Home!!

Wow! What an eventful day!  Rebekah did a great job for her MRI today.  The anesthesiologist and radiologist were great with her, and they let Grammy (Drew's mom) and I go back with her and stay until she was asleep. They also waited to put her IV in until after she was lightly sedated so that she wouldn't feel the discomfort.  It is such a blessing to have medical personnel who pay attention to the little details. The MRI lasted a little over an hour and a half, and then we were called back to recovery.  We have been told that the doctor will call us within a couple of days with the results.

Rebekah was a little nauseated and running a very low-grade temp in recovery.  The got her to drink a sip of apple juice and watched her for a little while then said we were free to go home.  I questioned the nurse about Rebekah's elevated heart rate and temp, but she said it was likely due to dehydration (she couldn't have anything to eat or drink after midnight).  She encouraged us to give lots of fluids at home and let Rebekah rest.

When we got Rebekah home, she had a few sips to drink and then began gagging repeatedly.  Because of the Nissen fundoplication she had, she cannot actually throw up, but she gags horribly.  So we tried running some Pedialyte through her g-tube, and after about 10 minutes she started gagging again.  Her fever had gone up to 100.5 and her heartrate was up in the 160's.  After calling anesthesiology and talking with them, we were told to bring Rebekah back to the ER.

It took us about 45 minutes to get Rebekah to the hospital, and they were expecting us.  We were immediately taken back to a room and the nurses came in to check on Rebekah right away.  When they took her vital signs, her temp was up to 102.7 and her heartrate was in the 170's and 180's.  She was breathing very rapidly, she was quite lethargic and continuously gagging and retching.  They pretty quickly did a flu and RSV swab and got Rebekah some Tylenol suppositories.  After about an hour they also gave her some Zofran for the nausea.  It took a while, but when the Tylenol and Zofran finally began taking effect we started to see some improvements.  The doctor also ordered a chest x-ray, which looked normal for Rebekah (her chest x-rays always look a little abnormal, so they compare her own x-rays to each other to look for any changes).

Rebekah was finally able to take a few sips of ice water and eventually drank about 4 ounces of apple juice.  It was amazing how much difference a little juice made!  She was jabbering to the nurses, asking them for stickers and giving out hugs.  We waited for about 30 minutes for discharge paperwork and we were on our way!  We did make a quick stop upstairs to see Martin who earned an overnight stay with a drop in his O2 sats and not wanting to eat today.  If you think of it, please pray that Martin quickly bounces back to normal so they will be able to go home soon.

So after a very long day we are home and ready for bed!  Tomorrow is going to be another long day.  Rebekah has an audiology appointment at 9:00 in the morning.  Hopefully she gets enough rest to have accurate test results tomorrow!

Thank you for all of your prayers, texts and messages.  We really appreciate all of your encouragement and support!

Nancy