1st Hospital Stay...Poor Girl

As you may remember Lauren had the dreaded stomach bug last week. We were so thankful that it only lasted about 12 hours and she was pretty much back to her normal self. We even spent the weekend with Shawn's parents and she seemed just fine. Well, Monday morning she woke up in the worst mood ever. She pretty much cried non-stop from 7:30 to noon. I was about to go insane because I could not figure out what her deal was.

Shawn came home for lunch and mentioned that her belly felt really hard and round. I hadn't really paid much attention to it so it kind of threw me off guard. I called the doctor since she had been soooo abnormally fussy on top of the tummy issue and they wanted to see her that afternoon. It soon became obvious that Lauren was not going to make it until her 4:30 appointment to be seen. She could not lie down, didn't want to straighten her legs, and would not stop crying. I called them back and they said I needed to be there in twenty minutes. I rushed to get both Lauren and myself decent and out the door. I usually make sure she has a backpack stocked with necessities and it honestly didn't even cross my mind because I felt so frantic to get her to the doctor.

When we arrived Lauren was in tremendous pain. She was crying loudly and didn't want any nurse or doctor messing with her. After her check-up, the doctor told me that she was concerned with the way Lauren's belly was so hard and so distended. She threw out things like appendicitis, a rupture of some sort, or an obstruction of the intestines. Then, she said that she felt the most comfortable getting Lauren admitted to the hospital. I couldn't believe that we had gone from something I thought was just Lauren being fussy to waiting for a hospital room to be made ready for us. I called Shawn and he dropped everything at work and came right over.

My parents were in town already for an appointment so they came over as soon as they could. It was such a scary time because Lauren was in incredible pain and there was nothing I could do to help her. The hospital gave her an IV and Shawn was able to go with her to get it. I couldn't. I felt bad, but I was a wreck already and I knew I couldn't be strong for her like Shawn would. They also attempted to get her blood drawn for labs, but it ended up clotting on them so they had to draw it again later. :( When she came back she had this huge cast like thing on her arm where the IV went so she wouldn't pull it out or mess with it. The doctors also did a stomach x-ray and I had to be out of the room for that since I am pregnant.

Lauren had a huge (and very traumatic) bowel movement that evening and seemed to feel much better after that happened. I won't go into detail, but oh my!

We ended up staying the night while we waited to hear the final results. I was so thankful that she seemed to be in much less pain by bedtime. I started the night sleeping with her in her twin sized hospital bed, but I was very uncomfortable and just never fell asleep. Shawn graciously switched me (he had the chair that pulls out into a bed) and I was finally able to get a little rest. Of course, the nurses come in every two hours to check vital signs, so the sleep was very choppy at best.

(Thank goodness for Netflix and toddler games on our iPhones!)

Tuesday morning Lauren's hospital doctor came in and explained that they thought the cause of her pain and discomfort was due to the virus she had last week. She said that sometimes the virus can settle in the intestines and cause a blockage of sorts which is what the x-ray showed. She asked if we were ready to be released and we were all ready to get home!!! It took a while for them to actually get us ready to get out of there and right before we left our doctor came back in and said that one of the lab tests they ran was growing bacteria. So...she said that it was either a contaminated test (somebody touched it) or there is a bacterial infection in her intestines. They wouldn't know until they gave it more time to grow and ran more tests but instead of making us stay and starting an IV antibiotic they graciously let us head home if we promised to get Lauren to her pediatrician today as soon as possible.

 (Lauren and her daddy watching for helicopters and waiting to be dismissed)

We have an appointment this morning at 9:30 to go over the final results of the lab work and for the pediatrician to take another look at Lauren's tummy. We are hoping for some answers, but we are just so glad that it wasn't anything major and that we are able to be home!!!