This past week has now just become a huge blur to me. The only way that I know how to describe it best is to do it day by day. Yes, this may be the longest blog known to man, but I promise in order to appreciate everything we went through, I have to throw in all details. So, here goes...
Monday, March 3rdI wake up around 1:30 and hear Dennis puking in the bathroom. He's got a horrible virus. He says that he's having diarrhea, vomiting, and horrible shooting pains in his abdomen. That morning, he said that there's no way he could drive himself to the doctor, but he thinks he needs to go. So, I call Deb to see if she can come over and watch Sadie while I take him to the doctor. So, once Deb shows up, off we go to try and find a place to take him. We first ventured to the emergency clinic at the end of our road, first stopping on the side of the road for Dennis to puke. They were way too busy, so then we go and wait for almost an hour at the CVS Minute Clinic in Hendersonville. When we finally got called back, the Nurse said that they couldn't see us for vomiting and diarrhea and she suggested we go to a Walk in Clinic in H'ville. So, we go to Sun Medical Walk in Clinic a few exits down. They saw us pretty quickly, but the Physicians Asst. that we saw was a huge jerk and basically just told Dennis that it must be a bug and gave him a shot in the rear of Phenergan. So, I took him home and he tried to sleep it off most of the day, but continued complaining of the shooting pains in his stomach. Later that afternoon, Deb convinced him to let me take him to the ER, so off we go to Skyline ER. It was slammed. But, we stayed anyways, and had to wait a little over an hour. We finally get a room, and we're only in there for about 5 minutes when someone knocks on the door. It's LJ! He says "Anna, I'm here to stay w/ Dennis. You need to go home b/c Sadie is throwing up and she's really sick". I'm thinking to myself...you've got to be kidding me. I have my husband laying here in the ER, and now my baby girl is at home throwing up continuously. What's a girl to do? So, I left my poor husband there and started home. Meanwhile, I'm crying, b/c I felt so torn. I wanted to stay w/ Dennis so bad, but I was also very worried about Sadie. When I got home, she looked pitiful. She was like a little ragdoll. A wet noodle. She continued to throw up and throw up and throw up. I called the on-call doctor who told us a few instructions and said to call back if she continued to throw up. Meanwhile, Dennis gets home from the ER. They doped him on Morphine, more Phenergan, and some Zofran. He's feeling a little better. The ER doctor told him it was just a really bad virus.
Monday Night/Tuesday, March 4thWe put Sadie to bed Monday night, b/c she was so exhausted from throwing up so much, but she seemed to have calmed down a bit. Keep in mind that her throwing up consisted of heavy vomiting, dry heaving, and barely able to catch her breath. It was awful and very scary. Deb decided to spend the night just in case we needed her, and to help me out, since my whole house was sick! Deb had just laid her head down to go to sleep, when Dennis had to wake her up and tell her that we were taking Sadie to Vanderbilt Children's ER, b/c she woke up throwing up again. Keep in mind, this was the night that horrible storms were headed our way. We all hate the storms!!! So, I called my mom and she came and got me, Deb, and Sadie, and off we were to the 2nd ER of the day. Dennis couldn't come, b/c he was so doped up from his ER trip. We waited about 3 hours or more before we were seen. This whole time, we all just handed Sadie off to each other, and she continued to be completely out of it. It was pitiful. She couldn't even hold her little head up. We finally got called back and got a room. They replaced the bed with a baby crib and got Sadie hooked up to everything. She had to get an IV, which I was freaking out about, but she did awesome. She barely even whined. I think she was too weak to do anything but lay there and look around the room.
They gave her lots and lots of fluids. Around 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, the Attending Physician came in to check on her, and we were all thinking we would be home free. Beddy-by...HERE WE COME! She checked on Sadie and said "once this fluid bag is done, we'll start her on a maintenance pack, which will take about 2 hours". 2 HOURS!!!!! My mom looked at me through exhausted eyes and said, "did she just say 2 hours?" By then, we were all so delirious. At one point, Deb stood at the window of our door and acted like she was screaming and waving her arms like "help me!!". Our nurse showed up a few minutes later with a popsicle for Sadie, b/c she thought that's what Deb was asking for. (she said she'd be back in 15 minutes w/ another popsicle and hadn't returned yet) Too funny! The worst part came when it was around 6:00, and once again, we thought we were about to go home. At one point, me and my mom had our heads leaned over on Sadie's crib. Deb had her head leaned back on the wall, and we were all trying to sleep. Anyways, the doctor was about to release us when we realized that Sadie felt really hot. So, they took her temp and realized she had a fever again. So, they had to do a catheter on her. Okay, for you moms out there who have ever had to see your baby be catheterized....you know how horrible it is. If you've never had to go through it, you'll never understand. It was the worst thing in the whole world to me. First of all, the girl that did it was the biggest jerk in the world and she couldn't "get it in" as she kept saying over and over again. I was bawling, Sadie was bawling, and Deb snapped on the nurse and said for her to go and get someone who
could get it in! Go Deb!!!They finally did it, we got released, and headed home around 7:30 in the morning. On a sidenote, the other nurses and all of Sadie's doctors were absolutely wonderful. We couldn't have asked for better service besides that one jerk that did her catheter. She needs to find a new job. The rest of the day, we all slept. Literally, all day long.
Wednesday, March 5thDennis got up and attempted to go back to work. He was still struggling, and couldn't eat anything, but he knew he had to return to work. Sadie woke up okay, but still didn't seem well. She started throwing up again around lunchtime. Lovely. At one point, I had to just lay her on her puppy in the floor, so that I could clean up her throw-up and fix me something to eat, b/c I was about to pass out from malnutrition. She rolled off of her puppy and landed facedown, and just layed there. She was so weak. She hadn't had any food since Sunday night at this point. She wasn't even asleep in this picture below. She was just laying there w/ her eyes open. I know...pitiful. But, I had to clean up the puke in the kitchen. She had projectile vomited EVERYWHERE!!!
The rest of the day, she just laid on me. It was kind of sweet, b/c she hasn't done
that much cuddling since she was a tiny baby, but it was still pitiful. She threw up again later on that afternoon, so I called the doctor and made an appt. for Thursday. Dennis came home that afternoon and was starting to feel a little better, but still hadn't eaten hardly anything at this point.
Thursday, March 6th
A new day! Yippee!! Well, so I thought...Sadie woke up and seemed to be a new woman! My mom and I took her to her doctor's appt, which was pointless. After waiting for an hour or so, the doctor that saw her basically looked in her ears and mouth, and said "she looks fine". Thanks a lot, lady. I could've told you that...
So, we all went and picked out Sadie's birthday cake at a local bakery, b/c keep in mind...her big birthday party was this weekend! We also ran by 2 consignment sales, but came on home b/c Sadie seemed exhausted. All day, I kept feeling a little queasy, but just kept blaming it on the fact that I hadn't eaten when I first woke up this morning. Well, I put Sadie down for her nap, and lo and behold, I started puking. Here we go again!!! I called Dennis and told him to come home as soon as he could. He couldn't believe it. I think we all wanted to jump off a cliff at this point. So, for the next 6 hours or so, I continued throwing up about every 20 minutes or so. It was bad. Then, to top it off, Sadie threw up again. I'm not kidding. This house was one big pile of puke! So, we call in the troops once more. My mom came over and helped put Sadie to bed while Dennis ran to the grocery store. I continued throwing up, so I had the on-call doctor paged, and he told me to go on to the ER, so off we go to our 3rd ER of the week!!!!! Mom took me to Baptist. Dennis stayed home w/ Sadie, b/c he needed sleep more than anything. Baptist ER was a doozy. It was slammed. I've been a few times in the past, but never at nighttime. Lots of homeless people, lots of crazies! This one homeless guy came in, was put in a wheelchair, was HAMMERED, and wheeled himself into the bathroom for a really long time. Who knows what was going on in there. When he came out, he threw up all over the floor RIGHT in front of the women's bathroom, where I had been going in and out of to throw up! He just sat there...continuing to throw up on the floor. Then, he started singing to commercials on TV. I'm not joking. My mom and I were about to die. Then, what seemed like half of the ER went out and got Krystals and were eating them all over the place. The full monty....chili cheese fries, cheeseburgers, etc. It was all I could do to keep from pulling my hair out, strand by strand. I guess about an hour and half later, we got called back. I got hooked up to the IV, got some fluids, drugs, etc. and we were on our way home around 2:00 am. On a sidenote, as we were exiting the ER, this older woman, probably in her 60's or so was sitting in the waiting area, and had tried to slit her wrists. I'm tellin' ya, that place is a crazy house at nighttime.
Friday, March 7th
Around 3:30 a.m. after we had returned from the ER, I started throwing up again. What the crap???? I only threw up a few times though. Mom spent the night, so she got up with Sadie, who woke up at like 5:30 in the morning, which is highly unusual. She usually sleeps until like 9:30 in the morning. Our freakin' electricity went out to just top it all off. So, since it was beginning to feel like the arctic in our house, the troops were called in once more. Deb came and got Sadie and took her home with her. My mom went home to get some rest. And, I popped Phenergan all day long and slept all day. We also decided at this point to postpone Sadie's birthday party until next Sunday. I don't think anyone was up for partying at this point. It was Sadie's first night to be away from home. It wasn't so bad. I don't think she slept too well, but I was so out of it that I didn't really realize she wasn't here. Except, I kept waking up all night thinking I heard her crying or something.
Saturday, March 8th
I woke up fairly early, basically feeling like I had been hit by a truck. I missed Sadie so bad that I couldn't stand it. All I wanted was for Dennis to go and get her and bring her home, but he informed me that he was going hunting for the rest of the day. So, I was up a creek. We had gotten so much snow, so I couldn't drive myself to go get her. What to do??? I guess Dennis called his mom and told her I was miserable, so they brought her back a little after lunchtime. I felt like she'd be gone for months! We made it through the rest of the day. Then, she threw up again in the middle of the night.
Sunday, March 9th
The big day! Sadie's first Birthday!!! It was probably the most uneventful 1st Birthday that any poor child has ever known. Luckily, she'll never remember. Bless her heart. I have lots to share from this day and lots of cute pictures, b/c we held our own little mini-birthday-party, but I will spare you all a day or two before I type anymore.
We went to see my friend Katie today now that she's home w/ her new baby, Addie. She was born on Monday morning, and I just had to take Sadie by to meet her new girlfriend. Katie already has one little girl, Olivia, who is about 4 months older than Sadie, so both of our kids will be about 4 months apart from each other. My friend Jennifer was over there too. I just wanted to post a few pictures of this precious little angel.
Jen was holding both girlies. Sadie was pretty excited about this little baby. I hope she's as excited when mommy is holding one of her own!!!
Then, she got to swing for a little while and loved it! 
It started to get a little chilly, so we headed inside to eat some yummy burgers that LJ (aka "Captain") grilled for us. Yum, Yum!! Or, as Sadie would say..."Num, Num". I had my first turkey burger, and it was rather yummy, and tasted much like a real hamburger. I was pleasantly surprised.
These next two were from this morning before church. I didn't mean to, but I put Sadie in a dress that matched the shirt that Dennis was wearing. I thought they looked too cute not to take some pictures. Plus, they look just alike!!!
