Scary moment

I have decided I am putting my family in a plastic bubble for a few months.  Hannah had hand, foot, and mouth a few weeks ago.  The husband came down with what he thought was a sinus infection, but more than likely was a cold.  Since at first we thought sinus infection, he didn't stay away from Meeghan.  It was the wrong move.  I noticed on Sunday that she was congested and she felt warm.  Her temperature was hovering close to 100 so we watched it.  A few hours later it was up to 101.4.  I decided at that point it was time to go to the ER.  (Seriously, no one in my house can ever be sick during regular business hours.)  So off to the good ol' ER again.  I hate the ER here.  It is always full of people who don't understand to cover their mouth when they are hacking up their internal organs.  I always feel like I need a shower the minute I enter the building.  Anyway, I take her and after an hour they finally call her back.  Her temperature is still 101 so we get to stay for a bit.  The doctor has a thick accent, and I have no clue what he is saying half the time.  Eventually, he admits to me he is not sure what to do since he is not a pediatrician.  He calls a children's hospital and they tell him what to do because at this point her temperature is 102.  They decide to put an IV in so they can give her antibiotics.  I had to leave the room because I started crying.  Then they tell me she is being transferred to the children's hospital because of her age.  I call the husband to tell him she is being moved to Corpus Christi instead of going home like we thought.  He brings stuff up for me so I can have a few things.  By this point, I was getting tired and pretty emotional.  I didn't want to be alone, but since he was sick and we had Hannah, I had to go by myself.  Meeghan took her first (and hopefully only) ambulance ride..  It broke my heart that I didn't ride with her, but the husband wanted me to take the car since we thought she would be released after a few hours.  She wasn't released.  She was admitted.  Apparently for a child her age they do a full work up which included a lumbar puncture to look for bacterial infection.  They want a full 48 hours to check the cultures.  I was dreading being in the hospital that long.  This all started Sunday night at 6:30.  We didn't get to a room at the children's hospital until 4am.  I was so tired, but I didn't get to sleep until 7, and even then I got one hour of sleep.  The bags under my eyes were pretty scary.  I am pumping instead of breastfeeding which meant I had to get up to pump instead of sleeping until she wanted to eat.  Plus, all the people who kept coming in the room make it difficult to sleep. After all her tests were run, it turns out she had a cold virus.  By Monday afternoon she was much better.  They wanted to keep her one more day to check the cultures after 24 hours.  I got to spend my New Year's Eve in a hospital.  It sucked.  Thankfully, she was released yesterday morning since she was back to normal.  Her cultures were negative so it was just the virus.  I hope I never have to do that again.  I hated having to stare at her IV.  She is home and happy to be here.  She is asleep.  I think I may join her since I still feel like I haven't slept in years.

Meeghan trying to sleep with her IV