Oh, crap!

I spent another night in the ER with Elizabeth last night. I picked her up from school yesterday and she greeted me bent forward a bit holding her stomach. She said she'd been in pain since before lunch...that was 4 hours earlier. She is so stubborn and won't ever take herself to the school nurse. Anyway, I brought her home and she went straight to her bed, feeling miserable with horrible cramping and a fever. On top of it all, she has a bad cold. I called her GI doctor, who is wonderful with her care and has given me his pager number so I can bypass calling his nurse or after-hours messaging system. He told me he wanted me to take her in. I played Let's Make A Deal with him and asked if I could watch her for a few hours before making the decision to go to the ER. He agreed I could do so. Two hours later it was obvious we needed to go, as her fever climbed and pain and nausea increased. I paged him to let him know we were going and he called ahead to the ER to let them know we were on our way.
If you haven't been to the ER at Long Beach Memorial, consider yourself lucky. It is a wonderful hospital, run by exceptional nurses and doctors. BUT, it serves many, many people. It is always crowded and busy. Always. I hate it there. I must take Liz to that hospital, though, because her specialists and all her records are there. And, it is the best children's hospital in the area. Anyway, I hate it and am grateful for it all at the same time. Somehow, for some reason, the past three visits for her have had us taken straight back to a bed, bypassing any wait time. Such a gift.
She had an abdominal xray series done that showed she is full of stool. Literally backed up throughout her whole stomach and all the way down. The doctor called it "impressive." I had to giggle inside. Oh, to be impressive poop-wise. I spared her the embarrassment of telling her how amused I was. Actually, it is a reason to be doubled over in itself, poor baby. She has been stooling multiple times a day, so it isn't as though she isn't going. Anyway, she is now on a little treatment plan to help flush her out. Her urine shows infection. The bacteria is being grown out in the lab so that they know which antibiotic to treat her with. Remember, antibiotics can cause CDiff in anyone, but given that she has had CDiff already (as recently as last week), she is super susceptible to a relapse. Antibiotics can only be given to her if absolutely necessary and we must know exactly which med to give, so as not to "waste" the risk of giving it in the first place.
There is concern that the infection she may have is VRE, a bacteria that can cause infection in places, including the urinary tract. VRE is scary because it is a "super bug", meaning it is resistant to many antibiotics. I am not going to worry until we get the positive -or, hopefully, negative results.
She just finished her second course of antibiotics for the CDiff infection she's had for six weeks on Monday. We have to wait a week to test her stool to see if the antibiotics worked. If they haven't, this pain could be from that infection.
So, she had those tests done in the ER and she was treated for dehydration and given iv meds to help her nausea. Her platelets are a bit low, but not low enough to worry, just to watch.
She still has a fever, but has eaten a bit for me today and her pain is manageable. She missed school today and will miss again tomorrow, which she is not happy about, but is feeling bad enough she isn't protesting.
Sadly, we made the decision today that going to church camp is not the best idea for her right now. She was SO excited to go to the week-long sleep away camp, beginning June 19th. My heart wants her to go so badly, but my gut says no. Kaitlin has decided she doesn't want to go without Liz. Tough. My mom and I plan to take them to Maine to rest and just be. There she can play on the beach, sleep and soak in the wonderful East Coast ocean air.
If you pray, please pray that she does not have VRE. Also, that she stays out of the hospital. Thank you for caring enough to read our story and care for us.