Hospital visit # 2

Grace had another stint in the emergency department of the Robina Hospital yesterday. Fortunately, she wasn't as sick this time, but was well on the way to it.

It all started on the way home from our camping trip on Tuesday. She was fine in the morning as we packed up to leave, and fine in the first part of the car ride. We stopped in Brisbane and headed into a shopping centre for lunch. The kids were getting ratty from hunger, so I headed to the closest place with food which happened to be McDonald's. Now, the kids have had dribs and drabs from there, mainly chips and ice cream, but this was the first time that I'd bought them a full crap meal. Xav's not that keen on chips, so he opted for nuggets, apple pieces and apple juice. Grace had the nuggets, chips and apple juice. All was good until we got back into the car to head to the Museum in the city. Grace started complaining of a sore stomach and looked a bit white, we put it down to car sickness as she had been reading and writing the whole trip.

Soon after though, she was looking paler and said she was going to vomit. Lucky I had a spew bag in the front of the car, and just after I passed it to her she filled it up. She perked up after the spew, so once again thinking it was just car sickness, we headed to the museum. Grace was quite happy wandering around checking out the dinosaurs and all the other exhibits, however after an hour or so she just wanted Duane to carry her. Her and Duane went and found a comfy chair to hang out on, and I took Xav through the rest of the museum as he was absolutely loving it! She fell asleep, but we still figured it was a combination of a busy week and car sickness.

She slept all the way home, and transferred straight to the couch - where she spent the rest of the afternoon/night. She vomited once more, and although she didn't want anything to eat she was still drinking small amounts of water and sucking on ice chips.

We put her in our bed for the night, with towels under her head and a bucket close by. She slept well, 12 hours with no stirring or vomiting. However, as soon as she opened her eyes in the morning, the spewing started and didn't stop. Poor little thing was bringing up bile, as there was nothing else left. By about 8am she started vomiting specs of blood, which was a very worrying thing to see. I got her straight into the Dr, who after examining her told us to head straight to emergency as she was on her way to becoming severely dehydrated again.

So once again, we hurried and dumped Xav and headed to the hospital. The triage nurse took one look at her limp and listless, and sent us straight through - Thank goodness. She was a lot more alert than last time, but her mouth was dry and her capillary refill was taking a bit longer than it should. Her pulse was also really high, and the way she looked was worrisome.

The Dr was keen to get either a gastric tube or iv in straight away, but I was a bit apprehensive as she was still alert enough to put up a fight. She wasn't to happy about the bsl test, so I could just imagine how she would react to something being shoved down her throat. The Dr and nurse suggested we try a drug called "Ondansetron", which is mostly used for cancer patients to stop the nausea from chemo. It worked amazingly. Grace went from vomiting every 5-10 minutes to stopping within 10 minutes of sucking on the wafer. It's apparently not commonly used, and there are certain criteria that have to be met before it can be prescribed. I'm normally all for letting an infection or whatever works it own way out, but yesterday I was thankful for the relief this tiny pill offered my little girl. It also meant that she could now hold down fluids and have a better chance at avoiding an Iv.

Once the vomiting ceased, she was put on a strict time frame of 20 mls of fluid every 10 mins. My over achieving little girl gulped back 40 ml in the same time frame, so was well on the way to rehydration within the hour. We got to hospital at 10am and were on our way home with a perked up little girl by 4pm. Once again, I am so thankful for access to such a fantastic public health service.

The Dr's are still not really sure what keeps happening to Grace. This is the 4th time in 12 months that she has been vomiting (no diarrhoea) and no one else gets sick. The Dr once again said that although it doesn't seem right, he could only put it down to a viral infection. I've got my own suspicions that it's food related, so I'm going to be keeping a close eye on her eating over the next few months. I'm also dosing her up on probiotics and booking her in to see a naturopath to hopefully build her gut flora up again. It just doesn't feel right that she gets so dehydrated after being sick for less than 24 hours. Maybe she is just one of these people that has trouble stopping vomiting once they start?

By this morning she was back to her happy, cheerful self. The only remnant left of yesterdays ordeal was the tired meltdown we had early today. However, after a little rest it has rectified.

There is one silver lining to all this. She has blamed the vomiting on McDonald's, in particular the chips and has vowed never to eat them again. She must associate the taste of them with the vomiting, something I also do. After vomiting after eating saveloy's as a child, I still can't bring myself to even try them now.