Room Spinning

Mazzi got a fever on the last night of our friend reunion, causing her, Matt and I to all have a sleepless night. I woke up the next day more tired than I had ever felt in my life. Mazzi wasn't feeling well the next morning and just layed her head against Matt or I as we held her all day. We figured it was the flu so weren't too worried at first. However, Mazzi had been sick before and had never been lethargic like this so on her third day being sick Matt decided to bring her into urgent care.

They weren't very helpful at urgent care and just said that if she was being that lethargic that they recommended taking her into the ER. So Matt brought her to the ER where they did a catheter and took a urine test and came back saying that she might have a slight bladder infection and gave her antibiotics for that. Matt then noticed that she wasn't using her right arm at all, that it was little swollen and that if it were moved she complained. So he mentioned that to them and they took x-rays, but there wasn't a fracture, so Matt took her home. By the time he got home from the hospital her wrist was even more swollen so we knew something else was going on.

My mom called and got us into their family doctor that day. We felt very blessed as he wasn't taking new patients at that time. So we got in and after taking more x-rays and spending several hours at the office he decided that we should be admitted to the hospital for some tests.
I think you always go to the doctor expecting a quick fix or for them to know instantly what is wrong with you so when they don't it is a little scary. He thought it was probably an infection under the skin that she would need antibiotics for and an IV to giver her some energy. It had been three days since she had eaten anything and she was just laying against me. It was a very sad sight.

So, we went to the hospital and they admitted us to the pediatrics wing. They were so good and patient to us. Which is good because at this point I would have cried over anything. In fact, just on my way to the doctors office I couldn't find the building and kept trying to call different family members in the area to ask where it was at and couldn't' get a hold of anyone and finally saw someone on the side of the road so I pulled over and asked them where it was and was and drove away crying. The stress was definitely getting to me.

At the hospital they hooked Mazzi up to an IV after trying to get the needle in her little vein for about ten minutes... with me holding her down and her looking at me wondering why I am helping them do this to her, I am again trying not to completely break down in front of the nurses. After her IV is in she goes in for more X-rays (they really thought it must be a fracture) but once again they couldn't find anything so they drew some blood for tests and decided it must be an infection under the skin so hooked her up to antibiotics through her IV.

We spent two nights there and slowly her swelling and redness around the wrist went down and by the third day she no longer had a fever if she wasn't on Motrin. So they told us we would get to go home. I was so glad because I was getting so stir crazy being in that little room. I am not very patient when it comes to health issues and I feel so blessed that thus far we have had such good health. It really is something you take for granted until you have a little reminder like this.

I felt like I was pretty composed during our stay at the hospital and didn't feel that overwhelmed. However, once I got home from the hospital my body fell apart. I'd never understood the expression "it felt like the room was spinning" until I left the hospital. I think it was brought on mostly by lack of sleep and stress. But for about four days it would feel like the room was spinning off and on.

Once we were released from the hospital she still wasn't using her right arm for about a week. We had another appointment with the doctor and one with an orthopedic doctor. But they didn't see anything wrong so told us just to wait and see if it was just sore. And sure enough, after a few more days she began using her right had to eat and draw.

We were so happy to have our fun, feisty, happy little Mazzi back. I missed her!

This is a picture of what she would do when she wanted to go for a walk outside the room. She would start pushing on the pole that held her IV. The pediatric wing was set up in a circle of rooms so we would walk around the circle (come to think of it... this could also be why I felt like the room was spinning!)