Week at Loma Linda

Poor, poor Braden. When he was one week old riley got sick. (refer to the urgent care post a few back) Well, a few days after that i got a sore throat and josh followed a couple days after that. We all tried to keep riley away from braden, told her to kiss him on the feet or top of the head, etc but it was basically impossible since she is in love with her brother. I didn't kiss him on the lips at all and was quite sad about this but didn't want him to get my HORRIBLE sore throat.
Friday night (a week after the urgent care fiasco) braden's tummy and back were burning up but his head felt totally normal. I took his temp. (in his arm pit, which you have to then add a degree to get the real temp) and it was 99.4 so i wasn't sure what was going on. The next morning the same thing, super hot tummy and back, normal head, so i called the nurse advise line and she said to call her back if his temp reached 100 degrees, rectally. So a few hours later it did get to 100.3, when i called back she hung up with me and called the on call dr at the redland's ER to see what he would have us do. He told us to bring Braden in to have him evaluated. Josh took Riley to pick out stuff for her b-day cake because we had been talking about it all morning and i felt horrible to have to tell her that it wasnt' going to happen now, so i told them to go ahead and i'd take braden in.
At the er they took his vitals and all was good except his fever so the dr or PA (not sure what she was) told me how much tylenol to give him and sent us on our way, luckily i asked at what point would i need to come back if the fever persisted, she didn't give a straight answer but said they would need to run tests if the fever didn't go away.
By monday my poor little guy still had a fever. I was giving him tylenol every 4 hours and it only dropped it down to 99.9 at the lowest. Monday morning rolls around and i called his pediatrician at 8am, as soon as the office opened and asked what to do. They said to bring him in to be evaluated. I got an appt around noon. His normal dr was booked but we saw another dr that riley used to see (and i swithed because she became a little to "cold" i felt, especially working with kids) but was i glad to have her that day! She sort of has a bold, go getter, attitude and little room to play around. She was furious that they didn't run tests when i had him in the er and said that was unacceptable. She said she knew the director there and was going to call him and let him know that happened and make him take care of it.
She then checked out braden and was verrryy concerned with his fever, being only 3 weeks old, and said it looked like he had double ear infections on top of it. She debated sending him home on antibiotics with a follow up the next day or sending him to be admitted the hospital. She talked to Braden's normal dr and they both decided he needed to be admitted asap. She said to go to Loma Linda ER, she sent me with a note and told me not to sit in the waiting room more than 15 min. SHe told me not to stop anywhere on the way there and said we'd be there at least 48-72 hours.
I get there and of course have to wait, they were SLAMMED. 15 min rolls around and i sheepishly, but with a sick baby in my arms, tell the nurse that i'm not to wait anymore, give her the dr's note and she says"he's only 3 weeks?! yes we will see him next!" They take his vitals and get us into an isolation room in the er. We then stay there the next 24 hours because they didn't have an isolation room on the ped's floor. They brought a crib in for him and i slept on the gurney.
As soon as we are in the room the nurse comes and starts an i.v. in braden-poor guy-and the residents start coming through asking all sorts of questions trying to get to the bottom of his fever. They collect blood, urine, mucous and did a spinal tap. They ended up having to do a 2nd spinal tap the next day because they couldn't get any fluid from the first. Poor braden was hooked up to so many monitors, it was very hard to hold him with out pulling off cords etc. He had the stuffiest nose, gunkiest eyes and just was feeling sick.
They started him on antibiotics in the er and we were moved up to the ped's floor the next day. They were still running all the tests. Riley stayed at my mother in-law's during the day and with josh at home at night. I missed her like crazy.
It's pretty incredible, but i only had one major break-down. It was when i came back in the room after braden's 2nd spinal tap. My phone was dead, i wanted to talk to riley, or call anyone, and he was just laying there limp with exhaustion. I could only imagine the pain he went through (they wouldn't let me stay for the procedure) and i just started bawling looking at my poor innocent baby, with no way to help him.
The first night upstairs josh and his dad came and gave braden a blessing. It was amazing the calm that washed over me and braden even stopped squirming under their hands. (side note:every since the blessing he didnt' have a single fever)
It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard to be away from riley, Josh would come visit every night so that was great but riley wasn't allowed, it really hurt my heart being away from her. The nurse was able to get me a pump so josh watched him a few hours one night so i could go shower and see riley and then on her b-day My mom in law watched braden and i took riley to the park. That helped but she cried when i had to leave again :(
Upstairs we started to find out after a couple days that one test result was back, he had para influenza virus. A lower respiratory cold virus that would be like any other cold for an adult but b/c of his age was very serious and needed monitoring. they said it was most likely what was going around at our house. We still had to stay at the hospital to keep giving him i.v. anitbiotics and to let the spinal tap culture for a few more days to be absolutely sure nothing else was going on in braden.
On the fifth day they let us go home. I could tell braden was feeling much better, he was awake more, no gunky eyes and just better, you could tell!
SO GLAD to be home. But two great things came out of this, besides braden being healthy again. 1.i had soo much time to bond with him that i wasn't getting/making time for at home. I got to hold him for 5 straight days. and 2.i realized how much i miss and LOVE medicine. I decided i'm going back to get my RN.
I hope we all stay healthy for a long time but am so glad to have such a great hospital near by.

Gloves, gown and mask was the get up because braden was in isolation. Most nurses didn't force this on me. There was NO way i was going to wear that 24 hr./day for 5 days. BUt some nurses did force it, i would where it about 10 min before the mask came off, then another five before the gown, never put the gloves on. Come on, if i was going to be nursing him, holding him kissing him, what's the point? It's not like i was meandering in the cafeteria spreading all the germs. I lived in that room.

Enjoying some cuddle time with my boy.

Passed out from all the tests, poking and prodding

Doing better, new i.v. each day, took up his whole arm

All hooked up, such a sad sight.