a chest Xray done, which came back negative...the doctors put her on three antibiotics until they were able to narrow it down...and we had to stay for 48 hours to make sure that there wasn't a bacterial infection.

The culprit:  An enterovirus.  

According to the CDC, enteroviruses are very common (second only to the "common cold" viruses).  

Therefore, there was nothing left to do but let the virus run its course.  We were discharged from CHOP around lunchtime on 11/10/12.

~~~~~

Thank you to everyone for keeping us in your thoughts during the past few days.  And thank you to Uncle Larry and cousin Karen for visiting us at CHOP - it was such a relief to see familiar faces!!

We are now on the road to recovery at home.  Reese's appetite is returning to normal and so is her energy level (it is almost midnight as I write this Blog post and she is wide awake).  Yes, we are almost back to normal.