Monday, July 26, 2010

Damn Dehydration


After having an wonderful 4th of July weekend in Boston with so many of our cousins and uncles and aunts and after finally uniting with Mani (he got back from Germany after 14 days that same weekend), eating tons of wonderful food - courtesy Gita taiji and Arvind tauji, laughing till our bellies would hurt, singing and dancing, after all this,  we had a terrible start of the week with Gauri suddenly throwing up at 10 PM Monday night. She continued to vomit all night, literally every 5 - 10 minutes, unable to hold even a spoonful of water, barely able to walk to the wash room, super sleepy yet unable to sleep because of the nausea. We waited till the morning but since she was looking dehydrated by 8 AM we saw her pediatrician who gave her some med for stopping her vomiting. The meds did work and by wednesday morning she only threw up once. We were so relieved but relief lasted only a couple of hours - While trying to sleep Neel wednesday night he had the similar throw up like Gauri. Oh God my worst nightmare had come true. The Doctor had warned us that the virus was severely infectious and we ALL might come down with it. Neel had the same throwing up episode as Gauri - 5 - 10 minute interval just that he seems out of it very quickly. After about 4 hours of throwing up he lay limp - not able to move, no tears - crying constantly in a very low volume because of nausea but unable to actually vomit anything any longer - completely dehydrated, too sleepy and lethargic. At about 2 AM we were begging the doctor to prescribe Neel the same med (Zofran that they gave to Gauri - but th answer was “NO” - “can never to such a mall baby, its not fit for even Gauri, not sure why the other dr. did prescribe it for Gauri”.
I immediately did some research only to find out that its mostly given to patients with nausea caused by Chemo, not safe for small kids.
We passed the night somehow - morning saw the Dr., and his opinion was to take him to the hospital for IV. I chose to keep him home and try some electrolytes but he want able to hold anything. I dreaded taking him to the hospital but finally we had to. He was so dehydrated by friday that it was the "Doctors ORDERS" this time. 
After falling asleep finally
Gauri was quite freaked out when we took him to the hospital and when all the nurses were trying to prick my poor baby several times to draw some blood and for the IV needle. Thanks to our friends Anurag and Malvi who came to the hospital and took Gauri with them. Neel was terrible after so many people trying to get the needle in him and so much commotion...he finally slept at 11 PM and I sat besides him all night to change him if he threw up again. 


Neel after 2 days of IV sugar in him


Gauri stayed home with baba but visited Neel every day while he was still there. We even watched some fireworks on the Thames from our hospital window and Gauri sang songs for Neel and even played with him while we tried hard to keep him from pulling out the IV needles from his hand. By morning and with enough IV fluid in him, he was looking better although he only had his first bite of food sunday afternoon then was finally discharged.

We were so relieved as all 4 of us drove back home from the hospital with our both babies finally Healthy and Happy. Oh what a week!!