Friday brought an unexpected trip back to the hospital with Delaney. I had watched her neck slowly getting larger during the day. By about 4:30, it had swollen so much I decided to call Dr. Harris's office (with urging from Grandma). Luckily, they were still in the office, and luckily, Dr. Harris himself called back. He told me that this was a "little concerning" and "that's not what I want to hear after a surgery." He told me some of his worries, but he said we could watch it another hour. If it continued to get bigger, we should go back into the hospital. I have to be honest, we didn't wait an hour. We figured we live an hour away, so we should probably just get going (again with the urging of Grandma and Grammy - who had all showed up around the same time to check on Delaney)!
So, back on the road again to St. Francis! When we walked into the ER, it was FULL of people. One of the nurses said it would be a 2 1/2 hour wait! Somehow, they took us in right away to a unit behind the ER - where there was only 1 other patient. Long story short, we were back there for about 4 hours, she developed a fever, she had an ultrasound (where she fell asleep on the table), she had an IV put in (after 2 other tries - horrible!), and started receiving antibiotics and fluids. We eventually made our way up to the pediatric floor again and stayed overnight, thinking we would be facing surgery again to drain the hematoma that had formed.
After a LONG night of hardly sleeping, we finally heard from the doctor that she would not have the hematoma drained - it was very small and should dissolve on its own. He felt that the swelling was mostly from the surgery, not the hematoma. Her fever could be from the original problem with her lymph nodes. So, she's back on antibiotics (for 20 days!!!).
GOOD NEWS: All the pathology reports so far are negative for anything bad. However, they still don't know what kind of bacteria is causing her lymph nodes to swell. Hopefully, they will find an answer!
We did a lot of sitting, sleeping, walking, and waiting. I found myself comparing all the nurses, residents, and doctors we saw to characters on Grey's Anatomy! It passed the time a little bit! :) One bright spot during our wait was that the Marines came by with toys for the kids on the pediatric floor. Delaney was delighted with her new xylophone! It was a really nice thing for them to do, and I imagine for kids who had been there a while it was deeply appreciated!
Finally, after a long day, we made it home at 3:15 p.m. on Christmas Eve - not exactly how we had planned on spending this weekend! However, Delaney's swelling is going down, her fever is gone, and she seems to be getting back to normal. We're glad we went in, even though it threw a kink into our schedule and all the grandparents' schedules. We are so thankful for understanding family members who are willing to watch the other kids, take care of things at home, and even come visit us in the hospital for a little while.
Thanks, Thanks, Thanks!
So, back on the road again to St. Francis! When we walked into the ER, it was FULL of people. One of the nurses said it would be a 2 1/2 hour wait! Somehow, they took us in right away to a unit behind the ER - where there was only 1 other patient. Long story short, we were back there for about 4 hours, she developed a fever, she had an ultrasound (where she fell asleep on the table), she had an IV put in (after 2 other tries - horrible!), and started receiving antibiotics and fluids. We eventually made our way up to the pediatric floor again and stayed overnight, thinking we would be facing surgery again to drain the hematoma that had formed.
After a LONG night of hardly sleeping, we finally heard from the doctor that she would not have the hematoma drained - it was very small and should dissolve on its own. He felt that the swelling was mostly from the surgery, not the hematoma. Her fever could be from the original problem with her lymph nodes. So, she's back on antibiotics (for 20 days!!!).
GOOD NEWS: All the pathology reports so far are negative for anything bad. However, they still don't know what kind of bacteria is causing her lymph nodes to swell. Hopefully, they will find an answer!
We did a lot of sitting, sleeping, walking, and waiting. I found myself comparing all the nurses, residents, and doctors we saw to characters on Grey's Anatomy! It passed the time a little bit! :) One bright spot during our wait was that the Marines came by with toys for the kids on the pediatric floor. Delaney was delighted with her new xylophone! It was a really nice thing for them to do, and I imagine for kids who had been there a while it was deeply appreciated!
Finally, after a long day, we made it home at 3:15 p.m. on Christmas Eve - not exactly how we had planned on spending this weekend! However, Delaney's swelling is going down, her fever is gone, and she seems to be getting back to normal. We're glad we went in, even though it threw a kink into our schedule and all the grandparents' schedules. We are so thankful for understanding family members who are willing to watch the other kids, take care of things at home, and even come visit us in the hospital for a little while.
Thanks, Thanks, Thanks!
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