First trip to the ER

Well, yesterday she had a fever of 103F so we called the pediatrician and they said to give her Motrin. It helped and we gave her another dose at night. Today she was doing ok, kinda her usual cranky self, but because she still had a fever we called the pediatrician again and they told us to give her Tylenol if her fever was below 103F. So we gave her some Tylenol around 10:30 am. And again it helped. At around 2:30 pm, Billy was going to put her down for her nap and asked me to give her another dose of Tylenol because she felt warm and it had been 4 hrs. But as soon as I gave it to her, she went on a daze. Her eyes went up to the side, kind of like she was looking up to the ceiling. Not responding when Billy and I were calling her. And her tongue looked kinda purple and swollen. I freaked out and told Billy to call the pediatrician. I was crying hysterically and since the secretary was asking me all kind of random questions I just hanged up and told Billy to call her cellphone. When he was finally able to talk to her, she told him to take Bella to the Children's Hospital in Madera. We were already driving and so we made the 1 hr trip there.

While we were driving I was praying that they would see us fast. I've been to the ER and sometimes they take forever to see you. So when we got there, I was first in line and they saw us right away. They took our information, took Bella's signs (temperature, weight) and then told us to wait outside. Her temperature at that point was 103.1*F. She said if we had to wait for more than an hour to tell her so she could take Bella's temperature again. So I kinda got discouraged because I didnt want to wait for an hour for a room. But thankfully we only waited about 5 minutes and then they called us to put us in a room. The nurses and the doctors came in right away and examined her. The doctor said they were going to run some tests - blood test, urine exam, x-ray - to find where the infection was. Poor Bella was so tired she felt asleep, but only for 5-10 minutes because then the nurse came to take her blood.

That's when the next torture session began. A first nurse came and tried for 5-10 minutes to draw blood from Bella's arm. That's was terrible. We had to hold her down and the nurse poked both her arms and wiggled the needle inside her arm trying to find the vein. Nothing. She went out and brought another nurse who did the same, but thankfully she got it and was able to draw her blood pretty fast. Not without Bella screaming her head out and making me cry too. *sigh* That was painful. Then, another set of nurses came and had to do a catheter to draw urine. More pain and crying. But that went a lot faster and I just didn't look so I wouldn't be traumatized. Finally, they took us to the x-ray room for a chest x-ray. And even though it wasn't painful, she had to be strapped down so she wouldn't move. After that we went back to the room and waited for the results. She was too cranky after all the exams to take a nap, so we just played on her bed. The good thing is that her fever had broken after her earlier nap.

Anyways, after some time the doctor came back and told us that she had some pneumonia and prescribed some antibiotics for her to take. Every 12 hrs for 10 days. And watch her fever closely! We left the hospital around 7:30 pm and she felt asleep as soon as Billy started the car. We got her prescription filled when we got to Merced and hopefully she'll get better soon!

Thank you for all your prayers and support! We really appreciate it!