I gave in, or did I give up...

Kaitlyn was still barely eating last night.  She was drinking sips of apple juice with lots of encouragement.  She still couldn't take her pain meds because they made her so sick, she was barely sleeping and had circles under her eyes and I was exhausted.

I called the surgeon/ENT doctor like I was supposed to if we felt complications were arising.  The on call doctor called back who said that it wasn't really their problem, it was the pediatrician's problem.  Our pediatrician wasn't the one on call, and when I called them they said we really needed to talk to the surgeon about it.  I had enough and in we went to Mercy Folsom.  A little more of a drive than Mercy San Juan, but there are typically way fewer people there, it's cleaner in the ER and really, I hate MSJ's ER.

In we went.  Within 5 minutes we were in triage and Kaitlyn was doing ok.  She's lost 6 pounds since Monday, which I expected, her blood pressure was normal as was everything else.  The PA ordered an IV and labs and we went back to the waiting room to wait for a bed.  Within a few minutes she had a bed.  From there, it went downhill.

Kaitlyn hates IVs, as many adults.  But, she actually did pretty good.  She didn't thrash around, cried a little, but stayed calm.  On all three attempts.  Yes, three attempts.  With the big needle instead of accepting the kindness of another nurse and her volunteering not only a smaller needle but also her assistance.  Kaitlyn stayed still even as they dug around in her arm looking for the vein.  She kept asking them why they couldn't do it when she was being so still.

After the third try, I was done.  And I told the nurse as much.  Either find someone else to do it properly or get another game plan under way.  Through the third attempt, and that blown vein, they were able to get her blood drawn.

The new game plan was a lidicane jelly that basically would numb the throat.  Same nurse thought to put it all in her mouth at once after she asked to do just a little at a time.  She had already been told there was swelling, her stomach was upset and she had been crying after those three IV attempts.  It resulted in her gagging, feeling like she was choking and couldn't breathe and then throwing it all up.  Which meant we had to do it again.  This time we did it Kaitlyn's way and it was fine.  Next was some zofran and then some juice.  Around that time Kaitlyn's labs came back boderline normal and we got to go home with a prescription for zofran.

Nights have been rough, she doesn't really sleep because it hurts to swallow and she's drooling and feeling like she's choking on saliva.  We got home around midnight and she slept until 2:30.  At about 3:30, daddy and I got her pain meds in while the last dose of zofran was still effective.  She fell back to sleep and slept all the way until 11:00!  YAY!!

She's in good spirits today, taking the zofran and the pain meds and drinking.  But, all food is disgusting, so who knows how that's going to play out...