Fluids

I full intend to write a post about last weekend when I have pictures downloaded.  My parents were in town and we had a great weekend together.

But let me talk about FLUIDS now.

Rose has been a little sick for a few days now (I think she's over it now) and we had several diaper malfunctions.  I'm thankful I'm a super experienced mother now and can clean up a mess with relative calm. Poor girl.  Like I said, she is better.

We went over to Kevin's mom's house on Sunday.  She gave us some Diet Pepsi and Kevin was carrying it outside when the box gave way. One pop can fell, broke open, and started a geyser which was aimed perfectly at me as I walked ahead of Kevin.  Yes, my backside was thoroughly sprayed with Diet Pepsi before my 46 year old reflexes prompted me to dive out of the way. We laughed about that all the way home.  I sat on an old blanket that was providentially in the car.

More seriously, our sweet Sarah has been having a week of nosebleeds. She had a massive one last Saturday night. In retrospect, I should have intervened more directly but it was the middle of the night and I was out of it.  I did call a nurse hotline and we talked about how to get it stopped.  Sarah was very determined that I NOT apply pressure and that was what needed to be done.  It finally stopped, after THREE HOURS.  I took her in on Tuesday to the pediatrician and a blood draw showed her hemoglobin was low.

Yesterday morning she had another nosebleed.  I was told by the pediatrician that anything longer than 10 minutes warranted an ER visit because her hemoglobin was low.  We went to our local Children's ER.  The nosebleed stopped before any treatment was necessary but I stayed to make sure her hemoglobin wasn't dangerously low.  She is still low but not badly so.

The ER doc said gently that we need to work on the whole pressure thing.  Sarah had 3 more nosebleeds yesterday and Kevin and I applied pressure and sure enough, they stopped quickly.  Sarah does not like it but we were able to convince her to sit still for it. I should have been firmer last weekend and yesterday morning, but she was flipping out on me.  Yeah for Daddy!  He was firm with her and now she is getting used to pressure.

There is a very inflamed, disturbed vein in one part of her nose and it keeps breaking open. She doesn't have leukemia or anything serious, she just has a sensitive little nose, probably due to allergies.

The recommendation is that we see an ENT and talk about possible cauterization of the offending vein (or whatever it is.)  It does involve full sedation so while it is a minor operation, it is still SOMETHING. We are praying for clarity whether that is a necessary next step.

I'm excited the whole "apply pressure" thing is working.

All this drama made yesterday, in particular, tiring. I'm so thankful I don't have any kids with serious, ongoing medical challenges.  It is very exhausting.  I was anxious and stressed yesterday over nosebleeds. They obviously are SOMETHING.  But compared to seizures or cancer or severely broken bones, fairly minor.