In my last post, I mentioned that Cadence has been sick. Her illness took a bit of a turn that resulted in us staying over night at
Levine Children's Hospital here in Charlotte. I realize that many of you have heard the story from other people or from us in bits and pieces, so I thought it would be best if I told the whole story from the beginning. :)
(Bear with me as I've told this story to several doctors and nurses over the last few days! It's becoming quite repetitive!)
Cadence woke up Friday night/Saturday morning vomiting. The vomiting continued all day on Saturday. She wasn't able to keep anything down. Saturday afternoon, she also started having some diarrhea. By Sunday, the vomiting had stopped, but the diarrhea continued. She still wasn't really keeping anything in her system. Of course, she wasn't really interested in taking anything in, either. We tried and tried, with not a lot of success. Saturday and Sunday Cadence ran a fever pretty much continuously even with Motrin. By Sunday evening, she was so lethargic that Matt and I began to worry that she was getting too dehydrated. We took her to the Children's ER (same hospital mentioned above). There, she was able to hold some water and part of a Popsicle in, so they sent us home. Monday morning, Cadence was vomiting again, still not interested in eating or drinking, and still having some bouts with diarrhea although not as much as the weekend. We put in a call to our regular pediatrician, just to inform them of the situation. Monday afternoon, we thought things were beginning to look up as Cadence had started to show some interest in food and drink again and the only vomit was the one from that morning. She hadn't had a fever since Sunday evening either, so that was good. Tuesday rolled around and I subbed at preschool that morning. She spent most of the morning napping while Matt worked at home. I was able to convince her to eat a little bit of lunch, then she went back to sleep for a good part of the afternoon. No more vomiting, but she was still having some of the diarrhea she had had before. For dinner, she decided she wanted some pancakes (of all things) and she did eat half of one. She went right to bed after dinner. Matt and I decided to call our pediatrician on Wednesday morning to give them another update. Wednesday morning, I was called to sub again so Matt worked at home again. He was able to get her an appointment in the morning so he took her to the doctor. Our ped informed him that she was definitely dehydrated and wanted him to take her back to the ER to start an IV. He called ahead so the wait wouldn't be as long. Matt called me at preschool and I met him at the ER. A friend took Ainsley home from preschool so she was taken care of. (Thanks, Kim!) We were informed at the ER that they wanted to admit her for the night. The IV was started in the ER and we were transferred upstairs to the hospital floor.
We wanted Ainsley's routine to stay as close to normal as possible so Matt went to pick her up to take her to her swimming lessons. After her swim class, they picked up some dinner for us and headed up to the hospital so that Ainsley could visit with Cadence for a bit. Matt returned home with Ainsley for the night and I stayed with Cadence at the hospital.
Our night at the hospital was, well, a night spent at the hospital. We were up several times for various reasons--potty, snack, drink, vital signs, noise from helicopters landing, fixing the IV line, etc.
Matt returned to the hospital after he dropped Ainsley off at preschool this morning. Cadence was SO happy to see him! She got out of bed and played with him on the couch in our room for a while. She had eaten a decent (not great) breakfast and had some juice so her energy level was definitely picking up. After she had used up all of her energy, she took a nice long nap. We had a couple of visitors during her nap so we'll have to tell her about how she slept through her hospital visitors when she's older. ;-) When she woke up, she had some cheese pizza and more juice for lunch. I think it was that last nap and lunch that really did the trick! Earlier when our nurse had been in, she didn't think we'd be going home today. (They like to see the kiddos up and moving pretty well before sending them home.) By the time the hospital pediatrician came to see her, Cadence was all over the place. Matt and I had to watch her IV lines closely so that she didn't accidentally pull it right out. She was talking and playing as if she'd never been sick. It really was an amazing turn around. The doctor asked us if we'd like to go home as he saw no reason for her to stay another night. Of course, we were thrilled! The discharge process didn't take near as long as we thought it would, so I was back home with Cadence around 4:30 this afternoon. Matt and Ainsley (who he had to pick up from our friend Kim's--she'd gone there again after school today) followed and our family was back together at home again!
Cadence's diagnosis was
rotavirus--a virus that's pretty common in young children. Now we're hoping that no one else in the house is infected!
s would go out to dinner together. We left to go to dinner as planned, but we didn't go where I thought we were going. We went instead to the restaurant *I* thought we were going to go to on Friday night with the whole family. Sur
prise! Matt had arranged with everyone to meet there on Wednesday instead. So, dinner at P.F. Chang's on Wednesday night with Matt's parents, my dad and step-mom, my grandmother, my brother, Matt's aunt, and our girls. (Matt's parents left their house with the girls just after we left.) Dinner was fantastic and we learned that our girls happen to love lettuce wraps! They used chop-sticks too and thought that was really cool! Ainsley got the hang of it pretty quickly. Cadence needed a little help, but she still enjoyed her food! Of course, there was cake too. I needed a little help blowing out the candles, and Ainsley was an eager little candle blower outer! ;-) 
