on (what day is it?).....sunday night, makena was acting extra snuggly before bed. i felt her head and she seemed warm so we took her temp, 101.3. gave her some tylenol and hoped that would help. i was supposed to leave the next morning to drive up to merced for the week to see my best girl friends from college. kena woke up miserable at 2:30 and her temp was 102. more meds. she wouldn't get comfortable so we stuck her in our bed (read:mom doesn't sleep). I laid there for hours but at least she passed out. woke up and took her temp again and now it was 103.8. too high for my comfort so we took her to urgent care.
they diagnosed her with the onset of a sinus infection, a fever, a minor ear infection and wheezing in her chest. the wheezing made me nervous (although i never heard her do it). they gave her a breathing treatment and sent us on our way with 3 antibiotics and instructions to continue with tylenol and ibuprofen. i felt relieved that we had answers. little did i know.
i gave her her first round of meds at 3pm and she seemed to instantly switch from lethargic to perky and full of energy. i didn't think much of it because she wasn't acting unusual, just hyper.
fast forward to bedtime. we gave her some tylenol and another dose of albuterol (was directed to give 3 times a day). she fell asleep in less than 15 minutes so we figured everything was fine. well she woke up about 30 minutes later completely panicked. usually if she wakes up we can just go in there and rub her back for a minute and she calms right down. not this time. she was acting....weird. it's as though she was seeing things. she was wide-eyed and frantic. staring at nothing in her room like it was a monster. asking me "what's that? what's that?" while pointing and staring. it really creeped me out, like she was seeing ghosts or something demonic. she kept screaming for me even when i was holding her. i finally got her to mellow out a bit but while she laid in my arms she was just bug-eyed staring at me. i'm pretty positive she was hallucinating. we decided to turn her lights on and let her leave her room in case she was having a bad dream or was afraid of the dark. she starts running down the hall yelling something that we didn't understand and was just frantic the whole time. it's like she was having an anxiety attack or something. i freaked and grabbed all her meds and started reading the labels looking for possible side effects. didn't find anything assuring so i called the urgent care we were at earlier. i tell the doctor everything and he basically tells me he doesn't know what is going on but that i needed to take her to the er. ugh.
we packed up what we needed and headed to the er. we got there at 10:20pm but didn't get taken to a room until about 12:30am. the whole time in the waiting room makena wouldn't sit still. i know some moms are thinking, she's a toddler, of course she's not gonna sit still. but i know my child (who is normally very mellow) and i knew something wasn't right. it's like she was on crack, no joke.
once we finally got to the room she started acting less delusional and more just like she was hopped up on a bunch of sugar. she was actually cracking us up. all of the nurses were guys and girls under the age of 35 it seemed and they were all good looking. girlfriend was flirting with every male nurse that walked by. waving and blowing kisses through the glass. it was hilarious, they all got a kick out of it. one nurse in particular fell in love with makena and took her to go pick out a toy from this big bin to take home.
they tested for a uti or exposure to any other possible drugs (as though we have crack and keep it lying around the house?). at 5:15 am they finally discharged us and told us that she had an abnormally adverse reaction to the abuterol. they also checked her ears, chest and sinuses multiple times and said they were all clear. turns out the urgent care dr misdiagnosed her and put her on 3 meds for no reason. this whole mess could have been avoided if this lady knew what she was doing :/
kena finally passed out at the er around 4:45 but only for about 30 minutes before we were released. she woke up while we put her in the car and she was a wreck. she was just exhausted and had been poked and proded and was just done. we got her home and jon spent a good 30 minutes trying to calm her down. she was inconsolable. makena cried, i cried....we were all just over it. is it possible for a toddler to have panic attacks? cause i get them and what makena experienced (they have happened about 4 times in her life) are just like mine. anyways, we all finally fell asleep around 6:15am.
i had to set my alarm for 10am to be at an ob appt I had at 11. makena woke up out of sorts at 9 so i spent some time getting her back to sleep but by then it was too late for me to go back to bed. 3 hours just doesn't do it for me.
i got to my appt and waited a while. i was nervous because i knew i probably wouldn't get good news. i went in because (without getting too detailed) i've been experiencing a lot of low pressure during the last few weeks/months. it's too early for this to be normal so i wanted to make sure everything was ok. luckily elias is as active and healthy as usual! got to see him on the ultrasound for a second and the dr kept laughing at how active he is (must take after his dad). my cervix is closed which is very important but they are gonna check to make sure it's not thinning at my anatomy scan next week.
i was told that my split ab muscles (diastasis recti) from my pregnancy with makena could be part of the reason he's laying so low and causing pressure. she told me no lifting makena (what?!?) and that when i'm not doing something absolutely necessary, i need to be lying down. i dunno how i'm gonna manage that for the next 21 weeks. it's going to be a long journey. i'm so thankful for an amazing husband who is so helpful. not only does he work but now he is taking on all major household duties. (he and makena are doing the grocery shopping for the week. i've only gotten two phone calls regarding questions about my list!) i see a lot of crock pot meals in our immediate future.
we forced makena to wake up around 1:30pm.
through these hard times it's so easy for me to feel defeated and sorry for myself but then i think about families with kids who have terminal cancer or issues along those lines and i count my blessings. i just wanna keep this little man inside as long as possible and i will do what it takes to get him here safely.
happy new year. and congrats to you if you stay up til midnight. i'll be lucky if i see 10pm tonight. (god willing makena sleeps ok). until next year...
