It has been a long time since Jenn or myself posted anything on Catriona’s blog. Too long. She keeps us very busy. Very very busy. But I know that a blog is only as good as the last update and I am going to try to do better to keep this site as I originally intended it to be: one stop shopping for information about my beloved little girl.
Which leads me to the latest on my little friend. On Sunday February 1st 2009, my beautiful daughter Catriona developed a fever later in the day. She had seemed OK all day long, and then was extremely warm in the evening. This is of course a prime time of year for colds, flu, etc so this was probably not surprising to anyone, least of all a respiratory therapist. Jenn was heading to Ottawa for Monday evening, all day Tuesday, and into the evening Wednesday for a conference about the science cirriculum. She had been asked to do this, as opposed to this being something she chose to do, and it was important for her to go and take part from a professional point of view. I told Jenn I would stay home with Catriona, and take care of her.
Upon her awakening on Monday Feb 2nd, I knew that she was indeed sick. Still warm to the touch, she was also very clingy, and not willing to eat or drink much (one thing we have been blessed with is a little girl who tries most foods at least once, and is very independent). I figured, “Oh well she’s sick. We’ll try to keep giving her fluids, and we’ll play in downstairs and if she looks tired, I’ll put her to bed.”. Indeed I did this. She slept off and on for about 2.5 hours in the afternoon, and woke up really no better than earlier. In fact, it was arguable that her fever was worse, showing 103 degrees F on the thermometer. And with perfect timing she woke up at 3:00pm, exactly when the local pediatric clinic closes. So I whisked her to the ER at the hospital (where I work). I knew Chris, the RN on Triage that day. He checked her over, and gave her Tylenol to try to break the fever. We sat in the waiting area for a relatively short hour or so, before being taken in to Room 2 of the Belleville General ER. There we waited for the doctor to arrive. Once he did, Catriona was checked over. Ears, throat, temperature all were looked at. Then the dreaded sampling of nasal secretions to test for Influenza A and B, and the evil RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus). One involves suctioning a small amount of mucous from the back of the nose, where it meets the oral cavity. This is called nasopharyngeal suctioning and it is just about as pleasant as it sounds. The other, the swab for RSV, involves stickng a tiny brush in the baby’s nose, to gather mucousy secretions, so that lab can perform their tests, and it is actually a little worse than it sounds. Thankfully, having been on the delivering end of both of these tests at some point in my career, I knew what was coming and handled it OK. I can see how a non-medical person might not however. These people have now all made Catriona’s “list” as the case may be. Catriona eventually fell asleep on the gurney (something she NEVER does), and I stayed with her, keeping Jenn up to date in Ottawa (and likely not making Jenn feel any better with every phone call). Eventually it was decided that she likely had an infection somewhere, and that she could go home on 5 days worth of Zithromax (aka Azithromycin), “just in case”. We went home. Catriona went to bed. I informed my boss I would not be in Tuesday either, as she was still sick and I was the only one home to take care of her.
Tuesday, pretty much started as Monday. No eating. Minimal drinking. Fever, that responded to Motrin for a while. I called our family doctor and got Catriona an appointment for that afternoon. She was very much not herself, and very very tired to boot. Nevertheless, we tried to have a normal day, and went to the doctor for 2:45pm. He felt that her ear canals weren’t infected, her chest sounded clear, and her upper airway (ie: throat) were inflamed and therefore likely the source of the troubles. He agreed with the antibiotic order from ER, and said to continue with it. We went home. More Motrin was given. Catriona slept OK, but did wake up twice in the night. I called my Dad (aka Grandpa) to come down and look after her on Wednesday, as I had now missed 2 days, and she would not be going to daycare on Wednesday either. He agreed to look after her, and we were set for Wednesday. Besides, Jenn was coming home that evening, and that would surely perk up my little girl.
Wednesday I had to work in Trenton (about 20 minutes from Belleville). Upon waking Catriona was crying, which I felt was not a good start, but likely was just because she spotted “a stranger” (aka Grandpa). Like it or not, she usually can tell when I’m going to work as well, so I figured she might sense that I was leaving without her, which of course I was. So I left her with Grandpa, and travelled to Trenton. It was not a busy day at work, which is the worst when you leave your sick daughter at home with her Grandpa, and don’t really want to be there. I resisted checking in with my Dad until about 10am, approximately 10 minutes after Jenn had called him from Ottawa. Dad said that she wouldn’t let him put her down, and she would cry if they sat down. Needless to say my Dad was getting a sore back. I told him she had been like that for 2 days, and likely that was just her because she was sick. I went back to work. At about 2:30pm, my phone rang. It was my Dad. He informed me that he didn’t think that Catriona was breathing correctly and that he had tried to see where Jenn was (she had decided to come home early from Ottawa, knowing that Catriona was not well), but could not get ahold of her. I told him that Jenn should be home arond 3:30pm, and he should just keep Catriona as happy as possible until then, and we would both be home soon. I managed to hit my car at 3:30pm, and received a call from Jenn, who was now home. We were taking Catriona to the hospital again, as she was not responding much to people, very tired, and not eating or drinking, and her breathing was laboured. I managed to get home from Trenton in about 9 mins (I know this, because I never got to the 2nd song on the album I was listening to on my iPod and the first one is about 9 minutes long). We packed up and headed to the hospital, for the second time in 3 days.
We spent a much longer wait in the ER this time, before getting to head to Room 5 of the the ER department. There we were greeted by a very nice doctor, who informed us that the original RSV test had come back positive. This is bad, because it pretty much meant that we were staying for at least a day. She also told me that Catriona was dehydrated (we figured) because she hadn’t been drinking enough. This of course meant that Catriona would have to have an IV inserted. Chris and Rebecca, both RNs in the ER, tried and tried to get her IV put in, but she was so dehydrated that her veins were basically flattening out whenever they tried to put in the needle, thus not allowing access. Finally, they let a third nurse try, who nailed it. We had an IV and a good one at that. Catriona was hooked up to an IV pump with normal saline, and given a 200ml bolus (think large amount of fluid) before being set to a 40ml/hour infusion of saline. It was noticeable immediately that this was going to eventually turn her dehydration around. Even just a good 100ml in, she was much more alert, but of course sleepy, as it was well past bedtime for her. We were admitted to hospital, seen by Dr. Dempsey, the pediatrician who was on call that night, who informed us that this could be a slow process and that she might not be going home for a few days. We were to be transferred to the seventh floor (Quinte 7. The pediatric and maternity floor). He also managed to let it slip that there had been something like 7 different cases involving kids in the ER that night, by that point (he would later tell me that he had a total of 29 cases by the end of that night, that he was looking after. 29!). While I was out getting a few things from home, the porter came and took Jenn and Catriona upstairs to Quinte 7, where I met them.
Because it was so busy on Quinte 7 that evening, we had to share a room with another little boy who had RSV as well. In his case he was only about 2 months old, and really having a hard time clearing his little airways. His Mom was there as well (of course) and a very nice lady. Jenn slept on a fold down chair in the room with Catriona, while I, being an employee of Quinte Health Care, knew that there was a bed on Quinte 4, in one of the rooms used for ECG’s. So I informed the nursing staff that I had pager 651, and went to sleep in Quinte 4 for a few hours.
Over the next few days and nights, we met many new nurses, saw Dr. Dempsey again a couple of times, made countless trips to various fast food places and generally focused all our energies on getting Catriona better. Jenn did not teach at all. I worked on the Friday, but got permission to work in Belleville instead of Trenton so I could keep an eye on Jenn and Cat. Slowly, the level of the IV was turned down, Catriona became more likely to drink a little bit and eat some small things. In short she progressively got a little better each day, but it seemed like her fever would not break. She was also started on antibiotics again (same one’s as were originally ordered for her at her initial ER visit, but because our second visit to ER did not include a continuance of that antibiotic regimen, we had to start over), which along with Tylenol seemed to quell the fever quite a bit. Interestingly, due to how busy the 7th floor was during this time (both with new babies being born and child related diseases), both Catriona and her roommate, Logan, had to move to a different room in the dead of night one night. This way all the RSV kids could be in the same room and not infect some other poor, sick innocent (except for myself who now has a cold, but can handle it, as I have larger airways). More and more “the old Catriona” started to show up. She would giggle when I was silly. She would laugh hysterically when I was hiding behind a curtain and then jumped out. She would eat a ton of lasagna, would drink more and more milk or water on her own. But what was best to see was her return to playing. She had totally stopped playing now, I realize, and I missed her playing with me, and with everyone in general, more than anything else. She started to play again: first with a plastic lid, then with some little cars and books, and finally with a ball that one of the other moms found and let her use.
Finally today, Sunday Feb 8th, nearly a week later, Catriona came home. She is not yet perfect. She still needs 2 puffs of ventolin every 4 hours for the next 2 days, and then as she seems to require it. She still has a wicked cough, that is definitely coarse and sounds “wet”. She is still tired, primarily due to sleep deprivation. But she no longer has a fever, needs an IV, requires a steroid to be mixed in with her ventolin, or needs to be under the watchful care of the nursing staff. This is all that really matters.
For all the negativity and anger that surrounds Quinte Health Care lately (and probably most hospitals in general), I’ve rarely been more proud of the employees of my place of work. I would like to thank Chris, Rebecca, Julie, Paul, Nadia, Mary Jo, Kim, Sue, Shannon the student, Linda, and really all the staff of the ER and Quinte 7 of Belleville General Hospital. All of you performed amazingly and were wonderful to us (yes, in spite of knowing me in some cases HEHE). Mostly you made my little girl feel a whole lot better, as quickly as possible. And for that I am eternally grateful. I just hope that Cat continues to improve, but if she needs to go back, at least I know that the people at the hospital have the skills to help her out.
In closing , I will try to update this more often than I have. There will many new things to speak of in the coming months and certainly Catriona continues to grow and learn. And there are always lots of pictures to be seen (www.flickr.com/doccomoli/sets). Sorry to have been away. Glad to be back with this epic, and ultimately happy ended story.
