Abi's Time in the Hospital
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Well, Abi has been home from the hospital for about a week and a half and she is certainly back to full health! If it's possible, it feels like she is healthier and has even more energy than before!
The final diagnosis was "food poisoning," though we're not sure where she was infected. By the time we got her to the hospital, her potassium levels were depleted from all the vomiting and diarrhea and she was quite dehydrated as well. They treated her with IV electrolytes and antibiotics for three days.
Everything went pretty smoothly. Our normally very active little girl was generally pretty content sitting in her hospital bed watching Sesame Street on the laptop. Even being tethered to the IV was not nearly as difficult as we anticipated. We explained to her that her hand was drinking the water in the bag, so she would hold her IV hand up to her mouth and "sluuurp". (So darn cute!) In fact, she became so accustomed to having the IV pole follow us around everywhere that she actually cried when they were wheeling it away!
All that being said, the time certainly had it's difficult moments as well! The worst being the several times they had to draw blood and/or insert the IV. To begin with they had to swaddle her to keep her immobilized, which she absolutely hated. Then, her tiny veins were apparently impossible to find so the nurses had to poke her and "dig around" in multiple locations to find a suitable vein. Meanwhile, Abi screamed and cried at the top of her lungs! And to top it all off, the whole process always left looking nasty looking bruises on her arms and legs as reminders of the traumatic experience!
The other difficult thing was the matter of sleep. Abi is really not a very good sleeper to begin with, so the constant flow of nurses in and out made it pretty hard for her to sleep. The first night she woke at 2am. When 3pm arrived and she hadn't slept for more than about 45 minutes, we decided to ask the doctor for some sleeping medicine. Boy, did it do the trick! She slept like a rock from about 4pm until midnight. She woke up, went potty, had some dinner, took a walk around the ward and then slept again from 2am to 8 am. (Without a doubt, this was the BEST nights sleep I've had in 2 years!)
All in all, we're thankful for God's healing hand and for the availability of good health care in Chiang Rai. And, of course, we appreciate the prayers of so many during this tough time!
The final diagnosis was "food poisoning," though we're not sure where she was infected. By the time we got her to the hospital, her potassium levels were depleted from all the vomiting and diarrhea and she was quite dehydrated as well. They treated her with IV electrolytes and antibiotics for three days.
Everything went pretty smoothly. Our normally very active little girl was generally pretty content sitting in her hospital bed watching Sesame Street on the laptop. Even being tethered to the IV was not nearly as difficult as we anticipated. We explained to her that her hand was drinking the water in the bag, so she would hold her IV hand up to her mouth and "sluuurp". (So darn cute!) In fact, she became so accustomed to having the IV pole follow us around everywhere that she actually cried when they were wheeling it away!
All that being said, the time certainly had it's difficult moments as well! The worst being the several times they had to draw blood and/or insert the IV. To begin with they had to swaddle her to keep her immobilized, which she absolutely hated. Then, her tiny veins were apparently impossible to find so the nurses had to poke her and "dig around" in multiple locations to find a suitable vein. Meanwhile, Abi screamed and cried at the top of her lungs! And to top it all off, the whole process always left looking nasty looking bruises on her arms and legs as reminders of the traumatic experience!
The other difficult thing was the matter of sleep. Abi is really not a very good sleeper to begin with, so the constant flow of nurses in and out made it pretty hard for her to sleep. The first night she woke at 2am. When 3pm arrived and she hadn't slept for more than about 45 minutes, we decided to ask the doctor for some sleeping medicine. Boy, did it do the trick! She slept like a rock from about 4pm until midnight. She woke up, went potty, had some dinner, took a walk around the ward and then slept again from 2am to 8 am. (Without a doubt, this was the BEST nights sleep I've had in 2 years!)
All in all, we're thankful for God's healing hand and for the availability of good health care in Chiang Rai. And, of course, we appreciate the prayers of so many during this tough time!
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