The Laird Lowdown: Our Night at the ER...or, "Can't you stick the needle in me instead?"

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Our Night at the ER...or, "Can't you stick the needle in me instead?"

Kaylee has been running a fever (103 or so) since Friday. We took her into the doctor yesterday. They couldn't find anything, so they ordered some lab work.

Now, for those of you lucky enough to have never had to gotten "lab work" for a 2 year old, let me explain what that means. They needed blood, urine, and x-rays. Bloodwork is hell for anybody. It's absolutely terrifying for a 2 year old.

We barely got enough blood to run the two major tests that were ordered. We walked over to radiology for the XRays and got those. Never did get her to give us a urine sample--we just started having really good luck on the potty two weeks ago, and the fever has sapped her desire to try. We waited at the hospital for the XRay results; finally, one of the doctors from Kaylee's Ped office called us and said that they didn't see any signs of bacterial infection in the chest xrays, and that it must be viral and we'd just need to wait it out. Well, we can handle that, let's go home.

When we got home, there was a message on our machine--Kaylee's pediatrician telling us that her white cell counts were way high and that we should probably take her to the emergency room. At this point Kaylee is finally relaxing, and we wind up packing back up into the truck and heading back to the hospital.

We checked in at the emergency room and waited. Kaylee was in pretty good spirits. Part of me wanted to just pack up and head home; it couldn't be that bad. The triage nurse checked us in and got O2 levels and blood pressure, both a hassle. Then we had to get temp. Kaylee didn't want to put the thermometer in her mouth...so we had to go the other way. Poor kid was just getting things stuck in her everywhere.

When we got back into the ER (our hospital has a dedicated pediatrics ER, and they are currently building a dedicated children's hospital), we initially got stuck on a bed in the hall; I don't know if they took pity on us or just had enough of Kaylee's crying, but we got into a room in about 10 minutes. They took a temp again (same back end way), and then the news that terrified me.

Everything pointed to either bladder or kidney infection, and they were going to catheterize her to get a sample. I asked the doctor that, if I could get a sample from her, if we had to do that. That would work, but I think everybody had doubts. Kaylee really didn't want to use the toilet. But I took her into the bathroom, cleaned her up with the wipes the nurse provided, and basically started to beg.

She got up a few times. I was nearly in tears; I just couldn't handle any more being done to her tonight, and I knew if she would pee we could avoid any more. Kaylee wanted a sucker--the lab techs had given her one but we left it at home in between hospital visits. I promised Kaylee that I'd get her a sucker if she peed. It took a few times, but I finally heard her start to go in the little toilet insert. I did start crying a little bit at that point.

Got Kaylee wiped up, washed her hands--all the while she's saying "I did it!" (like she always does after she uses the toilet now)...and Jen and I are both fervently agreeing with her. We ask the nurse if she went enough, and she said it was more than enough. And then I found out that, nowhere in the Pediatrics emergency room, does anyone have a sucker. And that lab that gave Kaylee one earlier--I didn't mention that it was at a *different* hospital.

The nurse took me over to the hospital cafeteria because they have a bulk candy area. No suckers. But they did have soft round candies and coffee stirring sticks. I grabbed both and the nurse congratulated me on my idea...I felt like the emergency room MacGuyver. Kaylee got her sucker...didn't really like it, but she was satisfied that I got her one and she "settled" for the M&M's I picked up at the same time. :)

The urine test came back showing kidney infection. Unfortunately, had we gotten the urine sample at the doctor's office we could have avoided everything...but I'm satisfied that they didn't have to stick a catheter into my baby.

Kaylee got a shot of antibiotic at the hospital (yeah, another poke, but everybody survived), and a prescription for an oral. Maybe it's my imagination, but I think she seemed to be feeling better by the time we got home than she has all week.

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Our Adoption Story

Everyone always wants to know our adoption story. It is a long and complicated affair, but the short of it goes like this:

Tim and I decided after long discussion to build a family through adoption. Any children we adopted would be ours but just not have his eyes, or my hair… Anyway, we started our adoption journey on September 11, 2003 in an international program to Thailand.

In late February of 2005 we received word that the Thai government had turned down our request. We were devastated. We began looking into other options. We turned to domestic adoption.

A girl at Aquinas, where I work, had a friend who was looking to find an adoptive home for her baby. We decided to go ahead and find out more about her. We then got news that she was pregnant with twin boys. Oh my… what to do? So after talking and praying we decided if that was what God meant for us, then that was great.

So we talked with her and it was progressing toward us having twins. Unfortunately, the mother went into premature labor and one of the boys was still born and the other boy was very sick. The mother wanted to keep him, which was fine with us, since to voluntarily give up a child is one thing, but to have one taken from you is another.

After much sorrow, we again started over. We had our portfolio looked at by a bunch of birth parents, but nothing came of it, so we waited… and waited… and waited. Until one day I was getting out of a meeting and my telephone rang at work. It was the social worker calling about a birth family. Finally we had been chosen. That was Tuesday, September 19th, 2006

The only downside was the baby would be here any minute, literally. The birth mother had come in on her due date to make an adoption plan… oh my, again! We said that yes of course we’d take the baby, so in a mad dash, we finished paperwork, bought out Babies R Us, and made many phone calls to parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, and the list went on.

It was Tuesday when we got the call and by Sunday, September 24th, we were a wreck, so we went to church. After church we had to do a little more shopping to get ready and so we stopped for lunch at Taco Bell. A familiar face jumped out of the crowd at Tim, it was the pregnancy counselor, Emily. He saw that she was talking on her phone and said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if she was talking about our baby?” I think I answered that it would be “scary, not funny.” So he went over to say hi. Well, it turns out he was right. She was talking to the birth mother; she had just gone into labor.

At around 7pm that evening we got to meet our little miracle, our Kaylee. Two days later we got to take her home to a house that was full of people waiting to hold her and even more people waiting to come over to the house to hold her. On, June 13, 2007, Kaylee Raquel Elaina Laird became officially ours and we are so happy to finally have an “official” complete family.