It Happened

The first part of July Squeaker was hospitalized due to an illness. It was the first time she had ever been put into the hospital strictly for an illness issue. As sad as it was to be there it was still a big win. We did 5.5 years without having to be held overnight, f due to illness, for an immune deficiency kid this is really big.

What happened was Squeaker had a wonderful (note the sarcasm) sinus infection for several weeks. She was on 2 rounds on antibiotics and on the last day, day 20, Squeaker was looking really well. No runny nose, no pain, and happy disposition. We thought we were in the clear. We were even on track to start the prophylactic antibiotic again later that week. That was a Thursday.

Friday morning she was fine. Then she went to lunch with Trey and didn't eat. When they got home Trey made sure she took a nap. A 5 hour nap later, Squeaker had a fever. 101 fever.... 20 minutes later it was 104. We gave her some meds and called the doc. Another 20 minutes her fever was down to 103. Finally talked to the doctor and it was agreed we had better head to the ER.

They thought about doing an abdominal ultra sound because she was complaining so much of stomach pain and just in tears. Not our normal Squeaker, even when she hurts. A chest x-ray, a bunch of labs, a dose of fever reducer, an IV and still having a 102 fever it was decided to keep Squeaker for a little while. While we were in the process of being admitted some lab results came back. She testing positive for Para-influenza 3. A human born flu for which there is no vaccine and the virus can live on hard surfaces for up to 10 hours. The biggest concern for Squeaker was that she seemed very dehydrated and that Para-influenza 3 commonly leads to pneumonia or bronchitis.Which Squeaker is pretty prone to get. If it hadn't been decided before Squeaker was most certainly staying in the hospital for a day or two. Alright so we are admitted and finally get settled into a room at 4am I think it was. I'm glad we all took naps that day.