Paxton spent his 10 month birthday in the hospital.
When I took him to the dr. I actually had respiratory concerns. He had been coughing a nasty cough along with congestion. He was very irritable, not sleeping, and not eating well.
But his lungs sounded fine. His chest x-ray was clear. His influenza and RSV panels came back negative. The dr. said it was just a nasty case of viral "crud."
The following 24 hours, he refused almost anything to eat/drink. And then, the diarrhea set in. Pooping every hour and taking in no liquids, dehydration happened quickly. The dr. wanted to admit him to give him some IV fluids and make sure the diarrhea wasn't going to be an issue. He thought an overnight would take care of it.
He did test positive for C.diff. (clostridium difficile). Which he likely got from being on two consecutive doses of antibiotics to treat a stubborn ear infection. So while I initially was concerned with his lungs, he ended up hospitalized due to diarrhea and dehydration.
The entire time he was there, Paxton did not act sick at all. He was his happy, playful, active self.
But this caused his stay to be very difficult. How do you keep a 10 month old, who feels good, with an IV in his foot, to be "not so active?" About impossible!! They didn't want him to stand on his foot as much as possible....that was easy for them to say!
It took both Cody and I to be there. I just couldn't do it by myself. If he wasn't sleeping, someone had to be holding him or at his bed side constantly to try to keep him off of his foot and not rip at his tubes and cords.
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He was admitted around 5:00 and received IV fluids for the first 24 hours, as well as being put on a clear liquid diet. He loved himself some gatorade and jello! We didn't see the dr. until the following evening around 6:00. He then wanted to start him on Flagyl, a common antibiotic to help treat c.diff. This was given through IV. He continued with the diarrhea, so he continued on the clear liquids, but he still wasn't drinking a whole lot.
But he was still happy!
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The next step was to turn down the IV fluids in hopes he would start drinking more on his own. Then move him to his regular diet. AND, get him to start taking the Flagyl orally (because this was going to be something he would have to take for the next 10 days at home), however we knew this was going to be the tricky part. The dr. warned us it tastes horrible and many kids aren't able to take it.
The first attempt, he threw up. Then we tried mixing it in a bottle and giving it to him, and he threw up. He was soo irritable that the nurse tried Tylenol a little later in the evening, and the second that hit his mouth, he threw up. The next day we tried again, and he threw up. We needed to visit with the dr. again to see what he wanted to do about this.
The next morning, I was holding Paxton on my lap and feeling his legs and the leg that his IV was in felt huge! and hard! We called the nurse in to have a look. Sure enough, because of all the moving he was doing on his foot, his IV had infiltrated. Therefore it was no longer in his vein and everything from the IV was going right into the tissue. It needed to come out.
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His foot was soo swollen that he couldn't (or wouldn't) bare any weight on it. They said the best thing for it was to get him up and moving on it....but he wasn't having that. He would pull up to stand and just hold his leg up and whine.
We met with the dr. that morning. Everything had been going well, except the Flagyl. He said we obviously can't keep him in the hospital for 10 days just to give him the medicine through the IV. There was another medication option, but that would have cost around $800. We filled the prescription for Flagyl and just hoped we would be able to get something down him the next 10 days.
He said we could go home.
We gave the little man a bath, packed our things, and headed home.
The first attempt, he threw up. Then we tried mixing it in a bottle and giving it to him, and he threw up. He was soo irritable that the nurse tried Tylenol a little later in the evening, and the second that hit his mouth, he threw up. The next day we tried again, and he threw up. We needed to visit with the dr. again to see what he wanted to do about this.
The next morning, I was holding Paxton on my lap and feeling his legs and the leg that his IV was in felt huge! and hard! We called the nurse in to have a look. Sure enough, because of all the moving he was doing on his foot, his IV had infiltrated. Therefore it was no longer in his vein and everything from the IV was going right into the tissue. It needed to come out.
.JPG)
His foot was soo swollen that he couldn't (or wouldn't) bare any weight on it. They said the best thing for it was to get him up and moving on it....but he wasn't having that. He would pull up to stand and just hold his leg up and whine.
We met with the dr. that morning. Everything had been going well, except the Flagyl. He said we obviously can't keep him in the hospital for 10 days just to give him the medicine through the IV. There was another medication option, but that would have cost around $800. We filled the prescription for Flagyl and just hoped we would be able to get something down him the next 10 days.
He said we could go home.
We gave the little man a bath, packed our things, and headed home.
Once we got home, we gave him his first dose of Flagyl. He threw up. After that, he never puked again. Now, he certainly didn't like it and ended up spitting most of it out. But that, we could handle.
And he is back to being a healthy little guy!
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