The Bad Mommy Chronicles: July 2007

AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!

Okay, just had to get that out.

Sabrina started getting sick a few weeks ago. High fevers (102-103 F), crabby and miserable. 10 days of fevers (temps up and down) before the doctor's office triage nurses decided that she needed to be seen (then the doctor bitches at me for not bringing her in sooner - of course!). They find nothing wrong, except the raging fever. Blood tests and a clean-catch urine specimen ordered. Getting a clean catch from a 2-yr-old girl - HAH!! So they try a catheter. They make me help hold her down while she screams bloody murder; they can get the catheter in the urethra, but it won't advance. Child continues to scream, they get a smaller catheter. Again, it goes in but won't advance. After 20 minutes of attempts, child screaming and crying constantly, they give up and give us a bag. The bag opening attaches with adhesive around the entire genital area. That's about as comfortable as you would imagine. (Took 18 hours before she finally had enough pee in there to even test.) Poor kid.

Then came the blood tests. One at night, after-hours, at the hospital. Would've been when the lab was open, if they hadn't taken so long trying and failing to insert the catheter. They took two tubes of blood. Poor kid.

Next day: Doctor calls and says that it appears to be something viral, she suspects mono. They need more blood to confirm. I take Sabrina back to the vampires. The head vampire isn't sure the child has enough blood left to take what they need. She's only 21.5 pounds (age 2.5 yrs) and they need two more full tubes. They realize they have no choice, so once again Mommy gets to be the bad guy and help hold her down while the vampires do their thing. Sabrina got a hand loose in the middle of the first tube and pulled the freakin' needle out!! Blood everyfrickinwhere! Took nearly 30 seconds before all the adults realized "Doh! Tourniquet's still on!" and released the tourniquet, stopping the intense blood flow. OMG - what a mess! And they still needed more blood, so she got poked in the other arm and they got the blood they needed. Sabrina fell asleep before we even got to the car. Not sure if it was exhaustion or just blood loss, but at least it was quiet! Poor kid.

Doctor called the next morning, says the mono test is negative, but they're pretty sure whatever she has is viral. So the Rx is rest and liquids. Duh!! Day after that, doctor calls back - the more definitive Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) test is positive, so IT IS MONO. Still viral, still nothing to do but treat the symptoms and wait. Joy. And because it has a 4-6 week incubation period, we will likely never know where she got it. It's not super-contagious, less so than a common cold, and is spread by kissing or sharing cups/eating utensils. So we've tried to make sure no one shares Sabrina's cups or kisses her on the mouth.

It's been several weeks now since this whole debacle began and Sabrina is MUCH better. The fevers stopped shortly after the blood-letting (we were starting to think the blood-letting had cured her!) and she has slowly returned to her happy, silly self.

But now, and I know you saw this coming, David has been taking naps during the day (he's 6.5 years old!) and has been somewhat feverish at night (though much lower-grade fevers than Sabrina's). I'm pretty sure he has it too, but I see no point in dragging him in for blood tests to confirm a virus that has no specific treatment besides rest and liquids and Tylenol for the fever. Anyway, Davey is at my in-laws for the week - they raised 4 kids, they can handle it!! Bwahahahaha!