Yesterday was one of those days that most of us could have lived without having to have experienced! When Rayleigh came home from school on Monday, she said her head hurt. Needless to say, as the evening progressed, so did the headache, and by 12:30 am (Tuesday), the headache was so bad that it was causing her to vomit. She swore to me that her stomach did not hurt – just her head (right behind her forehead), but despite the lack of stomach pain, she vomited 10 times between 12:30 and 9:45 in the morning. It was a long sleepless night, and she was miserable. I felt so bad for her, and all I wanted to do was to be able to make the pain go away.
Molly went to school by herself for the first time Tuesday, and Tyler said that she was very brave. She explained to the teacher that Rayleigh was sick at home, and that she would help her do her schoolwork when she got home that day – she’s quite the big helper. While Tyler delivered the other two to their resting spots for the day, I called to get Rayleigh a Dr.’s appointment. The headache was out of control, and she couldn’t even hold down two tablespoonsful of anything. Our appointment was scheduled for 10:10am.
Dr. Gometz looked her over – ears were clear, throat was clear, no fever, nose was clear, no sinus problems, ruled out meningitis – but still was vomiting and still had an unbearable headache. He said his gut told him it was something viral, but he was not willing to go off of that feeling. He wanted to make sure that it wasn’t something more serious, and she was seriously dehydrated, so he admitted her into the hospital for observation.
Up to the third floor we went. She didn’t even flinch when they started the IV – no tears, no reaction at all. It wasn’t until later that I understood that she was so terribly dehydrated that she was disoriented at that point. After a short nap, she woke up and thought she was in Kansas City (where we were this weekend) – between the pain and the dehydration, she was out of it! It wasn’t until after pushing a whole IV bag and a ½, that she “came back to us” and knew who & where she was again. From that point on, she progressively got better throughout the day. The headache started to fade a little, she got a little color back in her cheeks, and by evening, we even got to see her crack a smile. She quickly learned that she got to be queen of the remote, and we must have surfed all 100 channels at least 35 times yesterday!
The silver-lining for the day came from Molly. One never quite understands the love of a twin sister, but it is the most beautiful sight that any mother can imagine. When one hurts, the other does too. They understand one another in ways that no one else can. Sometimes it is painful to watch at first, but when you look at the big picture, it is the most heartwarming thing you can imagine. When Molly walked into the hospital room after school, she took one look at Rayleigh, so limp & colorless, then she walked straight over to me, buried her head in my shoulder, and began to cry. She hurt so bad for her sister, and she didn’t even understand. We had to take a little walk and I sat and rocked her, and explained that Rayleigh was here to get better, and that she could stay as long as she wanted with her. Molly was upset because Rayleigh wouldn’t get to sleep with her tonight, but Rayleigh had already taken care of that. Even as out of it as Rayleigh was when she had gotten her IV, the nurse offered her this soft, little plush flower. She had asked to have an extra one for her sister when she came to see her – how thoughtful. So when Molly went back into the room to see Rayleigh, Rayleigh explained that Molly could take the flower home with her tonight and sleep with it, and she would sleep with her’s that way they could remember each other throughout the night. It was so sweet. Then Molly showed Rayleigh a seashell that she had gotten to pick from the treasure chest at school today for being so brave to come without her sister. She gave Rayleigh the seashell to keep with her for the night as well. Molly was the first person to get Rayleigh to smile again as well. She would hardly respond to the rest of us, but Molly said one little thing to her and she would light up! I can almost sit here and cry just thinking about how blessed I am to be the mother of twins (there are times when TWO babies are crying, needing fed, or needing bathed that you question God’s motive, but one tender minute with them makes up for DAYS of crying, feeding, tough minutes with them!
Carrie met Tyler at home to help him with bath and bedtime for the other kids and spent the night to help deliver everyone in the morning – I love having such a wonderful family so close! Rayleigh and I were getting ourselves situated to hit the sack for the evening when she started to get sick again. She sat up quickly in bed and pulled her IV. After 10 minutes of the nurse “adjusting” the needle in her hand (and Rayleigh crying because it hurt so badly – she was shouting “Help me, Daddy”), it was determined that we had lost the line and we would have to restart a new IV. The nurse tried in the other hand and missed again – it was awful! She finally called in “helicopter Judy” from the ER (she is the life-flight nurse) and she got it started in the hand that had already been poked earlier. Needless to say, she will probably be scared to death to get shots from now on, but she still understands that the shot was what made her better too, and she has been very “grown up” about the whole situation.
We both slept “all night” (from 2:00 until 8:00 – waking up at 4am, 5am, 6am, and 7am for labs, BP checks, etc.). She ate her 8:00am breakfast of lime jello and cherry frozen slush – yuk!!! She was still on clear liquids. We walked around the halls a little & she was much, much better today. We are dismissed to leave here in a little bit, and she is released to eat lunch at home today – they gave her the option to eat in the hospital or at home, and with a breakfast like the one that she was offered, can you blame her for wanting to eat at home?!
Praise God for a quick recovery!
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