Vilate was a little warm when she went to bed a week ago Sunday night, but she was a raging inferno by the time she crawled into bed with us sometime in the middle of the night. She was also hallucinating/ talking in her sleep in a rather hilarious way. (Ammon, stop biting me! Brigham, move over! Both of these fellows were in their own beds, of course). After both children's ibuprofen-like stuff and children's tylenol, she calmed down and went to sleep. After that, the morning seemed fine until we noticed that our resident albino had lost all the residual color in her face. From there, it was a few short steps to the hospital and the rest of our week-long ordeal.
She was admitted to the hospital solely on the results of a finger-prick test. She was, in fact, so lively during that time, that the nurses indicated that it was just a precaution and she would shortly be sent home. Unfortunately, her CR-P levels (these indicate levels of infection in the blood) were sky-high, and she was immediately put on an IV and the wild goose chase for the cause of the infection began. The first course of antibiotics was ineffective, and her CR-P levels rocketed up to even more horrifying levels. She was put on full-time monitors and her organs were in danger of failing.
Throughout the last week, she has been pricked, had blood taken every day, had countless ultrasounds and x-rays, contracted a bonus cold from her original roommate, been on an IV non-stop, been constipated most painfully, had to use her little potty in front of strangers, and been poked and prodded by what seems like legions of doctors and nurses (to whom she has been completely rude). There has still been no Actual Diagnosis of something-or-other-its.
She's beginning to seem more like herself. Yesterday she scurried under her bed every time a nurse came into the room. She also turned into a kitten, a tiger, a dog, a dinosaur, and a rat. I was the littlest bit scared of the rat. She's also learned how to use the laptop fairly well--also scary. (Funny little story--the first night we were there, we settled down to watch a movie on the laptop, only the sleeve full of DVDs had disappeared. We were limited to the two movies downloaded onto the laptop--What's Up Doc and Nacho Libre. So she chose the wrestling movie. We got a lot of strange looks from the family sharing her room.)
Alan and I have traded off 24-hour shifts at the hospital, one of us coming home to man the fort, the other one promoted to Head Waterboy for Her Imperial Highness. (Also, I have memorized much of Barbie and the Diamond Castle. Although I can't think of an exact scenario when this may come in useful in the future, you never know). I've come across many deep and teary stories that take place in emergency rooms, etc (OK, so my parents had a subscription to Readers' Digest), and the hospital seems to be ripe ground for spiritual experiences, for A-ha! moments, for changing into a better you. I'm afraid that in my experience, I was mostly just exhausted. And hungry. (They don't feed the parents at the hospital. You have to scout out your own food.) And after a while I caught Vilate's cold, so I was exhausted, hungry, and miserable.
But tomorrow, maybe (if all the new bloodwork and tests come back negative), just maybe, Vilate will put away her Pet Machine (the IV thingie) and come home. I'll see my husband for longer than the 15 minutes a day it took us to trade places. I will get to hold all of my children at once, and feel at peace for the first time in 9 days.
Tangentially, having been immersed in a Czech-only environment for much of the last week, my Czech is WAY better! I've had several long conversations where everyone has understood each other. (Also a couple of notable lapses--I totally didn't get the whole sterile container thing.)
