What I didn't expect was another trip to the hospital!!! This kid has great timing, let me tell you. At some point during our little trip to Georgia for Klaw's Christening, we encountered a nasty virus and it reared it's ugly little head Christmas morning. I'll leave out the gruesome details, but by about 7pm we knew we had no choice but to take Klaw to the emergency room. Taking Klaw to the ER means spending at least one night at the hospital. Also, I didn't mention this yet, we were expecting a foot of snow - beginning Christmas night. WOO FREAKING HOO!!! Another great Christmas memory in the books!
Well, I called Klaw's geneticist, Dr. Proud, on our way in and she was able to give the ER the heads up that we were coming. It's a good thing I did that, too. In the pandemonium of getting ready to go to the ER for "one" night during the beginning of a massive snow storm we left Klaw's diaper bag at home. The diaper bag that I always have with me. The diaper bag that has his medical folder in it. The medical folder that has multiple copies of his ER PROTOCOL LETTER IN IT!!!! Talk about freak-out panic attack in the middle of the CHKD parking lot....Geez. "Poor Chris," is all I have to say about that.
However, since Dr. Proud had called ahead of time, we didn't even have to go through triage. We were immediately escorted to a room and his D10 fluids had already been ordered. Even though he had been acting fine all day & never ran a temp, he was evidently more dehydrated than we initially thought. He had 4 sticks before they could get an iv catheter in. It didn't help when I told the nurses that it's easier to insert a catheter through the veins near his elbows. No, she insisted that she just hated to put iv catheters there because their whole arm is out of commission with that location. Ugh. It was terrible. Next time, there will be no trying to insert an iv catheter in his hand. The more I think about it, the more annoyed I am with myself that I wasn't more insistent about it. Thankfully, Klaw bounces back pretty quickly and was flirting with everyone immediately after they stopped poking him.
By the time the 7am staff change rolled around, there was a lot of snow and a lot of people couldn't get to work. We were hoping to get the heck out of there - I was also hoping the snow wasn't so bad that Chris wouldn't be able to make it back to the hospital!!!! He did and we pressed the nurse & resident to talk to Dr. Proud about if we could be released because she had given us a time of 3pm for our discharge, if all was going well. Time passes...more time passes...more time passes...and TONS more snow falls. I start pressing harder about when we can leave and keep getting vague answers, "we're waiting on a stool sample," "haven't heard back from Dr. Proud," etc.
I got tired of waiting so I called Dr. Proud. Needless to say, she didn't know what the hold up was but she took care of it! The nurse was in with our discharge paperwork in about 15 minutes. Of course, she asked a fishing question to see if we had called Dr. Proud or if she had called on her own. You better believe I readily admitted that I had called Dr. Proud. I wasn't about to get stuck another night in the hospital if I didn't have to.
Well, we got home, Klaw was fine, and about two hours after getting home, Chris & I start having symptoms. (This virus was obviously the gift that keeps on giving) We are all now healthy, happy, and ready to ring in the new year...probably with England, though. We don't party down like we used to.
