This week is no different, except it happens to be Bella's birthday week (she will be 2 on Thursday). On Monday Bella woke up from her nap with a pretty high fever, she would not take the medicine we were trying to give her (usually she is a champ at taking oral meds), she in fact threw it up and continued to throw up. We really did not know what to do, she was miserable and she was burning up.
The Chinese way, for any illness, any hint of a cold, whatever, is to go get an IV of antibiotics. In our almost seven years in China, four with kids, we have never really even considered this...until now. We really wanted to get her fever down, it was 4 in the afternoon, the American doc was out of town. We took her in.
The doctor we saw happened to be a guy David played soccer with, that was helpful. Bella threw up again. He took her temp and immediately gave her a Tylenol suppository, he wanted us to do it actually but we told him we had never done it before....then we went upstairs for a blood test, she cried a little at the prick, but not much. Back down to the doc after the results... her throat was red, her blood test showed signs of serious infection, yada yada....to the pharmacy to get the meds... back upstairs for a test prick to see if there is an allergy... waiting 15 minutes... then the IV of medicines.
Meanwhile I had to go home and feed Tobin and put Sophia in bed. Praise God for Ayi, she stayed longer and let me go back. David and I had not eaten dinner. I brought him some snacks but he was disgusted by the hospital and refused to eat inside. I, on the other hand was famished and ate some crackers and some mini-oreos that I snagged from the bag of stuff I plan to use to decorate her birthday cake. I missed the whole putting in of the IV, David said she did fine! And there was our baby Bella, not so baby anymore, like every other Chinese kid, walking around with her IV.
The kid next to her started throwing up and the mom found the mop and cleaned it up. At one point the nurse mumbled something to us as she left the room, all we heard clearly was 'bring it back' we asked the highschoolers next to us what she said, they spoke in clearer Chinese: 'go get the thermometer, bring it back and take her temperature'....oh, I see. So, we did. She still had a fever. After her three bottles of medicine, they wanted us to stay on because she still had a fever, we told them we would try fever medicine at home again. And we left. All told this took five hours. And we did have to force the fever medicine down when we got home.
We were so prepared for this whole adventure that 1.) my cell phone had no money on it, 2) David's cell phone battery had no power, and 3) we had just enough money on us to pay for the bill (thankfully I borrowed some money from Ayi when I went home, and I tried to put money on my phone but the place was closed, but still we were at the hospital for a while with 2 kids at home and no way of really getting in touch, not a stellar moment, but I did remember to bring David his power cord back)
After consulting with some docs that usually give us advice, we have switched antibiotics, and are not taking her back for her second day of an IV like we were supposed to. She still is refusing to take the medicine, but we are forcing it in order to avoid the hospital ward again.
I gave her a cracker, which the nurse promptly told me was a no-no. And later she told us to please put long pants on her.
They told us to go lay down on a bed. Ummm...no thank you, none of the sheets were clean, all of the blankets had been used...you could tell these were used all day without changing, probably all week, who knows. We opted for the chair.
She still smiled for the camera...
It was towards the end of the day so it wasn't that full.
Outside this ward, people were receiving their nebulizer treatments.
David is trying to take these pics on the sly, and so we are having a conversation. He is telling me he wants to stop and get some of his favorite noodles on the way home.
Taking her temperature again. After the IV was removed the nurse put the cotton ball on her hand and I held it there, then I started gathering my bags together and getting up. The high schooler who helped us out before came over quickly and showed me that Bella was bleeding all over me. She then went and got the nurse. Apparently I was not applying enough pressure...Bella whined a little at the sight of so much blood (which wasn't too much, but enough to startle her). I cleaned it all up with wet wipes, and our adventure at the hospital was over. Officially having participated in the Chinese way of treating your sick child. We hope never to do this again.
Update: She seems to be feeling better, and did not have a fever today. BUT Sophia woke up with a low-grade fever and a stomach ache, so she stayed home from school, and took her medicine without needles involved....we spent the day slowly decorating for Bella's birthday.
