E's Trip to the ER

After a very long weekend, we're happy to report that Emerson is slowly getting better from whatever nasty bug he caught.

He started vomiting Friday afternoon and continued with that and diarrhea until late Sunday night. We weren't terribly concerned with the regular throwing up on Friday and Saturday because last time he had it he bounced back after a day and was fine. This time, he was totally lethargic and laid around (which is so NOT him) all day Saturday and was very difficult to rouse on Sunday. He was so out of it that he wouldn't drink anything and threw up every time he had something besides a little bit of water. After calling my parents and talking to them about how weird he was acting, we called his pediatrician and then decided not to wait around and went to the ER at Children's hospital.

We got there around 4:00 pm and didn't have to wait at all. They took him to triage and prepped him in case he needed an IV. We were taken to a room and proceeded with X-rays, blood work, and 4 attempts to get an IV in him over the next 6 hours. Finally, on the 5th try, they were able to get an IV in his head. I cannot express to you how grateful I was to see that needle go in. It was terrible to see Emerson in that state, and to have to hold him down while he was thrashing and yelling out my name, but I can tell you that I received strength beyond my own abilities--not just to be able to hold him down, but to not vomit or pass out myself with that needle going in. It was so reassuring to see that bag of fluid dripping into his little dehydrated body, and I was so grateful to the staff and the blessing that modern medicine is.

After about half an hour, they moved us to the ER Observation Unit to stay overnight so they could keep an eye on him because they weren't comfortable sending him home yet. The nurses there were great as well. Ben ventured out around 11:30 to get us something to eat, and I held Emerson while he continued to sleep. He woke up periodically and shouted my name and I calmly tried to reassure him. It was scary to see him so vacant and disoriented, but I was so glad he was finally getting rehydrated. After Ben got back, we settled in for a long night. We sort of slept for awhile, but then E woke up enough to realize there was something in his head and tried to pull it out, so I had to hold him the rest of the night until the morning when he passed the PO fluid challenge and they could remove the IV.

When he woke up and was truly more awake than he'd been in two days, he said "Daddy" and pointed to him and wanted to be held by him. :) I guess he had finally had enough comfort from Mom and was ready for an adventure. We knew he was feeling better when he was crying for yogurt and would eat a few Cheerios between long sips of Pedialyte. They removed his IV and sent us home around 11:00 a.m. E slept for about 5 hours (which concerned us a little...we were hoping he wasn't relapsing) but wasn't vomiting or having diarrhea anymore, so we figured that was a good sign. He woke up around 4:30 and started talking about cars and choo choos, so that was also a good sign he was on the mend.

After such a long weekend, the three of us slept very deeply last night, and we're glad that Emerson is very slowly but surely getting back to normal. As much as I tried not to, I got very worried about what would happen if we didn't have our little Emerson anymore. We've thanked Heavenly Father every single night since he's been born that we have him and it's never grown mundane or routine--we mean it with all our hearts, but this ultimately small experience has made us cherish our little boy even more and realize once again how blessed we are. And luckily, at this point, we won't have to picture life without our little E.