Hospitalization, Part One

Hannah has been sick for a few weeks now. First, it was this thing called "Hand Foot Mouth" which is in the same family of childhood illnesses such as chicken pox or measles. She got over that in a day or two, only to develop high fever which lasted for days on end. We decided to bring her to the E.R. and the doctor there said she had a flu-like viral infection. So we stayed home with her for that entire week. By Friday, she was feeling better (and so was I) so I brought Hannah to Julie's house and I went on to school. That afternoon, Julie showed me Hannah's ankle. It was the size of a golf ball, hot to the touch, and it was swollen and purple. I thought she might have sprained it, so I called the doctor and he said that he was worried that it might be infected in the joint and that we should get to the E.R. Well, I had JUST been in the E.R. last weekend, so I just couldn't see us doing that again. The doc told us to monitor it, since Hannah didn't seem to be in pain, and she was walking on it.

This past Monday, I had to take off work (AGAIN!!!) to see an ENT specialist about my nose. So since I was going to be off work, I called Julie and had her bring Hannah to her pediatrician so we can get that ankle x-rayed. When we got to Dr. B's office, she ordered blood work and x-rays, and I left and got a cat scan on my sinuses. At 3pm, Hannah's doctor called me with news that I needed to get to her office with Hannah asap. So I went to pick up Hannah and we drove back to her doctor's office. Dr. B said that her ankle needed to be treated with antibiotics because her blood work showed elevated numbers in her CRP, her sed rate, and her platelets. So she would need to be in the hospital a few days on an IV drip."
My brain didn't process that information at all. I thought she meant it would be a few HOURS on the meds. Dr. B was very apoligetic because I didn't understand. But it WAS true, Hannah was being admitted to the hospital.


More of the story later!!