home at last

We arrived at the ER yesterday around 10:00am, we left the hospital at 1:50pm today. They admitted baby Doodle and pumped him full of fluid. His eyes were down right puffy by this morning. He was dehydrated and his sugar levels were low. His bicarbonate level was 4 when we arrived and 21 when we left (it is supposed to be in the twenties normally). His sugar level was 42 yesterday morning and 68 this afternoon. He was given three bolases of fluid in the ER and a maintenance amount consistently throughout the rest of the day and all through the night.

Speaking of night, it is extremely difficult to sleep in a hospital. Our room was right next to the bathroom and people kept letting the door slam behind them whether it was 2:00 pm or am. Then the nurse comes in to check on BD's pulse and IV every few hours. As if those aren't enough disturbances the machine BD was hooked up to started beeping, sounding some kind of alarm, and our nurse couldn't hear it from the nurse station so I had to go out there at 3:00 am to ask him to come shut it off. The noise hadn't awakened BD, but the nurse coming in to straighten out the machine did. I had to climb back into his bed with him to help him fall back asleep. As it was he didn't fall asleep until about 10:30 pm. He woke up at 6:00 am when the nurse came in for one last check of things before he went off duty. So we've been up ever since.

As his numbers improved and as he retained what he drank he became more and more like himself. By the time we left this afternoon he had eaten a whole plain bagel, some Cheerios and a few crackers. He refused the scrambled eggs we ordered for him. He's still drinking Gatorade, because, oh yea I forgot to mention this, his virus has moved to his bowels and now he has diarrhea. They diagnosed him with viral gastroenteritis which can be caused by a number of different viruses including rotaviruses, and symptoms usually take 1-2 days after the infection. I do recall one of the receptionists talking about a rotavirus when baby Doodle and I were at his pediatrician for his well visit on Friday. Thanks a lot! The sheer incompetence of the nurse who gave BD his shots and other stuff is material for about three more posts so I won't get into it here.

I am now in the middle of the disinfecting our house process. Wish me luck.