What A Night!

I started this post on the 12th but am just now finishing it up (a week late)! Once again, my Christmas post has been delayed. I had the best of intentions! Sorry, I know everybody is on pins and needles waiting for it! :)


We had an interesting evening last night. We were headed to my sister-in-laws about 6:00 to celebrate her husband's birthday when Brax announced his tummy hurt. It wasn't twenty seconds later that he started projectile vomiting all over the living room. We were just getting ready to walk out the door so I told Nate to go ahead and go over there for a little while and Brax and I would stay home. I made him a nice little spot to lay on the couch (and covered it with towels!), gave him a bowl in case he got sick again (a plastic one that we can throw away!) and he fell immediately to sleep. About 15 minutes later, he woke up and threw up again. I got him cleaned up and comfortable again and it wasn't 15 minutes later, he was doing it again. It was about this time that the phone rang. It was my husba reminding me that Brax had hit his head in the bathtub about 5:30 and so I might want to keep an extra careful eye on him. The vomiting continued until about 7:30 when I finally decided I had had enough. Nate dropped the girls off at my mom's on his way home and then we loaded Brax up and headed to the ER.


The doctor in the ER seemed very torn as to what he wanted to do. On one hand, Brax had vomited about 6 times in 2 hours, was not running a ever, no one at home had been sick lately, and had hit his head pretty hard in the bathtub. On the other hand, his neurological exam was normal and the flu has been going around. To know for sure what was going on, they would have to get a CT scan of his brain and make sure there was no swelling or brain bleeds of any sort. Interesting.... The doctor explained to us that a CT scan itself is not without risks and to get an accurate one, he would have to be sedated. According to him, a CT scan is about the same amount of radiation as 500 chest x-rays and just in case he would ever need one later in life, he didn't want to do one unnecessarily. In the end, he decided to go ahead and do one, just to be cautious. Nate and I were ok with this, although since I am pregnant, I wouldn't be allowed to go back with him for it. They called out the most experienced radiologist to do the scan so we had to wait a little while for her to show up. They came and got him and I waited in the waiting room in the ER. It wasn't five minutes later and they were back. Apparently as soon as they got him back there, he perked up a little bit and started playing around with Nate. The doctor didn't think that was typical of someone with a brain injury and since he was so hesitant to do the scan in the first place, he called it off! They did go ahead and put in an IV for some fluids and did some bloodwork. His bloodwork showed he was fighting an infection so that confirmed even more that he probably just had the flu and it was all a coincedence that he started throwing up after hitting his head. They gave him 2 bags of fluid through his IV and sent us on our way! He was a real trooper and even though he didn't feel good, he was so tough when they put in his IV. No screaming and crying, just a few, "Ouch, it hurts." The nurses who put it in were really impressed. He did wake up once in the night and get sick again but was much better by Sunday!

We got Brax all fixed up just in time for me to wake up Monday morning throwing up! I even had to cancel a sub job for the day! By Monday evening I was still throwing up and my back hurt so bad. I was afraid I was getting dehydrated and maybe getting a kidney infection so off to the ER we went! They sent me to OB and got me all hooked up to monitors. The baby was doing fine so once I heard that I could relax a little bit! They put in an IV and did some bloodwork. Apparently my bloodwork showed that I was pretty severely dehydrated, had an infection, and that my potassium levels were dangerously low. They gave me some fluid, an antibiotic, some Tylenol (I had a fever of 100.5), and 4 bags of Potassium! They even had to hook me up to a heart monitor because somehow your Potassium levels affect your heart so they have to be careful when it is so low and also careful when they are giving it to you through IV. Luckily by the next morning everything looked much better and I was able to come home. My potassium levels had only come up from 2.2 to 2.4 (normal is somewhere between 3.5 and 5.0, I think) so I have to take pills at home and have it closely monitored until it comes up to normal. I did have it checked a couple of days ago and it was up to 3.0 so hopefully we are on our way! The doctor said that excessive vomiting can cause it to be depleted so he thought that since I had been vomiting all day, it had just come down that day. I suspect that it has been low for awhile and mentioned it to him last time I saw him. He agreed that maybe the morning sickness early in pregnancy had cause it and it just hadn't come up since then. I have a lot of symptoms of it and I am sure the symptoms wouldn't show up in just one day.

I came home to Brecca throwing up but luckily my mom had taken the day off and was able to take care of her while I slept most of the day! I did feel much better and was even ready to sub on Wednesday! It was bad stuff but luckily it didn't last very long! Brecca was better by Wednesday as well and was able to go back to school. Nate and Braylee never did get it so hopefully they are out of the woods by now! We are definitely hoping and praying that we are now immune to the flu bug that is out there ( I know....There are many, many more than just that one!) and that we will be healthy the rest of the winter!!!