We were able to bring Emmaline home on Thursday, February 2nd. We started realizing about Saturday morning that something just was not right. She had not pooped, peed or eaten really the entire time she had been home. So we called the on call physician for advice about what to do. He told me to see if we could get at least 2 oz of formula down her or take her to the Emergency room. We were barely able to wake her up and she only took about an ounce. So we ran her over to the Emergency room. When we got there they took us straight back and right as we got in the back she pooped. EVERYWHERE. we ended up having to throw away the onesie she was wearing because it was covered in poop. It was even in her hair. She then became very awake. The nurses and doctors came in to look her over and everything looked ok except her temperature was a little low at about 96.5 degrees. They wanted to wait a little and take it again because it was low. When they came back and took her temperature it was 95.3 and they could not wake her up. This is when everyone started to panic.
They called the nurses and doctors in to put IVs in her and take a large amount of test. They took blood, urine and chest x-ray. While they were trying to take her urine and blood she stopped breathing and turned purple. They then had to put her on oxygen. The on-call pediatrician came in and said we had to admit her to the NICU. Once we got to the NICU, they had her on a heating bed to raise her temperature. She screamed as if she was in pain for a few hours and they were able to calm her down so she could sleep. Luckily, Jonathan and I were able to stay in the room with her that night. That first night was a very long night.
Sunday morning her pediatrician came in the morning to check on her. They were waiting for results of her test and he wanted to add a respiratory panel because he was afraid it was RSV. By Sunday night they had found something in both the urine and blood culture called Strep B. This is something that mothers pass onto their babies during birth. However, I was tested for it and my tests were negative. I was then told that she would probably be in the NICU at least another 7-10 days. Monday morning, the doctor came in to let me know about this test that that came back with the Strep B. He was wanting to redo all the blood tests to see if this was really the diagnosis or if the blood had been contaminated with it. (Strep B can also live on a person's hands). Now by this time she had been on 48 hours of antibiotics, so they were hoping that would not skew the results too much. The nurses came back in a did a ton more tests on her.
The pediatrician wanted to see us again in the evening, he was hoping we would have some answers. He was finally able to see us Monday night at about 9pm. He said that he had taken her original tests results to someone who worked with infectious diseases and he believed that the strand of Strep B was just a contaminate. So our doctor said that we were able to take her home but we had to watch her closely and if there were any symptoms at all to bring her back in immediately. We were released from the hospital Monday night. The nurses were even shocked. They had orders for us to stay for 7-10 days which included tons of antibiotics and fluids already ordered from the pharmacy.
We are just so happy to have her home. She is doing well at home with no other symptoms. I have to watch her temperature closely because anything out of the ordinary is cause for concern, but nothing so far. She is eating very well and pooping incredibly well. I was called yesterday to say that everything came back normal. He respiratory panel was negative for everything. There is a good chance that it was a bacterial that the antibiotics that she was on for the 48 hours wiped out. But we may just never know why she was so sick, we are just so glad she is no longer sick!
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