Home of the Four Trans

Before leaving for the ER (Image provided by Photographer Nathan)

Justin doesn’t have a spleen. This means that any sign of infection, especially a fever, must be given immediate medical attention. Our infectious diseases doctor advised that we have him sent out for a blood culture and have Ceftriaxone (strong antibiotic) injected to protect him for the next 72 hours if he is in fact septic.

The 101 degree fever Justin had would not have been as alarming to a ‘normal’ kid’s parent. For these ‘normal’ kids, it would involve a call to the pediatrician, motrin or tylenol, and some wait and see. For asplenic Justin, a fever cannot be taken lightly. If there was a bacterial infection in his blood, it could become fatal very quickly if not treated in a timely manner.

Because it was 6:30PM by the time I had taken his temperature, and his pediatrician’s office was closed, our only choice was to take him to the ER for the standard procedures: blood culture and cetrifioxone.

I absolutely abhor the ER experience. The waiting rooms are full of sickies, and there is a tremendous amount of waiting involved. When I registered Justin in, I made it be known that Justin does not have a spleen and he had a fever. The nurse said she’d let the people in the back know.

I watched the clock. It was 8:10PM by the time I finished filling out the paperwork.

There was not a single, safe corner in the entire waiting room that I was able to hide to shield Justin from the coughies. I held him against my chest. I tried to convince him to wear a face mask. He just held on tightly to his toy cow and looked suspicious of his surroundings.

I allowed 15 minutes to go by before I approached the front desk, again. Every minute we were there in that waiting room, Justin was exposed to more germs and risk of infection. I reiterated that Justin does not have a spleen and asked if there was another space we could go to to wait if a room was not ready.

The nurse took us in 2 minutes later. She took Justin’s vitals, asked about his medications, and symptoms. He was weighed. 8.5kg. Justin cried the entire time while looking straight in my eyes, probably wondering why I was allowing strangers to touch him in such a violating way.

Then, more waiting. This time, we were in the hallway of the Emergency Room, where there was less foot traffic and people.

Justin seemed to cheer up a bit as he played with a car we found in my purse…until, he vomitted…through his mouth and nose. All over my black sweater and dark jeans. I kept him upright against my chest and patted his back as he screamed in horror.

Justin had just dozed off to sleep with his head pressed against my chest when a room was finally available to us.

They brought us in and hooked Justin up to monitors, which, of course, caused Justin to wake and scream. Poor thing. By this time, it was already 9:15PM, and all he wanted to do was sleep.

Questions about his medical history and symptoms ensued, including a time line of his doctor’s visits in the past month. The ER pediatrician explained the possible reasons for his vomiting and fever (urinary infection and stomach virus), ordered a urinary analysis, abdominal x-ray, blood culture, CBC, and CRP. He would also have an IV for a fluid drip since he looked dehydrated to her. Then, more waiting…for the orders to be filled, and results. Everything came back negative.

He was given Rocephin, an antibiotic, through the IV, anyway, just to cover the bases since we did not know the results of the blood culture.

It was 11:30PM before we were discharged.

When Justin was placed in his car seat, though, he was a completely different kid. He smiled, and the liveliness in his eyes came back. He started kicking his legs in excitement. While in the hospital, he was anxiety ridden, cried at a single touch of any stranger, and stared suspiciously at anyone who entered the room.

By the time we had gotten home, it was 12 AM, and Justin was wide awake. He was just glad to be home. And, so were we. What a day!

This is what Justin was doing at 12:30AM:

Justin Self Made Video

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 3:45 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.