Another first...

Today was not a fun day. Today we all cried. Today took Ella Grace to the emergency room.

At 21 days old Ella had her first visit to the ER. 

Ella Grace was not acting like herself today. She was fussy, not nursing well, and even when sleeping she did not seem at rest. Then she started running a fever. Or at least she seemed to be running a fever. We could not figure out how to get her to be still enough to take a rectal temperature. Then she started to break out in a rash. If the fever or the rash had occured before 2pm, we could have taken her to the pediatrician. We have a wnderful pediatrician who still keeps Saturday hours! But, it was almost 4 when the rash showed up. We called the doctor and he said if we were really worried then we should/could take her to CHOA.

Now, as many of you know, I have taken care of countless other children of all ages. I have answered my phone numerous time and advised my girl friends that their child sounded fine and it was simply first time parent fears they were experiencing. Advised them watch their child for x number of hours and then make a decision.

Please tell me why I didn't follow my own advice??

By the time we got to CHOA, got checked in, got triaged (they did this very quickly and moved us into a private waiting area since she is so little), and got to a room, her fever was gone and the rash as improving. Still, we were advised that to be on the safe side they were going to draw some blood and run a screen on her urine to make sure everything was ok. A baby catheter, iv, and exam later, we were on our way home. Ella was fine, we had over reacted. We felt awful for putting Ella through all of this and have hopefully learned our lesson to chill and wait a few minutes unless things seem truly urgent. 

 

Here are a few pictures from our sad experience...