the unexpected....

We watched sweet Miss P progressively get worse as the weekend grew near and the idea of traveling back 10 hours with a sick baby didn't exactly thrill me, so we decided to push driving back til Sunday if it ran its course like Jaden's did, then we'd be on the road Sunday morning with a baby girl on the mend. Saturday as we were out running errands before I started to pack up for the morning drive, we noticed Preslies breathing got very fast and labored...there were no doctor offices open that Saturday, so we gave in, and headed to the ER - germs, long wait, more germs, but it was a last minute decision that I am so thankful we made. We signed in and I quickly scanned the ER to see very few seats left open. My first thought was I am going to leave here so angry that we wasted 5 hours to be told she has a viral infection that needs to run its course as we hoped to dodge all the other germs floating around the same ER. Apparently Miss P didn't look good to anyone, because essentially they put us in front of everyone out there and just a few short min later, we were taken out of the private waiting room we were given and taken back to an exam room.

waiting patiently in the waiting room

 When Miss P was checked in, she was on IBO, so her temp read normal, but I had explained she had been fighting a fairly low-grade fever off and on for 4 days. In the exam room they decided to do a test for Strep, Flu, RSV and a chest Xray. Chest xray showed some cloudiness in the lungs and definite Croup - narrowed airway-. From the time we were taken back to the time they decided to try to check a urine sample, I had noticed that Miss P was very warm and becoming very agitated - yes naturally the ER does that to you, but the warm temp had me concerned. The nurse rechecked and the forehead thermometer read 103.5, which was then verified by a rectal temp. They then threw her on a monitor for her saturation and gave her something for her fever. She finally snuggled up against me, and began to doze off, immediately her saturation's dropped below 88, and the assumption that some medicine and steroids should do the trip flew out the window. the nurse then entered again to inform us we weren't going anywhere....we were being admitted to Lea County Regional Med Center....yay! :(

Everything just hitting her at once...high fever, low sats...my baby is sick!

It was finally 11 that night that they showed us to our room on the 3rd floor of this very small, very archaic hospital. We got her settled in her crib, filled up the entire packet with Preslie's medial history and said goodbye to J-Bear and Kurt and sent them home. P and I settled in for the night and I closed my eyes hoping the observation period would end in the morning and we could - go home!

The 'croup' tent, which I find out soon after it's a huge waste of time!

The night was filled with the all to familiar alarm sounds that I became very used to after hearing them for 16 months straight. Preslie's saturation levels were staying low and her breathing very labored and worrisome. The Respiratory Therapist brought in a 'croup tent' at 5 the next morning and was doing breathing treatments every 3 hours as well as eye drops to her suddenly very infected eyes. Since it was Sunday and everything seems to be 'slower paced' in this town, the doctor didn't come to see us until well into the day. Preslie's saturation's while away were only a bit over 90, but her fever kept spiking the the doctor didn't feel good letting her go just yet. Observation period had now turned into a 'hospital stay'. Over the next several hours I realized that not only was I doing the job of the nurses, but that in most cases I knew more then they did. After arguing with several of the techs and nurses about how to take a proper, trusted temperature on a baby, Kurt and I decided we needed to get our child out of there. The tech would take an underarm temp that read 97.9, walking away confident in the fact that that was accurate until I stopped her and told her to take it properly because clearly she was NOT at 97.9....rectal temp verified my assumptions and read 102.7....several times this happened. Sunday night her saturation's were dropping into the 70's in her croup tent with O2 being pumped in as well. She wasn't getting better, the care was less then acceptable and I started to wonder how long it really would be before we actually got to see home again.

That face says it all...get me out of here, get me to a real hospital!

First thing Monday morning after seeing my babies heart rate reach 203 I demanded we be transferred only to hear the pediatrician there say 'I agree....'. The next several hours the pediatrician and apparently the hospital director fought with our insurance company to transfer her back to Phoenix. The insurance company felt that despite that was HOME, and all of Preslie's specialists were there, that it was too far and unnecessary to transfer her that far. She said that if we demanding Phoenix it could take 4-5 days to authorize! I had seen the despair too many times pouring from my babies' eyes that I asked to be transferred to the nearest large and reliable hospital so that night we were transported by ambulance 2 hours away to Lubbock, Texas - University Medical Center, part of Texas A&M. ....The second the doors opened, I knew we were finally in a 'real' hospital, with 'real' doctors, and 'real' nurses...