Having children changes you in a number of ways, the most gut wrenching is when you feel there is something wrong with them. This little Frances seems to know it AND exploit it. So, it 3 months of her little life, we have gone to the emergency room twice. Henry has never gone. What a difference. Let me fill you in.
When Frances had RSV one night she was wheezing and breathing really fast. I brought her to my clinic that afternoon and she had an oxygen saturation of 95%. Most normal kids have 98-100 so the fact that she was low was due to her illness. At 95% there is nothing to do, but if it dips to 92% she would need oxygen. That night she was worse then the afternoon so I feared her oxygen saturation had dropped even more, so I brought her in. Once we got to the ER her oxygen sat was 99% so I knew she was doing ok, even if it was hard work.
Number 1.
These last 3 days Frances' has had a little cold. She was doing fine with it and the congestion/runny nose didn't seem to bother her too much, but sometimes it wokw her up from naps. Yesterday I went to work and Frances had a bad morning and cried for 45 minutes straight for Aaron before finally falling asleep. When I got home, she was doing great and acting her smiley self. When it was bedtime, she started getting very upset. Normally when she cries, I can soothe her pretty easily by walking or rocking. If that doesn't work, nursing ALWAYS soothes her. That night for the first time ever, I couldn't soothe her. She seemed in pain and just started wailing and there was nothing we could do. Poor little girl. I felt something was wrong and then Aaron did as well. There is something called intussecption that happens in infants and is basically the bowel folding in on itslef. It commonly occurs after viral infections. They can resolve by themselves, but often they need a little help. They are painful for kids and have many of the symtoms Frances was showing. Before we left, I called Children's mercy and put in a referral for myself. The doctor could hear her in the backgroud and said to come right away. We got in the car and she continued to wail. It was so tough to hear because it was so obvious she was in pain and I couldn't do anything to help. Well, we finally got to the ER and I got her out of the car seat.....and she was calm. Three hours of inconsolable pain and now she was quiet. While in the ER, she was fussy, but I could calm her down. The doctor was a ER fellow that I had worked with and she did great with us. I actually was happy with all the care from the front desk, nurses, x-ray techs and all. The doctor checked her stool for blood (negative and that is good because intusseption frequently has blood in the stool) and did some x-rays. One of the x-rays looked a little bit different. I got to see it. The area where intussecption normally occurs had no air in the gut (and everywhere else did). The other x-rays looked normal. We waited for the radiologist to read it and the final read came back normal. I then fed her there and she did great, so we went home. Once we got home, I got her asleep and she slept 8 hours without waking. My poor exhausted little girl. This morning she seems fine, but she has some diarrhea which is not too different from her normal stools. She is currently sleeping on me very restfully.
Number 2,
So, I'm not sure what really happened. It could have been intussecption that resolved itself, but probably not. Most likely it is was just a part of this cold and hopefully she doesn't have that much pain again. She needs to stop doing this to me. I feel like I'm a reasonable parent and don't freak out at the smallest thing, but this track record she has needs to stop now. I can't keep bringing her to the ER every month. That is expensive and emotionally exhausting.
Still, if she needs it, I will do whatever it takes, because she has my heart.
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