Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Sick Miss Viva

The Gory Details
My poor little Olivia is sick.  Sunday night she woke Rob and I up just after 1:00 a.m. and said she hadn't gone to sleep yet.  Her stomach was "killing" her and she was hunched over in terrible pain.  We let her crawl into bed with us, but after about 30 seconds we realized that wasn't going to work.  I set up a bed for her on the couch instead and she lay down, clutching her stomach, moaning, groaning and almost wailing in pain.  Soon thereafter she said she thought we was going to throw up, so I gave her the trash can - just in case.  Sure enough, within a couple of minutes she threw up and had a serious nosebleed.  Her nose bled so much that I was worried she had vomited blood, but fortunately it originated in her nose.  Olivia proceeded to throw up every 15 minutes for the next hour and a half.  I spent the next few hours cleaning up after her, rinsing out her throw up bucket, helping her take sips of water and rinsing out her wash cloth.  She asked me to rub her back because it helped her keep her mind off the pain.  My poor little Viva was in constant pain; along with the vomiting - which is awful enough - she had stomach cramping too.  It was so sad!  By 4:00, I was completely exhausted and told Rob it was his turn.  He diligently helped Olivia the rest of the night, even though he had to work the next day!  He is the best!!!  Olivia only threw up one more time, but didn't sleep much because of the pain.  Rob said she moaned a lot and begged for him to rub her back during his "shift".  
Diagnosis
Yesterday (Tuesday) I took her to the doctor's to see if there was something that could be done or if this was something that just needed to run its course.  After examining her, she did a strep test, which came back positive. I was relieved to find out it was something that could be cured quickly with antibiotics!  Thank the Lord for antibiotics!!

Recovery
Olivia spent the rest of Monday pretty miserable, resting on the couch with stomach pain (but no more vomiting, thank goodness).  By this morning she was back to her old self, but unable to return to school because she was still contagious.  Although she acted like she wanted to be at school, I know better - she enjoyed her day at home with me today! 

Lessons learned:
1.  Strep can manifest itself in stomach cramping and vomiting.  The doctor said something about the glands that control the throat being the same ones that control the lining of the intestines. 
2.  I'm so grateful I'm married to my wonderful Rob so I don't have to be up the entire night with sick kids!  I wonder if he knows how much I appreciate him.

P.S.  Pray, cross your fingers and knock on wood to prevent Olivia's strep from being passed from person to person in our home!

2 comments:

mIcHeLLe said...

oh this is SOOO Kai!!! Kai now has his tonsils out, but he had strep soo many times and never, ever had a sore throat.....he had bad, bad stomach pain and nausea....it was the strangest thing....from then on I always knew he had strep...they would ask if his throat hurt and he would say no...but I would still beg for them to swab it...because I just knew!! And then my other kids never had the tummy problems w/strep...so crazy!!
Glad she is feeling better...and good you took her in and didn't just think it was a stomach bug and let it run it's course...she would be miserable still!

Krista Miller said...

We took Kenlee to the ER one time (only the second time in her life)because she was having really bad stomach pains...it was strep too! So I guess thats a common thing, now we know!