Daddy Blogging Wednesday live from CHKD Emergency Room

Update (12/31/2009):
After arriving in the emergency room at 8:45 (after 3 rounds of vomiting), we checked in and waited. What an interesting emergency room it was, but that would be a whole other blog entry. At around 9:15, Peyton fell asleep in Amy's arms. He was exhausted. We contemplated leaving to take him home to bed since he was peacefully asleep. About that time, he woke up and started crying. I grabbed the bucket as we knew what was coming. Sure enough...another few rounds. One of which went all over the waiting room floor. The poor other families just looked at us in the back corner as Amy grabbed some paper towels to clean up. About thirty minutes later we got called back and put in a room. The resident "doctor" came in and asked us a million questions. She said it sounded like a virus and that she wanted to see if he could hold some fluids down and if so, she would send us home. She was going to check with the attending doctor. All the while, Peyton rested in Amy's arms. Then around 10:45, another round. I guess the fluids would not be staying down like we hoped. So the attending doctor came in and we told her that he had another round of vomiting. She ordered an IV of fluids and anti-nausea medication. Our hearts raced. When the nurses arrived to do the IV, our life turned upside down. The first round was in his left hand. The two nurses stood at the head of the bed, trying to hold Peyton down while aiming for the vein. No luck...the vein collapsed. Then the other nurse tried on the other hand. Same result. Tears ran down Amy's face. I was feeling light-headed, but needed to stay strong. The nurses asked Amy to pick Peyton up to try to calm him down. They would then try to get a vein in his inside-elbow area while she held him. They were successful. They dressed the IV and got out of that room as fast as they could. They were very nice and helpful, but they were hurting our boy. Peyton screamed for the next hour. Then he finally got comfortable and slept. It was now approaching 1am. The fluids had been administered and now the doctor wanted to see if he could keep down some Pedialite. He was sound asleep on me so Amy had to startle him and give him 5cc's of Pedialite every 5 minutes. 45 minutes went by and he kept it down. The nurse came back in to remove the IV so we could head home.
This was incredibly difficult for Amy and I. The whole time we just talked about other families who have to endure so much more. Even though we didn't think so at the time, we are very fortunate that we were in the hospital for just 5 hours.
We are now at home. Peyton is very tired and doesn't feel like eating or drinking much, but we are working with him to make sure we get a little bit in him. So as we ring in 2010, we will be relaxing and working to nurse Peyton back to health. I hope you have a great New Years Eve and best wishes for a wonderful 2010 for you and your family.

This isn't exactly what I hoped to write about, but sometimes life throws you curveballs. Tonight was like any other...dinner at No Frill. As we were enjoying dinner, Peyton was acting strangely. He had a fever and runny nose last week and we took him to the doctor on Saturday. His ears were fine and no Strep. So we thought we were through the worst of this "virus"...wrong. As we were eating our dinner and he was watching Elmo on the portable dvd player, he vomited...prjectile vomit best explains it. I then took him and helped clean up. Once we cleaned up I took him out to the car and waited on Amy to pay the bill. After all, we did not want to ruin anyone's dining experience. When Amy got to the car, Peyton wanted to go to her. I tried to call everyone I could think of for advice...this was our first experience of this type and I get nervous easily. Peyton sat on her lap for a couple minutes and then two more rounds of vomit all over Amy's car. That sealed the deal so here we are in the emervency room of CHKD. I hate the helpless feeling, even if it is something small like a "virus"...we will see. I hope everyone else is enjoying a more routine night. Happy 2010 to you and best wishes for a wonderful year for you and your family.

P.S. Excuse any spelling errors. I have typed this post on my cell phone and believe that these small keys are not meant for my big "sausage" fingers.