Praise the Lord for IV's

If there is one thing that was always on my top ten list of things I hate, it's the IV. After this expereince with Matthew, it's now on my top ten list of things I'm thankful for. It has to be...it saved Matthew's life.

On Tuesday, Matthew woke up complaining of a stomach ache. Having not eaten much the night before, I figured he was just hungry. He did have a loose stool (in his pants...came on him suddenly) but he was acting okay. As the morning wore on, he got more and more lethargic and kept acting like he was in pain. I took him to the bathroom repeatedly in case he had more loose stool (which is most unusual...I've never really had to help him in the bathroom.) Finally, at about 10:30, he threw up (in the bathroom, thankfully!) From there on, he had a pattern of getting sick and sleeping. I tried giving him water at around 5:45pm, but he got rid of it by 6:30. Rob repeated giving him water later, but he got sick at 9:30. He slept pretty fitfully, but did sleep and did not get up except to pee around 1am.

On Wednesday, he woke up saying that he still felt the same as the day before. He wanted something to drink, so Rob gave him water and fixed him a piece of toast. I sat down at the table with him. He took one look at the toast, turned green, and expelled all of the water onto the toast. We got him to the couch and I called the doctor. We got him in at 9:45am and were told that he had a gastrointestinal virus. She checked him for influenza, but the test came back negative. At this point, he was already so weak that he had to be carried everywhere and fell asleep on command. Example: "Matthew, she's done taking your temperature. You can go to sleep." "Okay," and he was out.) We were told to either take him straight to the ER or go home and try giving him fluids to see if he'd keep them down. We opted to take him home so that he could get better rest and see if maybe the ordeal was all over with. Within 1 1/2 hours of coming home, he got sick again, so now we were preparing to head to the ER.

After making several phone calls and taking care of other business, we headed off around 2:30. I had a prenatal appontment at 2:45 (which I cancelled) and had a college girl coming over to watch the boys. When she arrived, we informed her of the change of plans. She told us she would stay as long as we needed her. Ben was napping, so we took off with Matthew. We were in the ER for 3 1/2 hours total. They checked him out, noting that he looked dehydrated. By this point, his eyes were sunken in and his skin was very yellow. He was also very lethargic, sleeping as often as he could. He did get up to pee while in the ER, which was the last time he has actually been to the potty to date. They did a blood test and discovered that he was far more dehydrated that they originally thought and decided to start an IV and admit him. They did try oral hydration, but the tests showed that that route would not work.

I had left at this point so our sitter could get to church and brought Ben back up with me. I kept getting told the wrong room number, but did eventually find them. Matthew was settled on the pediatric ward, looking very miserable on his bed. They took a picture of him (which I'll post later) for security reasons and rounds of nurses came in to monitor him. I brought supper up for Rob and I and we ate (while miserable Matthew looked on) and then Rob took Ben home. Rob was originally going to stay, but Matthew just wanted Mommy, so I stayed with him.

Shortly after 10pm, Matthew started groaning and rolling around in his bed. He complained of a stomach ache and I called a nurse in to help me get him to the bathroom. Too late...he had started his diarrehea. Thankfully, he was already in a diaper (having soiled himself in the ER) so the nurse just got me a stack of diapers. I'm glad, because I could not have ever gotten him to the bathroom in time. From 10:30 until around 6 or 7am, I changed him 15 times. Seven of those were within the same hour. He also threw up all of the apple juice they had given him (he no longer likes apple juice.) The attending doctor then put him on a Pedialyte only diet. He didn't want it (and who can blame him?). Until about 3am, he would groan, go potty, then sleep. By 3, he had settled down and slept hard, going potty and have diaper changes while he slept. I didn't get much sleep (I think the punishment for the person who designed that guest bed should be having to sleep on it!) but I'm glad I was there to keep him from getting a sore bottom.

Matthew slept well until 9:30 that morning. The doctor came in at seven and said he had a roto virus. He was very badly dehydrated and the IV fluids basically saved Matthew's life. I didn't realize until later when I looked all this up in a medical dictionary how very serious Matthew's condition was. I'm glad I didn't know, because I was taking everything in stride up to that point, just trusting that Matthew would be fine. Praise God that he is!

Matthew woke up feeling better and has been eating popsicles and Jell-O today. He tried a cracker but wasn't ready for it. He's chatting as usual (he corned a nurse for awhile), took a short walk down the hall, played with his new toys, read books, watched TV, played with every button on the bed including the one that calls the nurse, and bopped his balloon around. It's like seeing a totally different kid. He's still there tonight because of the diarrehea. He should be coming home tomorrow morning or early afternoon.

Praise the Lord for his goodness through all of this. For protecting us from the severity of the situation so we dealt with it better, for Ben being all smiles and cuddles and being so good with different sitters, for Rob being able to share the load, for a child who actually annoyed me tonight (Mommy? Mommy!), for nurses who care about him, for a doctor who is not eager to shove him out of the hospital, for guest food brought to the room (yummiest bacon ever!), and especially for that IV!!!