Craziest week of '09

.....so far at least.

Part One

So I posted about Kyle's grandma's death 2 weeks ago (!sorry!). Kyle looked into flights and was not able to find an affordable one so he decided to drive, and that meant Anna-Jane and I got to go too! We left on Tuesday morning super early.

We stopped for lunch in Dumas (dooo- mus) where Anna-Jane ate some Apple Chicken baby food and we grabbed Subway. She was doing so well in the car watching videos and babbling at us, even laughing. We got almost to Amarillo when I heard the unmistakable sound of Anna-Jane losing all of the Apple Chicken in the back seat. We attributed it to car sickness, cleaned her up, changed her clothes, and hopped back on the road. Once in Amarillo, the "sickness" would not stop. I pulled over (Kyle had been on conference calls) and we sat there for about an hour while Anna-Jane lost everything in her stomach (over 15 times just at that stop).

"Daddy, I don't feel so good."

I found a Dollar Store and bought some towels and pedialyte. Tried the pedialyte. Pedilyte did not stay down. We made it to Memphis, TX (about 20 miles later and the heaving only stopped b/c she fell asleep from exhaustion). We called our dr. here and they were so awesome and found us a local clinic. She was so lethargic at this point that all she could do was just lay on my chest and close her eyes. She wasn't even fussing anymore, it was the saddest thing. I think we have video (bad parents? maybe. but when you can't do anything else, grab the camera).

The Memphis clinic got us in and out fast with a prescription for Phenergan and sent us on our way with strict warnings to keep an eye on her breathing since it can cause respiratory distress. I was super nervous after that, but desperate as she couldn't keep even water down. On the meds, she finally fell asleep...fitfully though. I wanted so bad to nurse her but she wasn't even keep that down so I had to hold off, which made her even more upset. At this point, we decided Houston was not going to be the end destination for the day and we would try to make it to Waco that night. By Wichita Falls, she was keeping sips of pedialyte down so I nursed her a little and we got back on the road with a happier and somewhat satiated sickly sweetie.

That night in Waco, she slept fairly well except for nursing and losing it again. We gave her one final dose of the medicine early in the morning (couldn't risk the breathing thing over night). Kyle left mid-day Wednesday to head to Normangee, TX for the viewing that night and the funeral the next morning. I tried to get us in with a local dr. as I was most nervous about dehydration. Anna-Jane is in the 2nd percentile for weight and everyone was telling us how fast babies can dehydrate. No one could take us last min. so my parent's neighbor, Heather, suggested going to the local ER that had an urgent clinic associated with it that took less serious cases. My mom and I made it there to a completely empty waiting room and they got us to triage and a room immediately. Once in this room, we were thinking...huh? This room was stark! If a room could be naked, this one was! It had a bed, a stainless steel rolling tray, an IV pole, and 2 trashcans. Nothing was on the walls, no phone, no tv, and the sink and medical gas things were in a closet that could be locked. The reason for this was explained later as someone (what their job was, I can't remember), but she confessed that we were in the "crazy" room. The were pretty full and put us into the phychiatric room!!! It was so ugly and depressing!

The dr. was pretty rude to us and scolded me for giving her the Phenergan since it is apparently "black labeled" for 2 and under (how was I supposed to know!!?). He declared her "not dehydrated". They offered to test her (disgusting smelling) diaper for infection, but we decilined since it would take another hour (their estimate, I was thinking it would be much longer- we were certainly not a priority). Relieved we took her home where she seemed to be recovering. That night a call from Kyle gave us Anna-Jane's diagnosis: the stomach flu. Kyle slept on the bathroom floor at the lodge he was at. The next morning, I woke to the same fate and a symptom that eluded Kyle and Anna-Jane, fever! No fun!!! Thankfully, this bug only lasted 24 hours.

You can see more pics and video from our time in TX at my sister's blog.

We were finally able to leave Friday morning, early again. We made it back to Colorado Springs by 5pm. The hurry back was because we had planned a ski weekend with our friends in Breckenridge. Continued in Part 2.