Dehydration

It became pretty clear Wednesday night that Shelbie was dehydrated.  By Thursday morning, she was in bad shape.  Since Shelbie was two weeks old, dehydration is something that comes on fast when she gets sick.  We were always in the hospital with her when she was a baby because of dehydration.  Makes me wonder why?  Anyways,  I called the doctor but after I hung up, after just being able to leave a message, decided I wasn't going to wait around for a late afternoon call so, I loaded her in the car and we took off for his office.

They were great and got her right in.  It didn't take the doctor long to assess things and get an IV set up for her.  They ran two liters of fluid and some IV Phenergan on top of the Zofran she was already on.  Usually, fluids turn a bad situation completely around so I was expecting a miraculous recovery.  I thought after being there nearly 4 hours, she would walk out and beg for a cheeseburger or something.  Well, that didn't happen.  She was no better, not one bit.  Oh, did I mention she has lost 6 pounds in three days?

The difficult part is that when she gets sick, it upsets the whole apple cart.  Her mitochondria, which is like scaffolding begins to fall over and it's not just the bacterial infection but the dysautonomia gets out of control.  She is constantly in pain in every joint of her body.  During her infusion today, she could hardly lay there because of the deep pain and aching.

Sadly, there is nothing much anyone can do.  Supportive care is all we can expect.  This afternoon, she also broke out in lots of petechiae.  Did I not just say I was afraid of that happening?  I didn't have the heart to ask for a CBC and see what her platelet count was. If could just be a fluctuation because she is so sick.

The jury is still out on whether or not she will be able to have her IVIG next week.  Starting that could add one more thing her body can't handle.

The pharmacist was right when he said this was going to be fun!  Boy, he wasn't joking.  I had no idea how hard this would be on her.  I have been reading a lot about H Pylori and it is more common than one thinks and even though you may not have the horrible symptoms like Shelbie has, it can still be causing problems.  It also said that if one member of a family has the disease, the whole family should be tested.  I asked our doc today and he said even if we all showed up with it, he wouldn't treat us unless we were symptomatic.  I asked him why and he said, "You're living with the why." then pointed to Shelbie...the treatment sucks!

Well, I have lots of work to get caught up on tonight and get ready for another day of IV therapy tomorrow.

We did see a little miracle today!  Shelbie had two major photo shoots scheduled for this afternoon.  There was no way she could have done those but rescheduling them wouldn't have worked either since they were bridals for a wedding this weekend.  We were telling the nurse we had to run the fluids fast so we could be out of there in time for the photo session.  All morning Shelbie was praying she wouldn't have to do the photo shoots.  Just as the IV got started, both parties called to cancel!!  The bride got sick unexpectedly and we had a some rain so that ruined the outside photo shoot!  As soon as she got those two texts, she just broke down into tears.  I said, "What's wrong?  Are you in pain?"
"No," she said, "That's a miracle.  God really cares about me."

Yes, God does care about Shelbie.  I was so grateful for that experience.  She has been struggling so much this year as she tries to figure out God and trials and everything.  She has been angry so I was moved to see her heart soften and feel the Spirit.