Last Thursday we noticed that the mucus coming from her eye had probably tripled in how much was coming out. I also noticed that the inside of her eye (white part) was a little red. On Friday I decided to take her to the doctor to get them to check it out before the weekend. The doctor decided that the eye may be a little infected and to start her on an antibiotic ointment 3 times a day. We started the ointment Friday night.
On Saturday morning I noticed that the outside of her eye looked a red. I kept close tabs on her eye all day. I really wasn't that worried. At most I thought I might end up calling my doctor on call and they would tell me that it was nothing to worry about and to keep using the ointment. By about 4 pm her eye was significantly worse (swollen, red, more mucus, and she couldn't open it up all the way). I decided to call the doctor, but I didn't hear exactly what I had expected. She was concerned and said that if her eye got any worse at all that we would need to take her to the ER. She said that eye infection that spreads to the outside of the eye is very treatable with antibiotics, but if it's not treated it can start to affect other parts of the eye and cause major problems. Well it didn't take long for her eye to get worse. Within about an hour we were packing Emily's overnight bag (just in case) and Hannah's diaper bag to head to the hospital. We dropped Emily off with Katherine and Brett with plans to pick back up that night if we got out of the ER before Kate and Brett went to sleep. It literally never crossed my mind that they might keep Hannah there overnight.
We took her to the Wake Med Children's Hospital in Raleigh.
Here we're waiting to be taken back to triage.
She was such a sweet girl. It broke my heart to see her in the hospital gown. I didn't know they made those for kids her size.
The doctor came in to evaluate her and decided that they would run some blood work and give her antibiotics through an IV, then they would determine if they needed to admit her to the hospital. Well after two nurses and four attempts Hannah still didn't have an IV. It was horribly painful to watch. I had tears in my eyes while I was I was trying to calm her down. The third attempt was the worst. The needle accidentally popped out on it's own. The nurse gasped said "Oh no!!" I of course asked in a panicked voice what was wrong! I realized the needle had come out, but I wasn't sure if something else had gone wrong. She said she was just upset the needle had come out because they didn't want to have to stick her again...I think she felt bad for scaring me with her reaction. I just felt bad for Hannah. I was thankful for a break after the fourth attempt. I was feeling sick to my stomach and I just wanted to hold my baby. The nurses said she was "chunky" and she must have tiny veins....bad combo when you're trying to get an IV in a 6 1/2 week old.
At this point the doctor came back in and said that they did want to admit her to the hospital. He said that they wanted to watch her and make sure the eye started improving. They decided to give her antibiotics via a shot and orally. Literally within an hour of her having the shot we could see a slight improvement in her eye. It was CRAZY how fast that antibiotic started working! We were so thankful! The doctor mentioned that they may try for the IV again after we were upstairs in our room (they didn't end up needing to). He looked at her head and said "She has good veins in her scalp...did they try to put one up there?!!" My mouth fell open and I said "Are you JOKING?" He wasn't. I quickly informed him that NO, they did not try for the veins in scalp and I surely would have passed out if they had. Ahhh....I still shudder when I think about them putting an IV in her head.
Here she's talking to her nurse. We really had a great experience at Wake Med Children's (other than the IV issues, which weren't their fault). We loved all 4 of the doctors and all 8 of the nurses that took care of our sweet girl.
Hannah was tucked in for a good night sleep. Remember I wasn't expecting to stay at the hospital so all we had were the clothes on our backs.:) Bert was going to run home and get a few things after we got checked in to our room, but it was after midnight by the time we were settled. He decided to stay and would go home first thing in the morning after we spoke with the doctor.
Bert's looking a little sleepy in this picture.:)
My dad and I also had lots of tear duct issues when we were babies. We both actually ended up having to have surgery to open up our tear ducts. It's really rare for babies to have to have the surgery...usually the tear ducts open up on their own. The doctor said if her tear duct still hasn't opened up by 9 months then he would refer her to an ENT. Praying Hannah doesn't follow in our footsteps and have the tear duct surgery.
A HUGE thank you to Katherine and Brett for keeping Emily for us!!! She loves spending time with y'all so much! She didn't even blink an eye when we left.:) We appreciate y'all taking such good care of her so much!
We're so thankful that Hannah is so much better! We love seeing her beautiful blue eyes smiling up at us!:)
Glad Hannah is feeling better! Hope you all got caught up on some rest.
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