I've been wanting to get this in the blog for days now. I've either been busy, or too tired by the time I do sit down to rest. SO, as most know.. Kaylee was in a lot of pain recently, and we were sent to the children's hospital in Washington D.C. over night.
One day she was perfectly fine, and the next thing I know she's doubled over in pain screaming at the top of her lungs "my tummy hurts, mommy" we had no idea what had brought this pain on.. Kaylee goes to the bathroom pretty regularly.. we've never had any type of stomach issue with her at all. We can't describe to you how scary this all got so fast.. hearing her scream in pain, watching her go through test after test.. getting IV's put in. She is four. That's a lot on her little body, but she handled it all so well. Here's a better description of what was said and how the scariest 24 hours of our lives took place.
Thursday October 12th + Friday 13th, 2017
2:00am -- Kaylee comes running into our room with her belly hurting. she went to the bathroom, crawled back in bed with us, but her belly was still hurting so I told her to just rest and go back to sleep.. so, she did. The next morning around 7 am she woke up feeling ok and wanting to go to school. 9:44 am -- I received a message on my phone from the ClassDojo app from her teacher saying Kaylee was laying down due to a tummy ache, but then she started crying and saying she wanted Mommy. I left work to go pick her up so I could drop her off with her Daddy while I went back to work, not knowing the extent of her pain yet. I arrived at the school to pick her up, and could hear her screaming/crying at the top of her lungs.. even outside of the doors. She started screaming in the car "I want my daddy".. I flew in the driveway, carried her in, and she would not stop crying even after she was with her Daddy. We decided right then.. let's just go to urgent care. that quickly changed to us getting on 81 and heading to Winchester to the ER. She fell asleep in the car, so at the moment we pulled off on the side of the road discussing whether or not we should turn around and go home.. and if she woke back up in pain we would bring her back. After a quick google search (the worst) - it said in young children stomach pain around the center of the belly button coming and going more than likely is the appendix.. back on the road we were heading to the ER.
10:30 -- we wait for a good hour or so before getting called back.. I couldn't even move her a certain way at this point or she would tense up/cry about her tummy. Finally, we're seen... instantly they want to do an ultrasound... I was a nervous wreck. JD was still ok at this point.. he's the stronger one of the two of us. I went down to the ultrasound room with her.. she did great, but fussed the entire time of her tummy still hurting. fast forward to 30-40 minutes later and the results were in... couldn't see anything on the ultrasound. The doctor then started preparing us for the possibility of it being her appendix.. next thing that comes out of his mouth is "we don't normally do CT scans on children her age, but at this point we need to because it's the only way to tell" my nerves were shot. She had to drink the nasty contrast.. they did mix it in gatorade for her atleast. Have you ever tried to get a toddler to drink a whole cup of gatorade plus contrast in so little time when her tummy is already in pain? good luck. She cried for her daddy anytime he would leave the room for just a minute... so he was the one who got her to put down a 20oz cup of gatorade with contrast in it within 45 minutes, and he also went in with her for the CT scan. she did amazing.. didn't cry.. nothing. While waiting on results, the pain was so bad for her.. they had to give her morphine.. I had no idea you could even give a child that small morphine. Fast forward to a half hour later.. results were in and no signs of appendicitis. good news, right? well, kinda. At the time the doctor came in, JD had stepped out for some air. I was alone when the doctor said "it isn't her appendix, but her intestines are very swollen.. we are going to transport her by ambulance to the D.C Children's Hospital for observation over night.. we are very concerned with her intestines twisting over night.. she would need surgery, and her white blood cell count is at 28,000.. we can't do anything else for her here"
what? I was in shock. it felt like the longest few minutes waiting on JD to get back in the room. He walked in, and I didn't even want to tell him.. all I could say was "our news just got worse" and then went on to explain what was happening.
I walked out to get air at this point, and call most of our family especially JD's aunt who had Kylee with her. We were both in shock because clearly the blood count was high which meant infection.. and the possibility of her intestines twisting over night? we were both trying to hold it together for her. JD rode in the ambulance, my mom, my stepdad, and I followed behind. We arrived in D.C around 9pm. Another xray was done about an hour after we arrived.. it came back fine. They took her blood again.. so we waited. When I tell you we sat back in a room in the ER room patiently waiting, we literally sat in that room for hours waiting on results. Nurses were telling us they were going to put a tube up her nose... never happened. Kaylee was starving.. she hasn't eaten since 8am the morning before at this point... they promised IV's to keep her hydrated.. never happened. Finally, hours later.. a nurse comes in telling us we're taking Kaylee in the next room for an enema...
excuse me??
Could we please get some answers first? JD was standing up at this point, he was fuming mad.. we were exhausted... falling asleep sitting up... our child is laying on a bed, while we're just wondering what is going on inside her stomach. The nurse said "oh...they never told you the blood results or the x ray results? I'm sorry. I'll go get the doctor"
are you kidding me?
at this point, I don't even know what time it was. it was late.
the doctor comes in telling us "we're going to check her blood again, but it says 15,000 so more than likely that other hospital made a computer mistake"
once again... are you kidding me?
she goes on to tell us this is day one of Kaylee's symptoms so they'll do an enema to release anything in her body.. if she uses the bathroom and is fine.. she can go home. if the pain comes back within 2 weeks it's possible there is more than just constipation, and we would have to come back to children's hospital for more tests/answers.
they did the enema.. Kaylee didn't budge. she laid on the bed, and didn't even care.
she was exhausted. her body had been through more than it ever has been. she's four.. she shouldn't have to go through any of that. My heart hurts for the children at that age fighting more than that.
She used the bathroom... and we were discharged to go home. after 2 hours on the road, we were home at 7 am.
the scariest night of our lives turned out to be because Kaylee just had to poop.
**enter the palm to the face emoji right here please**
I'm thanking God for watching over my daughter, I'm thanking all of those who prayed to him to heal her, and find answers. Ironically, one of Kaylee's favorite movies is "Miracle's from Heaven" -- if you haven't seen it.. it's about a little girl who has a rare intestinal disease. weird, right? she goes through all of this stuff.. had a bowel obstruction.. but other than the fact that it's weird how Kaylee has loved that movie even being a kid.. I learned in that movie miracles are everywhere.. and they happen every day. right in front of us. Winchester made that mistake, and everyone was mad.. but as I thought more of it all I could do was be thankful.. because what if it wasn't a mistake? I don't even want to think of what would have, or what could have happened. I'm just thankful she's home, she's pooping, and she's doing great.
I did not take the picture of all of the balloons. It was right at the entrance as I walked in... afterwards I was wishing I could have because the children's hospital was so neat looking inside for all of the kids. I went to instagram, and sure enough someone had taken a picture the same day.
if you made it through this entire post.. I commend you. It was a long one.. but I know everyone else was sort of as confused as we were so I wanted to document it + explain step by step on how that day/night went down.
Prayers were answered, and she is ok. Thank God!
SO many people..hundreds. were praying for her, and we couldn't be more thankful.
here is just a few of the posts made about Kaylee.. and as she gets older she'll be able to see who cares so much about her.
x0- brooke
