Halloween has always been big in my life. My birthday is November 1st, so I ALWAYS had a Halloween inspired birthday party while growing up (and a sister's birth on my 4th birthday, but we'll save that story for another day).
Last October 31st is, and will be, my scariest Halloween to date.
Sydney was 10 days old and she woke up at four to eat. She seemed like she was tired, but ate and fell back asleep.
At seven she woke up. I always describe it as someone came into her crib and switched her with another baby. First, she woke up screaming. Sydney never cried, she her screaming was frightening. When I went to pick her up, she would cringe, like touching her was hurting her. My Mom came over and by ten I had called Colin to tell him we needed to take her to emergency. She had a high fever and would not stop crying.
When we got to emergency, she still was crying but her temperature had gone down. They decided that it couldn't be too serious, so they had us wait in the waiting room. We were infuriated, but felt helpless to do anything about it. Of course, many nosy nancies said it was "Just Colic". Uh, no. I had a one year old at home who did suffer from Colic and this wasn't it.
About THREE hours later, she became listless and we ran her back to admitting. WITHIN 10 Minutes she was in the NICU and they told us she may not make it through the night. We were horrified. She had some unknown "infection" that they couldn't seem to diagnose. Their only hope was to give her as much antibiotics and tests as they could perform and hope she was strong enough to fight it on her own.
I don't remember much about the next 72 hours. They were a blur of hospital, to home, to hospital, to see our son at my Mom and Dad's. She had a feeding tube, and on Sunday, when we thought she was in the clear, she took a bit of a step back.
Twelve days later, we took our little girl home. That morning, we had our family portrait taken for our churches registry. We look so tired. And you can see the band aid on Sydney's hand from where they removed her IV not twenty minutes before.
We never found out exactly what infection Sydney had, but the doctor suspects it was Bacterial Meninigitis. And how she got it, they couldn't say.
That was the worst day of my life.
I will never forget, my scariest Halloween.
TMI and My Mind is Blown
5 months ago
5 comments:
That was the scariest week of my life, too. There aren't even words to describe it, as you know. That first day we visited in the hospital and she was all covered in wires, hooked up to monitors...I think I gasped and could not figure out who you and Colin were holding it together.
Thank God our little angel is okay. I never want to see anyone go through that again!
This Halloween will be MUCH better!
Nothing is scarier than when a child gets sick. I hope your precious angel can enjoy a normal Halloween this year, having fun and trick or treating.
wow... that is scary! glad she'll be able to enjoy this halloween, and is ok :) have a great bday weekend
WOW! As a mom I can't even imagine watching your child like that. I hope that this Halloween was much less eventful!
Oh and happy birthday I do believe :)
I can't even imagine. I got sick to my stomach just reading that. I am sooo glad she is ok now.
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