Maryn's Trip To The ER

We can mark last night down as another first in our book of parenting. Maryn woke up about 1:00 in the morning and came out of her room yelling that her neck hurt. She was grabbing at the back her neck and was obviously in a lot of discomfort. I took her temperature which was 101.8 and 101.9. She was burning up all over. I gave her some Tylenol and tried to get her settled back in bed. She started telling me that her head hurt too and that her stomach hurt, but all along kept repeating that her neck hurt and would point to the back of her neck. I started panicking because all I could think of was meningitis. I had her try to move her neck around and touch her chin to her chest, all of which she could do, but of course she wasn't very cooperative as it was in the middle of the night. After fretting about it for a little while I called our doctor's after hours nurse. I was hoping to call and just have her calm my fears, but instead she told me that my fear of the possibility of meningitis was founded and that we needed to get to the ER as soon as possible.

Maryn was a trooper and very brave. She tried to convince me that she was feeling fine as soon as she heard that we were going to the doctor (she just got shots on Tuesday so I think she was worried about getting more). We arrived to a very empty ER (I was so thankful) and were helped immediately. The doctor did a physical exam, the most important part of which he tested her neck and said that it was "supple", which was good news. He told me he didn't think it was meningitis but possibly pneumonia or bad case of strep. Maryn was taken for a chest x-ray and a strep test, all of which came back negative. So the prayer that I prayed on the entire car ride to the hospital was answered and we left the hospital with a diagnosis of a viral infection. They gave her more pain meds while in the hospital and she was in pretty good spirits after that. She was so wide awake by the time we got home she couldn't fall asleep (even though she kept telling me she was tired). She was so amazed at how dark it was outside and that there were no other cars on the street besides us. She was also so polite throughout the entire process, saying "thank you" and being her sweet self to all the medical professionals that helped her. As we were walking out of the ER she said "Thanks for making me better Mommy." Oh I just love that girl!

She finally fell asleep about 6:00 am (and Maya woke up before 6:30 am... leaving little time for Mommy to sleep!!!) and slept until noon. The amazing thing is she woke up with absolutely no fever and no pain whatsoever. I thought maybe we were out of the woods, but then her fever spiked again this afternoon and she felt crummy again. That must have been quite the pain medicine they gave her in the hospital... almost 14 hours pain and fever free on one dose! Holy smokes! All I know is that I thank God my little girl is feeling a better!

Proof that she's feeling better (for the most part)... this was her playing shortly after waking up at noon! Looking pretty good! And of course she still had to wear her hospital bracelet to show her big sister :)


One of the most beautiful, precious little girls in the world... my Maryn.


And once again, I have to say how overly impressed I am with St. Luke's hospital. Each and every person we came into contact with at the ER went above and beyond. They were SO good with Maryn. Nurses, front desk personnel, x-ray techs, doctors... all of them were phenomenal. We are so blessed to live in a town with such awesome medical services.