By the skin of our teeth.....

We have had a pretty rough several days here - problems with dogs, husband on business trips, helping neighbors get through a very difficult situation and then illness.

On Monday morning, we headed over to swimming lessons. #1 was so excited to go now that school is finally out. Everything went well and she was happy and energetic. We got into the car and she said "Mom, my chest and stomach hurt". Her breathing sounded really tight (later confirmed by the firefighter and former nurse next door), so I thought she was having an asthma attack. I started her on breathing treatments which helped her lungs, but not the 36 hours of vomiting that followed that swimming lesson. It turned out to a stomach bug and not an asthma attack.

The following day, she was still very ill. I continued to push small amounts of liquids on her to keep her hydrated. She was even able to keep some of it down throughout the day, but for some reason she was deteriorating. I knew in my gut something was very wrong early on, but I just called the doctor's office. They told me to keep doing what I was doing and as long as she urinated ever 8 hours, she was ok. She urinated at hour 7 - within the realm of "ok". As the day wore on, she became more and more lethargic. She could no longer sit up or stand on her own, she was having trouble answering my questions and she was gray. Micah came home and I took her to the Urgent Care nearby.

After getting checked in, we were sitting in the triage area. The nurse excused herself for a moment and a doctor walked in. She took one look at her and said "Get her to an ER, now!"

I think this was the moment I went from being very concerned to scared.

I tried to keep her somewhat engaged in conversation on the way to the ER, but I wasn't getting much out of her. After finding the ER parking lot full, I had to drive further to the garage. When we got inside, one of the triage nurses took one look at us and said "I'm getting you right back to a room." Again, scary!

Once in the room, things started to move pretty quickly. All of the people in and out of the room were describing her as "pretty out of it". She was hooked up to an IV for fluids and some Zofran to stop vomiting. They also took her blood for labs. She fell asleep shortly after being poked and prodded and I just let her rest.

The IV was just finishing up when she woke up. She was a completely different little girl from what she was an hour before. She was back to looking more pink and she started talking my ear off and giggling as she told me funny five year old stories. RELIEF!!!

Turns out that all of her various electrolyte levels and glucose were so low that she was actually "severely" dehydrated. I explained about my call to the doctor's office and her urination and water consumption. I was told the advice was the same they would have given and they honestly didn't know how she was able to produce any urine given her levels.

This is actually the second time we've gone through this before. The other time was on Christmas Day when she was nearly 2 years old. The nurse reassured me and told me that some kids just need a little extra help sometimes (her son being one of them) and that I had done everything right.

My sweet girl walked out of that hospital on her own two feet with her little hand in mine, chattering all the way to the car.

The lesson that I learned from all of this is that all the experts and textbooks in the world cannot replace a mother's intuition. If I had listened to my gut rather than the rules of hydration, I may have saved her a few more hours of agony. I'm just so very thankful we made it in time, even if it was by the skin of our teeth....