Halle's Hospital Adventure

Here is a recap of what Halle went through this last week.

Monday - July 23

Halle's stomach is finally feeling better after having a nasty tummy bug for several days. But she starts limping and complains about her hip hurting. Hip out of joint? Strained muscle? Overly dramatic kid?

Put her to bed. Hip still hurting and I notice a fever.

Tuesday - July 24

Halle wakes up moaning in pain. Hip hurts even worse and can't walk or move it at all without screaming pain. Fever still present. I know something is wrong - call the doctor and get an appointment right away.

Dr. examines Halle and concludes that she has "Toxic Synovitis," a self limiting viral disease that has occurred in her hip. Recommendation - give her motrin and codeine and keep her off her feet for a week and she should feel better in 7-10 days. Drew blood (which Halle of course did not like and let every one know it!) and ordered blood work "just in case" it is something worse. Should get blood results back by tonight.

No word on the blood work - assume everything is okay. Keep giving pain medication and make her as comfortable as possible. Hates going to the bathroom because I have to pick her up - which bends her joint a little and causes a lot of pain.

Wednesday - July 25

Halle is still in a lot of pain. Fever still present even with both motrin and codeine. Try to get stuff done around the house (been gone for three weeks and then had sick kids).

Around 10am I get a phone call - can't get to it because Sean is finally agreeing to use the potty. Get back to the answering machine and listen to the message. A little disturbing to hear, "Mrs. Caviness, this is Dr. Shipowick. We have the results of Halle's blood test and you need to call me right away." He has also called my cell phone and left and message and left his home phone number and his personal cell phone number (he was not working that day). Not what you want to hear - but still didn't think anything was too serious at this point.

After I call he tells me that Halle's sedimentation number is pretty high. It should be below 30 and hers is 39. He still reassures me that it is nothing to be alarmed at - probably high because she still has some inflammation. But "just in case" he would like me to take Halle down to the hospital to get an ultra sound done of her hip to see if there is an abundance of fluid. If it looks okay - then good, but if it looks a little iffy then he wants to get some fluid aspirated out of her hip. He says he has already called the hospital and that they will get in touch me with and set everything up.

About 30 minutes later the calls start coming in. One from radiology, one from records (got to make sure you have insurance!) and several from pediatric surgery. Finally when everything gets coordinated they ask me to check into pediatric surgery at 2:00pm. They will do an ultra sound and then if needed do the hip aspiration procedure. Halle is not to have any more food or liquids. (She had only a few crackers to eat at 7:30am that morning.)

I inform Halle of the new events for the day and prep her for an ultra sound and possible procedure. We are both mentally prepared to get through what we think is the worse case scenario.

We arrive at the hospital. I am carrying Halle and trying to find my way around. Finally someone orders a wheel chair for us. After waiting about 20 minutes for transport to come we finally check in at the pediatric surgery center. After checking in they whisk us over to radiology for her ultra sound. Halle lies real still and is very cooperative and very fascinated with the monitor. The technician gives me the look of -yes - positive for the next step. Lots of fluid. Then the doctor comes in (Dr. Sanders) and takes a look. He doesn't see the extra fluid that the tech had seen but decides that it is best to do the aspiration, "just in case."

We are wheeled back to surgery where Halle has to get prepped for the procedure. They give her a medicine to calm her down and then have to insert an IV line. They then give her some sedation medicine (just to relax and forget - not totally out). She is then wheeled back to radiology where Dr. Sanders can do a ultrasound guided aspiration.

They allow me to stay with her for the whole procedure. She is kind of funny. One moment she looks like she is asleep, the next she is wide awake and babbling on about something. When they poked her with another sedation needle she yelled out, "Sean - stop poking me." And then when the really big needle finally went into her hip she again yelled, "SEAN!!!!"

As they aspirate the fluid I can tell it is not good. Instead of being clear fluid it is really cloudy looking. I still just assume it is from a virus. The nurse told me that taking some of the fluid out of her hip should help with some of the discomfort she had been feeling. The doctor says he will send the fluid to the lab "just in case."

With the procedure all done they take us to the recovery room. Halle is really out of it and we have a hard time trying to get her to wake up (she isn't even supposed to be really asleep). As the nurse takes her vitals she notices that her temperature has gone up. They give her some tylenol. 45 minutes later her temperature is still going up, not down. They are not allowed to give her anything else without a Dr.'s order but the nurse allows me to give her some motrin that I happen to have in my bag. After a time her temperature is still 102 and she starts getting the shakes. She is still having a hard time waking up and now I am getting a little scared. She should be getting better, not worse.

The nurse is worried too. They are supposed to be discharging us (I already have the papers signed) but she thinks Halle needs to be admitted and I agree. She tries to contact Dr. Shipowick but is referred to the Dr. on call for that medical group. She has to explain everything and he says he will get back to her.

Mean while I decide I had better call Jeraldine and let her know that we will be at the hospital a little longer (she is watching the boys because Chris, his dad and his brothers are having the big annual Walker Cup golf tournament today). I have to turn my cell phone on because I had it turned off during the procedure. When I call Jeraldine she is okay with keeping the boys longer and tells me Dr. Shipowick has been trying to get a hold of me but didn't tell me why. I figured he just wanted to see how things went.

After a few more minutes my cell phone rings. I don't recognize the number but maybe it is Dr. Shipowick again. I answer and am greeted by, "Is this Mrs. Caviness?"

"Yes."

"This is Dr. Perry. I'm a pediatric surgeon. Where are you right now?"

"I'm still at the hospital in the recovery room."

"WHAT EVER YOU DO DON'T LEAVE!!!!! We got more results from Halle's first blood test . Her white blood cell count should be well below 5000 (5000 means an infection is present). Halle's WBC is 7500! That probably means that bacteria is causing the infection and that means we will have to do surgery on her hip right away."

Then he started throwing out more medical terms and I handed my phone over to the nurse.

Come to find out Dr. Shipowick had been trying to find us for about 2 hours. For some reason the pedicatric recovery room told him we were not there. Then since he was working in the ER he called Dr. Perry in to help find us.

So, as soon as they knew where we were we had the surgeons (Dr. Perry and Dr. Lynch) come and explain the procedure to us and why it was necessary. They said they would put a 2-3 inch incision into her leg (in reality it is a 4-5 inch incision with other smaller incisions on her hip too) so that they could open her up to the hip bone, clean out all the fluid and then check the bones to make sure they weren't diseased or infected. Bacteria is never good to have in the body - especially where it can grow undetected for a while. If the bacteria enters her blood stream then she would really be in trouble.

Once all the surgical staff is ready (and they put in another IV, since the last one was removed)and the OR is clear they take her away from me for emergency surgery. I was not at all prepared for this scenario! I start crying and shaking and praying.

I call Chris to let him know what is happening. He is at the 11th whole and not too thrilled about getting interrupted in the middle of his golf game.

I call Jeraldine and she of course is willing to keep the boys until tomorrow.

It is late, I am tired and I am in shock. Why did my precious little girl have to go through this?! I would much rather it had happened to me than to her. I wished more than anything that I could take away all the pain she had had and all the pain I knew was coming.

I wait by myself in the surgery waiting room. Hoping all will go well and than I can see my little girl again quickly. An hour later there is finally some relief. The surgeons tell me everything went well. They also say that it was a good thing my Dr. was on top of things and that they had operated right away. She not only had bacteria in the fluid, but mounds of puss that they had to clean out and scrap away. They say that she should not have any problems with her joint. She is young and will recuperate well, but of course there is always a small percentage of a chance that there could be further problems.

I continue to wait for when they will allow me to see my daughter again. (I have to wait until she has recovered from the anaesthesia). As I wait the golfers return. First Chris and then Mike and Dad. We wait and wait and wait. Mike and dad go home. It is 11:30pm and I call to find out what is happening and one of the nurses that I finally talk to says, "We looked for you in every waiting room but that one. Halle has been crying for you."

AAGGGGG!!!!! Stupid people! First they don't know we are still in the hospital and then they can't find me in the waiting room that they took me to to wait.

Chris and I make our way to her room as quickly as we can. And there she is, a little girl in a big old hospital bed with tubes (IV fluid, antibiotics, and morphine) stuck in her arm. She gives us a big smile and we know it will all be okay.

I spend the night - and watch her face and listen to the beeps of machines all night long.

Thursday - July 26

Halle wakes up and sees that there is a TV in the room and requests cartoons. She is taking everything is stride and doesn't seem worried or confused that she is in a hospital.

Finally she has to go to the bathroom. She is in too much pain to get out of bed. The nurses slide a bed pan under her but it is a disaster and the bed gets flooded. They decide she will have to wear diapers until she can move. Halle is deeply offended until I tell her that her Grandpa Hansen had to wear one when he was in the hospital too. That seemed to give her some comfort - but she still didn't like it.

The big cheer-up of the day is a dog named Mowgley brought in by a cute older couple who volunteer their dog at the pediatric center.

Halle happy to see a dog at the hospital.

Friday - July 27

Halle starts to get the hospital routine down - blood pressure, temperature, medicine, using her diaper. She also has major bed head!!

They determine she has been infected with streptococcus bacteria. But, they don't know how or why it happenend. But they do know they are using the right course of antibiotics for the infection.

Halle really is Supergirl - staying cheerful through it all.

Saturday - July 28

Halle gets a little walker and can finally get to the bathroom and the playroom (but still with lots of pain). I tackle her bed head and put in braids and give her a sponge bath.

Getting Halle out of her bed to use her walker.

Halle using her walker to get to the bathroom.

Next adventure - walking to the play room.

Halle enjoys coloring some picture while watching the other kids run around.

Sunday - July 29

Grandma and Bompa spend the day with Halle after church. Her friend, Madison, from Arizona comes to give her a visit. Halle is thrilled to have a friend to play with. Halle's most memorable words for the day are, "I love the hosptial, mommy. I want to stay here for a long time."

Halle gets visitors! Kristen, Maddison, Halle, and Maddison's Grandma.

Playing together in the bed.

Showing Maddison how to get to the play room.

Halle showing off in her walker.

A big goodbye hug!!! Maddison heads back to Arizona.

Monday - July 30

Told that we can go home today if three things happen. 1) Echocardiogram of Halle's heart (to make sure no damage from autoimmunity), 2) VPlacement of the P.I.C.C. line, 3) Visit from home-help nurse to show how to use P.I.C.C line. By mid-day Halle was no longer wanting to stay in the hospital but was screaming, "I want to go home. I hate it here. Take me home!!!"

The echocardiogram was easy - and every thing looked normal (so far).

The nurse came by but didn't give any instruction as the PICC was not in place yet.

We waited and waited for the PICC. They told us it was scheduled for 11:30am. And again Halle could not eat or drink as she would be sedated. Finally at 2:30pm they took her down to pediatric surgery and inserted the PICC. (If you don't know what a PICC is - it is a small tube inserted into her arm that goes up a vein and ends near the heart. It is attached to some fancy tubing so that medicine can be injected directly into the blood stream).

After the PICC insertion she was x-rayed to make sure it had been inserted correctly - you know, "just in case." The results of the x-ray showed that it was too long. So they had to pull off all the tape again (pure torture - just ask Halle what was the worst thing - yucky tasting medicine and having bandages removed!!!!) and pull out 2cm and rebandage her up.

Finally at 6:00pm we were finally discharged and on our way back home.

Tuesday - July 31

Home-help nurse comes by and shows me how to administer Halle's anitbiotics through her PICC. She will need to take this medicine daily for 4 weeks.

Halle - happy to be home again!!!!

Thank you everyone for your concerns and prayers - I know they really helped us at this time!!!!