This photo was taken on October 26th; the last photo I have of Gracie awake.
October 25th-27th, 2009
When we were brought up to the pediatric floor to be settled in to Gracie's room, I wanted her to be treated like a big girl. At home Gracie slept in her big girl twin size bed, so this time at the hospital I wanted the same. All of her last stays in the hospital were in the crib because she slept in a crib at home. So we set up the bed for her, but very shortly after, I decided that we should bring the crib back in the room because I forgot that the crib was good for keeping Gracie in a safe place to play and if she was energetic enough, she could cruise around it, especially if she had an IV or NG tube placed.
Gracie seemed very aggitated in her room. I could not get her to settle at all. She did not want to be in the crib, she did not want to be cuddling, she did not want to play - she moaned and groaned - could not get her to sleep at all.
Dr. Hales, the on-call pediatrician for the weekend, came in to check on Grace later in the afternoon. I had never particularly liked this doctor as I found that he often does not know what he is talking about. I was sitting in the chair with Gracie on my lap when he came to talk and check her out. His conclusion was that she was not a sick child, but an "angry child". I was completely mortified. Anyone who knew Gracie (and most of the nurses and doctors have come across her at some point) knew that Gracie was a mild-mannered, gentle child - not an angry and unhappy child! Anyway, he left saying that he would not be doing anything for Gracie and that her regular pediatrician would be on-call for the next couple of days beginning Monday.
That evening, Gracie continued to moan and groan and was generally just unhappy in her room. I could not take her out because she was on droplets precaution, meaning that her room was isolated and we needed to stay in it. I tried to get her to sleep in the crib, on the chair with me, and then I set up some blankets on the floor and just tried to entertain her. I left her for a few minutes while I ran to the cafeteria to grab something to eat - green jello. When I came back, I brought her out of the crib and sat with her on the floor while treehouse tv played in the background. I ate my jello, and she kinda crawled on to my lap and attacked it. This was not something typical of Gracie, it was the first time I had ever seen her do something like this. She grabbed at it with her hands, smooshed it between her fingers, and there was green jello stains on her sleeper. Eventually I did get her to sleep for a little while, but everytime the nurses came in - she woke up and could not re-settle.
On Monday the 26th, Gracie's pediatrician Dr. Bartleman came in to see her. She knew right away that there was something not right about Gracie and how she was acting. It was her intuition that told her to test Gracie for Influenza A and the H1N1 virus, and begin her on Tamiflu (the antiviral for the flu) as a precaution. I was in disbelief because I didn't see Gracie as having any "flu symptoms". Gracie's nurse that morning, Mary Ellen, felt that Gracie did seem to have some symptoms, which explained Gracie being very "trembly" when she tried standing/cruising along her crib, the moaning and groaning, and the fever. Dr. Bartleman told us that an NG needed to be placed if Gracie did not take enough fluids by the early afternoon. She did drink a little bit but not enough. The test results came back a few hours later with Influenza A being positive; we were told by the nurse that likely the H1N1 test would be positive as well (about a 99% chance). The NG was placed later on in the day, and they took her down to X-Ray to check on its placement because it seemed a bit off. The photo of Gracie above was taken in the evening after she had the NG. Because of all the commotion with the nurses coming in and out, placing the NG, the x-ray, and coming in to do all of her stats and check on her - Gracie did not sleep, and when she did sleep for it seemed 20 minutes - she was woken up for testing. Between 6am and 10am Tuesday (27th) morning, Gracie slept for only 2 hours total. At 3am, I could not take any more of being awake. I had a headcold and needed to sleep so that I could be awake and alert for Gracie. I told the nurses that I was going to leave Gracie in her room in the crib and go home for a couple of hours so that I could get some sleep. When I arrived back at 9:30am the following morning (the 27th), Gracie had been given some gravol at around 7:30-8am, and was finally asleep. But by 10am, my little girl was already waking up.
She was extremely pale and seemed to be gasping for air. I called for her nurse to come in, I believe it was Kathleen, and she agreed that Gracie did not look good at all. She called for the on-call pediatrician, Dr. Menard. He came in and did all of her stats, and also agreed that she was not doing well. He said that he was going to do a chest x-ray to see if anything was going on. He told me that if the flu had moved to her lungs that she would be sent to another hospital because they didn't have the equipment necessary. "All child flu patients were being sent to BC Children's or Victoria General Hospital if the flu had entered the lungs".
The X-Ray was completed and it did show the flu had moved to her lungs, he told us that we would be airlifted shortly once he found which hospital had space for us.
The scariest day of my life; my little girl being airlifted away from home, away from the nurses and doctors she knew.
No comments:
Post a Comment