A New Sense of Panic

Remember me? I'm the girl who does not like sharp objects coming at her. Well, I have an even bigger fear now. Sharp objects headed toward my son. This weekend we had to take Grady to the ER. He had projectile vomited up every meal, and had had no wet diapers all day, which is a sign of dehydration, which you don't mess around with in a 3 week old baby. For those of you who know me, you know I am quite the veteran ER go-er. Thankfully, the past 2 or 3 years have been better, but for much of my childhood and even college days, I spent more than an average amount of time in Emergency Rooms. They have never really fazed me or freaked me out (except the one time I went to the OLD Jefferson Memorial in TN....That was borderline unsafe). This time was different. We even went to All Children's Hospital, which is one of the leading pediatric centers in the country. Still, I was a nervous wreck. They were SWAMPED, and I was sitting there with my already ill newborn exposing him to the worst diseases imaginable (at least, as far as I was concerned.) The triage nurses didn't do much to quiet my anxiety. One spent most of the time obviously as stressed out as I was that no one seemed to be actually getting back to see the DR. The other, after taking a look at Grady said "sit over here, away from all the other people, we don't like the new babies in the main waiting area". Well, duh, but I had already sat in the main waiting area for 45 minutes because I didn't know I had an option. When we finally did get taken back to a room, the 14 year old resident took a medical history...which basically was "well, he was born 3 weeks ago" and decided that he definitely was dehydrated. She left, and 4.2 seconds later the freaking out triage nurse re-entered, announcing that Grady would need an x-ray. I was bewildered. The DR had not mentioned that at all. But, I followed. While I held my shrieking son down so he could have his belly radiated, the DR came back and explained the x-ray to Chris (the nurse probably saw the look on my face and told the DR to go explain her orders more thoroughly). They wanted to test for Pyloric Stenosis, a blockage of the intestine that is somewhat common in newborn males during the first month of life. They would also do an ultrasound, bloodwork, and an IV for fluids. When I returned from the x-ray, the nurse came in to do the bloodwork and start the IV. This is when I started to cry. Admittedly, I should not have been so concerned. The needle was designed for babies, and the medical assistant kept dipping Grady's pacifier in sugar water, so he hardly even cried. Six hours later, after IV fluids and managing to keep down an ounce of pedialyte and 2 feedings, we got to go home. Grady didn't have anything serious, probably just a stomach bug, but it definitely was indoctrination by fire to the worries of parenthood.