Poor Paige

We've been dealing with sick kids for the past couple of weeks.  With runny noses, coughs, croup, fevers and hives- we've had our fair share.  We tried our hardest to keep the other kids away from Paige, but with a three year old big sister, this was nearly impossible.

On Saturday I noticed that Paige wasn't feeling very well.  She wasn't eating as well as she normally did, she was congested, and then that evening she started to cough.  I braced myself for a sick infant, but I didn't realize how badly she would get.

The next day was her blessing day.  We had lots of family in town, and they all took turns holding the baby.  I hardly even got to see her, let alone hold her.  When I finally got to feed her that afternoon, I was able to see how her sickness had progressed.  I felt that we needed to take her to the hospital, so Mark and Dallas gave her a blessing and off we went.

Since Paige was only 31 days old, they took things pretty seriously.  She had a cough, a fever of 101.2, an ear infection, and she was listless and dehydrated.  The doctor felt it was important that we go to Primary Children's Hospital.  Before we knew it I was being loaded up into an ambulance with my sweet baby and we were headed down the canyon.

It was all a whirlwind!  After being given some tylenol and some fluids through an IV, Paige was alert for the first time in about 2 days.  At Primary Children's they did a Lumbar Puncture (Spinal Tap) to check for Meningitis, a nasal swab, drew blood for labs, started another IV (she had one in each arm), gave her a catheter in order to collect a urine sample, and took her vital signs and temperature more times than I can count.

When all was said and done, Paige was diagnosed with an ear infection and Parainfluenza Virus- something that is no big deal in adults, but can cause problems in small infants because of their tiny airways.  Her symptoms included:

• Fever
• Congestion
• Cough
• Ear Infection
• Listlessness
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Loss of appetite
• Dehydration
• Weight loss- At the doctor's office last Thursday they weighed her and she was 9 lbs.  By the time they discharged us on Monday, Paige weighed 8 lbs 7 oz.  That's a big weight loss for such a little baby!

They gave her an antibiotic intravenously and hooked her up to monitors so they could watch her breathing and oxygen levels.  They also performed a deep suction so that they could clear her out and allow her to breathe and eat better.  That night was a rough night.  Lots of coughing, her fever came back, and the monitors were constantly going off because she was holding her breath and her oxygen levels were too low.  They had her on oxygen for a little while, but were able to take her off of it fairly quickly.

By the morning her fever had broken and she had her appetite back!  It made all the difference in the world.  In the morning we were talking about staying another day, but by that afternoon she was doing so much better that we were confident in taking her home that night.

We were discharged at 10PM on Monday night- 32 hours after we took her to the ER in Heber.

Today we took her to her follow up exam.  I knew she still wasn't feeling well because she has been crying and fussing so much.  She also hasn't been sleeping at night- which is a huge change when she normally has been sleeping from 10:30 until about 5:30 every night.  Turns out her ear infection had progressed and ruptured her ear drum!  Now that she is on antibiotics for that, we have already seen a big difference in how she feels.

It has been so sad to watch her be so sick.  I've never had a baby this young be sick before and I hope I never do again!  We're so grateful that we could take her to a place that she could receive such excellent care.  My poor baby.