Thursday, August 7, 2008

Lindsey is VERY SICK

The last 6 days have been horrible and I still don't know where the end of it is. Lindsey came down with a fever late last Thursday night / early Friday morning 8/1. I was "hoping" it was nothing, but it was still very high on Friday morning so I took her to the doctor thinking it was probably an ear infection since she never complains of any pain when she has them. No ear infections, but when they examined her mouth, there they were. I felt pretty dumb for not having seen them myself, but they must have popped up over night. There were two horrible blisters on her tongue, which quickly gave us the correct diagnosis of the virus, hand foot and mouth disease. Not a fun thing to have, but it usually runs its course and life goes on or so I thought - aaahhhh! Instead of getting better after about 5 days, it was still getting worse. I am writing this early Thursday morning and it has been 6 days since Lindsey has eaten, except for 1 piece of cheese and a piece of turkey last Friday evening. She has been able to drink enough fluids to not become dehydrated, but it has not been easy for her. She will cry for apple juice and then chuck the sippy cup when I hand it to her and start crying, grabbing her mouth and saying hurt, hurt. It is horrible to see her go through this. It makes my heart break. I was dealing with all of it, so so, with help from a Great Daddy that Lindsey has and my parents, but it all melted on Tuesday night. She became inconsolable, crying constantly, and in horrifying pain. We hurried to Children's Hospital and arrived a little before midnight. After taking her, waiting, and all the drama of the ordeal they concluded that she was not dehydrated and that there was no iv medicines to help with her pain. So, they said there was nothing they could do for her that I didn't already have, which was the Tylenol Codeine that the doctor had called in for her on Sunday. But, she won't take the oral meds and I was ready to scream - thinking they were going to send her home and having done nothing to help relieve her pain. After having seen 1 nurse, 1 resident doctor, 1 doctor and no help another nurse came in to try and give her the oral med. She was definitely a more experienced nurse (19 years to be exact) and saw how horrible of pain she was in and that it was going to be a futile attempt to give her the meds. She went ahead and tried at the doctors request, but blood, medicine and saliva started flying everywhere, with the blisters being so horrible in her mouth. Her mouth is completely full of them, including her cheeks, tongue, lips and probably her throat as well as about 8 sores on the outside of her mouth. She looks absolutely horrible and completely miserable. She will not swallow so I have tried to keep a bib on her to keep her shirt and chest from being completely soaked. After the futile attempt of giving her orals the doctor finally agreed to give her some morphine by iv and while they were at it to give her some fluids by iv as well. She also had a temp of 104 and then it dropped to 101.8 after we were there for a while. They started the iv around 2:30 a.m. or so. It definitely helped calm and relax her so she was not writhing in pain and crying constantly. The sad part is there is no medicine to help make it get better. By the time we were discharged around 5 a.m. she was already crying in pain again, but not quite as bad. Since her hospital visit she has still been bad, but never getting as bad as she was prior to going to the hospital. Hopefully we are on the upswing of things and daylight is peaking through the end of the tunnel, but I'm not yet quite convinced. She did end up drinking most of a kids size chocolate shake on Wednesday evening, but not without many tears involved. I am posting a few pictures of her and her hospital visit. The pics of her in the brown outfit are from this past Saturday evening 2 days into her sickness. She definitely got way worse after this and I thought she was bad when I took these pics. The reason I had her all fixed up even though she was sick, I was hoping that getting her out of the house would help as long as I kept her in the stroller and kept her germs contained. After this she obviously got a whole lot worse as you can see in the pictures at the hospital. The only place I have taken her since then is to my parents just so I could see more than the 4 walls of my living room, which can get quite claustrophobic after 6 days. Well this was way too many details, but here they are none the less. Please pray for her as we are still waiting for an end to this and praying that Aubrey will not get it as well. We are keeping the hand sanitizer close, but that can only do so much.

Click on the pic below for more pics.

Lindsey - sick August 2008

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Poor Lindsey! I'm so sorry to hear of all the pain she's been in. I'm sure this has been hard on you as well with a sick toddler and a new baby to take care of! I hope she starts feeling better soon.

Michele said...

Hugs to Lindsey from Randy, Michele and Nate, we are praying for all of you!

The Millard Family said...

Poor Lindsey! She looks just miserable! Please keep us posted about how she is doing. Lots of love to all

Kelly S said...

So sorry she and you are having to go through all of this! I will be praying for you today.

Tamra said...

Poor little thing! We have been praying ever since your dad had Betty to call us on Tues. evening. Hope you will see the end to this very soon.

The Going Blog said...

What an ordeal! You guys won't ever forget this. I'm sorry and I wish there was something we could do to help. I will be praying!!!

Constance said...

Bless her heart. I cannot imagine the pain she is in. I will be praying for you all. Take care.

Michelle said...

I'm so sorry she has HFMD. All my kids had it when they were younger too, Steven worse than the girls, but they weren't as bad as Lindsey. I remember Steven just screaming out in pain from the blisters in his mouth. Have you tried popsicles? He loved eating those. Hope she gets better really soon! I know it can emotionally and physically drain you as a momma!

Nancy said...

I sure hope Lindsay gets to feeling better soon. I know what an emotional drain it can be on a Mommy to have to watch your child suffer. It just breaks your heart and you get so frustrated when there's nothing they can do to help. I just went through all of that with Lauren a few weeks back and they EVENTUALLY discovered she had strep. But she didn't eat for about a week and was crying in constant pain. Aagh!!!

Karalynne said...

Hello there, I'm one of your blogger buddy ghosts!! We will be praying for Lindsay as well as for you and your family. I'm a mommy to a 3 year old and reading this made me feel terrible for you all and what you have been going through! It is very hard when you don't have any way of helping your little one or relieving their pain! Very very stressful for mommies!! We will pray she gets to feeling better real soon and that her baby sister doesn't get it as well!!

Lisa said...

So sorry your little girl is sick. My two big boys got this a few years ago from a water fountain at a church camp. The doc did say if they get it again the outbreak will not be as bad as the first one was..good thing huh? My heart goes out to her-so sweet! And congrat's on your new little bundle...hopefully we'll get a close-up of her as we watch you all via-internet!!!

Love Lisa~v

sankey family said...

So sorry that Lindsey has been so sick - you have been in our thoughts and prayers.
We love you all!
Marc and Melodie

Greg & Stephanie said...

Wow - what a terrible ordeal! Ryan had this when he was about 4 years old, although I don't remember the high fever. One thing that we did for any kid with blisters in the mouth was to make a solution involving an acid-reducer (Mylanta) and paste it around the inside of the mouth. It really helped with the burning. I think most pharmacists recommend this for immediate relief. Take care of yourself, and we'll be praying for you all!

Lisa R said...

Oh, Leanna! I'm so sorry! Since this is now Sunday, I hope and pray that Lindsey is much better by now... I can't imagine what both she and you have been through! I'll be praying for you all.