The Patient

We finished school on June 1st.  The following week, Caroline wanted to do school, but she also wasn't feeling well.  She had spent the previous night throwing up several times with a 102.5 fever.  So, given the circumstances, I asked her what she wanted to do for school, and she wanted to practice writing on the dry erase board.  This is what she wanted to write (with a smile on her face):

"Caroline Sick xxx I do not feel well."

This was the beginning of the end for her.  That day she said her neck was hurting and I could see it was swollen.  After googling "swollen neck in kids" it seemed that its being tender and her lack of mobility required a call to the doctor.  She was diagnosed with swollen lymph nodes in her neck and given antibiotics.  Despite her being in pain, we felt that we were on the road to recovery.  We were also on the road to Virginia.  The poor, poor girl was miserable.  We were in the car for 12 hours the first day.  Caroline barely spoke a word except to whine/whimper.  When she tried to speak she sounded like Beaker from the Muppets.  Her face would just grimace in pain.  She played with nothing and she was upset that she couldn't look out the window because her head would fall down and she couldn't lift it back up.  We tried to immobilize it the best we could, but we were always having to push her head back up.  It was so sad to try to encourage her to use her hands and push her own head up when it would fall.

Day 2 of our drive, she seemed a little better.  She actually spoke more, ate more, and played for a brief time.  She liked the poppers we brought to use as communication devices for the car.  The purpose was that we could whisper to each other through the tubes so that we could talk without being too loud.  But this was thinking like an adult.  The boys found it hilarious to yell through the tubes into each other's ears.  Henry also liked to listen to himself talk.

We made it to Virginia, but Caroline was clearly not getting better on her antibiotics.  An Urgent Care facility sent us to the ER which did a CT Scan on her neck finding a golf ball size abscess.  She did really well at the ER that night.  They got an IV in her and did a round of IV antibiotics.  Her only qualm was that she had to wear the ugly blue gown.  She was adamant that we should not take a picture of her in it because, "I don't look good in it."  Our little vanity girl.  Needless to say, all pictures were taken covertly.  The ER docs gave us the opportunity to take her home and try to get the antibiotics in her, but we were to take her back if she didn't take the meds.  We said good night and left before midnight.  We should have said, "See you tomorrow."

ER - Visit 1

It took Todd and I the entire next morning just to get her medicine.  Apparently this very common antibiotic wasn't so common in liquid form.  We were also warned that it is one of the worst tasting medicines on the market.  That and we had to give it to her three times a day at 12.5 mL a pop.  We had six bottles of this medicine from the pharmacy.  We got one dose in her and we were happy campers.  We were going to do this.  It came time for dose #2, and she spit it out.  Tried again, spit it out.  Again, spit it out.  So we packed her back up and were on the way back to the hospital.  She ended up having a fever, too, which would have landed us there anyway, but I couldn't help feeling defeated on the drive over.  After a long line of doctors and ENTs paraded through her room, touching her neck which was very painful, she was over the whole hospital thing.  The only word she uttered for the next 4 days to any and all medical personnel was a terse, "No!"  She was mad.  She was hungry and thirsty and crying that she missed the boys.  It was a sad sight.  We slept a good 2 1/2 hours that night.  From 4:00 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.  We quickly learned that doctors made their rounds at 6:30 and 7:00 a.m.

ER Visit 2 - She is one cute patient

Sunday afternoon, she had her surgery.  She wasn't really scared because I don't think she really understood what was going on.  But when she came out of the anesthesia, she was mad as a hornet.  The nurses ended up giving her two shots of morphine to try to calm her in case she was in pain, but she was still insistent that she wanted to walk to the bathroom by herself.  When I tried to calmly explain that she could not walk anywhere, but I'd be happy to carry her, she let it be known, "No!  I want to walk myself!"  After guzzling down a ton of water and allowing the morphine to take effect, she calmed down.  She even waited until we were back in her room so she could walk herself to the bathroom.  Ms. Independent.

Post-op

The rest of her stay had its ups and downs.  She was not a fan of the nurses who came in to check vitals every four hours.  She was not a fan of the doctors who woke her up in the morning and touched her sensitive neck.  She was not a fan of the IV that hindered her movement.  But she had some great joys, too.  The Child Life people showed up each day and asked her if they could get her anything to play with.  She actually smiled.  The first day they gave her a stuffed animal, Beary, a puzzle, and crayons with paper.  When they left to get the stuff Caroline whispered to me, "Can I have a doll house?"  Yeah....not quite.  The next day she got a Barbie, playdoh, and blocks.  Then more playdoh and paints, She was loving it.  And because she had a no-contact room, she got to keep everything they gave her.


She loved her cards from the boys.

The other joy she had in the hospital was that she figured out how to make her bed go up and down.  She liked to have her head upright when her neck hurt, so she'd push the button to keep the head of the bed always fully upright.  And that is where the battle began.  She'd fall asleep and I'd lower it some so her head and neck could rest back some.  She'd stir.  I'd wait another 10 minutes and lower it a little more.  This process would repeat itself until a nurse would come in to check her vitals, she'd wake up and see she wasn't completely upright and push that button to get her back to where she wanted to be.

Sleeping upright...

She also loved controlling the TV remote 24 hours a day.
Her appetite returned immediately after surgery and she was enjoying the food.  She basically got whatever she wanted.  Here she is eating pumpkin pie filling with Frito "spoons."

We knew she was feeling better (and that she was watching too much TV), when she washed her hands in the bathroom, she'd put her hand under the automatic paper towel dispenser and say, "Power up!"

She had to stay in the hospital until her bacteria culture grew so they knew what it was sensitive to so that they could give her just the right antibiotic.  That finally came back Tuesday morning and it turned out the culture was sensitive to everything which was good for us.  Next she had to take her antibiotics (a much better tasting one) orally before they'd let her go.  It took an hour, but she got the 5mL down.  Of course, she had to do it all by herself.  She was moving her neck much more than she had been, so the discharge orders were put into motion.

On our way out we had to get a picture of her with the kids dancing statute.  Every time she turned the TV on, it would briefly show a picture of the kids dancing statute with the hospital in the background.  And every time she'd say, "I don't want this." as if it were a channel to watch.

She was so happy to get back to her brothers and her grandparents and to join in all the fun they had been having.
The rest of her vacation was much better.
When Todd made it back to Houston, he had a letter from our insurance company stating Caroline had been preapproved for her hospital stay.  That made our vacation a little better, too.  :)