A Parent's Worst Fear...

This past weekend, the both of our boys started running low grade fevers. So, all weekend, they lounged around, ate lots of popscicles, drank lots of juices, and watched tons of movies while we pumped them full of Tylenol. To this day, they still have a funky little virus, with fever and coughing.

Well, on Tuesday, Libby started feeling warmer than normal. I began taking her temperature, where it started at 99.7 degrees. Granted, as a first-time momma, I'm started to freak out, because she's way warmer than normal, even though this isn't considered a temp for a 7 week old baby. Josh kept reassuring me that everything is fine and there's nothing that can be done medically until her temp is past 100.4 degrees. Well what do you know, Wednesday morning, Libby wakes up from a totally non-restful night of sleep and is hot! Her temperature was 100.9. I called our doctor and she told us to get to Cincinnati Childrens' Hospital. Within the hour, we finally make it to Childrens' around 7:30am.

After we registered, we were taken back to our room in the ER. The nurses began drawing blood and putting in her IV just for precaution. They also cathed Libby, to have a urine sample to rule out a UTI. Well, it was only supposed to take about 45 minutes to have the labs back on her urine. Our nurse called up to the lab to find out her labs had been lost. No problem, so the nurse comes in and 3 different times, over the next 2+ hours, putting a bag on Libby to catch some peepee. That didn't work. Normally, Libby has zero problems going pee, but on this day, it just wasn't happening. This was such a God-thing, because during that time, I looked at Josh and told him something was not right with Libby. The nurse came in to check her vitals and sure enough, her temperature spiked to 103 degrees...I LOST IT, at this point. Our nurse ran and got the doctors and they immediately began getting the room prepped to do a spinal tap and to re-cath her. They asked us to leave the room, to go get something to eat because they needed about 15-20 minutes to do everything. OKAY, I have never been away from my baby girl AT ALL, since she's been born. I literally thought I was going to lose it. The nurses and doctors had no idea what was causing my sweet baby girl to have this horrendous fever and now they are making me leave the room...I think Josh thought they were going to have to give me valume (sp?) or anything to help me keep it together.

Whew, I cried all the way down to the cafeteria, and as I was eating our little pepperoni pizza. We scarfed it down in a hurry so we could be back there within 15 minutes. We made a pit stop, at the loo, and my oh my, was I looking a hot mess! Oh well...we get back to Libby's room and she was fast asleep. We could not wait to hold her. The ER doctor came in to let us know that obviously we were being admitted to Childrens' Hospital and would be here for at least 36 hours (that's how long it would take for any bacteria to grow in the blood cultures. They were testing Libby for any and everything under the sun, trying to figure out what was going on in her little body). Within 45 minutes, we were moved upstairs, into our room. The doctor got Libby started on tamiflu and antibiotics just in case that she had the swine flu, which they had also tested her for. Let me tell ya, there is no other place that I would rather be, to have my baby girl taken care of. Childrens' is the 3rd ranked Childrens' hospital in the nation!

So, the waiting game began. This morning, as the nurses were doing change over and coming in to assess Libby, they informed me that she tested positive for the swine flu. Praise the Lord that they started her on the tamiflu while we were downstairs in the ER, just in case. That and the antibiotic will be continued even after we are discharged. Our 36 hour window doesn't occur until Friday at 3am. This will rule out any bacterial infections. This morning, as the doctors made their rounds, they heard a gurgling sound, in Libby's right lung. We were sent to radiology to Xray and they came back clear, so there is no lung infection that they could see. For the rest of the day, Libby and I just tried to relax, as much as possible, between all of the assessments being done on her. After Josh got off work, he came straight back here. Let me tell ya, he is my prince, my knight in shining armour. Right now, as I'm typing he and Libby have been knocked out on our pullout bed, in Libby's room. Talk about melting a momma's heart, he doesn't it to me all of the time. Libby has been fast asleep on her daddy's chest for the last 2 hours. Bless her heart, she is just worn slap out!

Lord willing, the rest of Libby's labs will come back clear so we will be going home tomorrow (Friday). The boys have a doctors' appointment tomorrow, since it has been a week with an ongoing fever and cough. They have been in and out of the doctors office so much this past week. Hopefully, everyone will be on the mend and this yuckiness will be over! We will keep you posted on Libby's progress. Thank you all so much for your prayers, phone calls, and concerns. We are so very blessed and humbled by your love!