A case of "The Mondays"

It has been a really difficult, long day and it's only 2:30!

It actually started Saturday evening with Marissa starting to come down with something. She became lethargic and was running a low-grade fever. We put her to bed and prayed for the best. In the past when this has happened, it is always followed by low O2 sats, yellow secretions and then pneumonia. We were very encouraged that her sats and secretions stayed normal through the night. Her fever got worse, however, and her heart rate went up significantly. All day Sunday we watched her very carefully. Her fever got high enough a couple of times that we considered taking her to urgent care, but then she would bounce right back. It was a long night because the pulse-ox alarm kept going off. Marissa's feet were chilly, even though we put socks on her, and the pulse-ox had a hard time reading correctly.

We had an appointment already scheduled for 7:30 this morning to pick up the braces for her legs. They actually told us to come in before they were technically open, so I knew I was not going to expose any other kiddos to Marissa's junk. I decided not to cancel, as it would be the end of the week before we got another appointment and the fact that it was going to be so quick. We got back to the house just in time for me to call her pediatrician when his office opened. We got an appointment for 9:45. With only 45 minutes before we needed to leave again, I grabbed a quick bite and only one cup of coffee! We saw the doc and she still had a fever and was very cranky (she always is when in a doc's office!) He said he thought she had a viral infection and we needed to get blood drawn and trach culture. He also wanted to rule out pneumonia so he ordered a chest x-ray. So back to the same place we were for our early morning appointment!

We got to the medical plaza, she had her x-ray, and then we went across the hall to the lab. I guess I'm still a rookie at this kind of thing because, I was told to get the trach culture, we would have to go to the hospital (just down the street). It needed to be done by a respiratory therapist. They looked at me like I should have known that already! What nerve!! We have been extremely lucky Marissa has not been sick often, so I had no idea how it worked. Then they attempted to get her blood drawn. What a nightmare!! They stuck her 3 times and got nothing and said since we were already going to the hospital, we could try again there. Great, thanks for stabbing my daughter!! We wasted 45 minutes there and then went to the hospital. They got the trach culture with no problem.

I guess I hadn't woken up yet because the nightmare continued. They stuck her three more times and only got enough blood for the CBC. After 45 more minutes and Marissa going ballistic because she was sick, tired and stabbed 6 times, they told us we'd need to come back in two days to get the blood culture. HAH!! I told them I would call her doc. Apparently, the CBC will tell if she has an infection, so I'm not sure why they tortured her for a blood culture. I was told it was because she had a fever of unknown origin. Her doc is also very angry with the labs because he said he should have been called after two failed attempts.

We finally got home and she is fed and resting comfortably. I just got a call from her doc saying no pneumonia (YAY!!!) but her blood work tested positive for some sort of infection so we will have to go back and see him tomorrow (BOO!!!). And to top it all off, I got a speeding ticket this morning!! Just not our day!!

At least we are home with no pneumonia and the children's Motrin I gave Marissa seems to have taken her fever away and made her comfy. Please pray for Marissa to get better very soon and for a restful night for all of us!!

P.S. Please enjoy the following video clip from one of our favorite movies, "Office Space". :)