Sofia's Scare

I haven't had any time to sit down and update the blog... but on Monday we brought Sofia to the doctor again for another follow-up and weight check. She lost a whole two ounces, which really worried the doctor. She officially got the "failure to thrive" label. The labs that he got back also showed that her sodium was low (the doctor said he doesn't always trust their machine but he still had to listen to the results). He told us that we needed to admit her to the hospital to the general Peds floor. I felt like my heart sank into my stomach- I pretty much lost it right away.
We brought Sofia to the hospital that afternoon and right away they spent a lot of time trying to get blood from her and she was not giving any away. They also started an IV right away, but that was difficult too. It was heart-wrenching watching them try to find veins to poke and her bawling. All I wanted was to bring her back to the NICU, where we felt comfortable. The docs and nurses didn't know her! There are germs on the peds floor! I felt so helpless to my own daughter- what an awful feeling.

After some tests, we did realize her sodium was on the low end, but not as critically low as the clinic showed. We also found out that her thyroid gland was working too hard to make the hormone, so she has started some meds for that. She had a swallow study yesterday morning, which showed nothing abnormal with her anatomy or any aspiration. She did have reflux, so we put her on Prevacid. Happily, she showed weight gain on Tue and Wed morning. Earlier today, I was talking to the doctor about when we could discharge. We really wanted to get her home since no other tests were ordered. She really wanted the sodium to go up another couple points before she would feel comfortable to let us go- but she wasn't planning on running another blood test until the morning. I brought up re-testing tonight and she agreed.

We finally got discharged tonight at about 9:00 pm after the blood test showed her sodium level was adequate. I was so glad I pushed the doc because we really didn't want another night! I know that we are going to be keeping close tabs on her nutrition and weight gain from here on out. Hopefully the thyroid meds and the Prevacid make a difference. She also just could have had a little virus that will just run its short course. Nevertheless, she is HOME with her loving family. Hopefully for good!

Being on the regular peds floor made us really appreciate the NICU. Understandably, the ratio of nurses/docs to patients is not at as good on the peds floor and I just felt uneasy about all the sick kids that were around. Also, it was just so nice having our primary nurses at the NICU who knew our kids like the back of their hands. Three of our wonderful primaries came and visited us while Sofia was on the peds floor which was so nice. Thank you!

I really hope we are done with the hospital FOR REAL now. I know we have a ton of follow-ups and clinic appointments, but please, no more hospitalizations!