April Fools Day

Today was not a fun day at all. Norah had been acting strangely for a couple of days and I began to suspect a bladder infection was the culprit. She's never had one before, but Jeff had just told me about his co-worker's daughter (only a little older than Norah) had just had one so it was on my mind. Norah wasn't displaying any of the typical symptoms but she was overly fussy, biting her hand (hard enough to leave teeth marks), screaming when I would take them on a walk, and had NO appetite. Twice she grabbed her self, bent over, and had a look of pain on her face, but that was it. I called the doctor and had her in the next morning.

They looked at her and thought that it could be allergies since those are really bad right now. I felt like this was a very feasible explanation, but talked them into testing for a bladder infection. I am very thankful for my pediatrician. She knows me and understands that I pay close attention to my babies and know when something is wrong. She agreed and sent us with the necessary stuff to collect a sample to then take to a lab across the street.

This was actually more convenient than it sounded since I still had to get Justin's 9 month blood work done (routine only). We arrived at the lab with both babies in good moods, but obviously ready for naps. The other patients in the waiting room were awesome, not only did someone open the door to help me get in, but they all talked to the babies to help entertain them. When our name was called someone else held the other door for me and in we went. I handed over Norah's bag, and then we got down to business.

I held Justin against me while the nurse "tried" to draw his blood. I say "tried" because she inserted the needle into his arm, but couldn't find the vein. He of course started to scream as she poked and prodded. It was the worst blood draw I have ever witnessed. For the sake of the faint of heart (Jeffrey) I won't go into details, at least not too many. She finally called in another nurse to assist her and they moved over to his other arm. By this time he was screaming himself hoarse and in a cold sweat. Norah just stood at my feet playing with a sticker (probably hoping not to draw attention to herself). When they were unable to find a vein in the second arm, they returned to the first and the second nurse took over working the needle. She went back to the original puncture site, inserted the needle, found the vein and drew his blood.

All of this took less than 10 minutes, but it was an awful ten minutes. I was so tense my back and jaw hurt, and poor Justin couldn't scream anymore. He had screamed himself into exhaustion and sweated through his clothes. As we were leaving the people in the waiting room all told him how brave he had been as I cuddled him close and wiped away his tears. We got home and I laid Norah down for her nap, then snuggled with Justin who was sound asleep.

The pictures don't adequately show the trauma, since he kept pulling away from me every time I touched his arms, and he was too pitiful to bother with additional pictures. Both arms were covered with burst vessels, which appear as red dots, and each one had a substantial bruise (That's not a shadow in the picture above). Our poor poor baby.

The next day we received word that Norah did indeed have a bladder infection, and our prescription was waiting at the pharmacy. Talk about a terrible way to spend April Fool's Day. I think next year we will try to stick with silly pranks that don't involve a need for antibiotics, Tylenol and blood work.