One year ago today...

One year ago today our Lior spiked a fever. I remember it vividly, it was a Wednesday, because we were at Target to get out of the cleaning ladies way. Lior was exceptionally cranky and when I went to put her into the car she was HOT. I gave her some Tylenol on the spot and finally took her home. When we got home I noticed that her groin was EXTREMELY swollen and when I took her temperature it was one hundred and one, after a dose of Tylenol. We called the doctor and left for my moms house for dinner, it took the doctor forever to call back. When they did call back they wanted us to come right in to their office about forty minutes away. We piled the kids in the car and took off.
When we got to the doctor Lior's fever was one hundred and three and they sent us to the emergency room where we waited and waited. Matt brought Sydney home when they finally put us in a room and were starting to work her up. The things they had to do to my poor little Lior. They tried to put the I.V. in twice before they got it in and then they had to catheterize her for a urine sample. By the time Matt returned she was asleep and I was completely spent. At about one in the morning they came to take Lior for a chest x-ray and I said "No, she has been through enough, if her pediatrician wants her to have one we will do it at a later date." About ten minutes later they released us with instructions to see our pediatrician with forty eight hours.
When we woke up the next morning Lior's fever was back to one hundred and three and we were on the way to the pediatricians office. The pediatrician took one look at Lior and knew something was wrong, she was laying on me like a rag. The nurse took her temperature and it was over a hundred and five. We could not give her anymore medication because we had already given her Tylenol and Motrin. They put cold compresses on her to bring down the fever and sent me directly to the hospital that had sent us home the night before.
We spent the next five days in the hospital fighting with surgeons and sitting through painful medical procedures. The surgeon did not want to drain the abscess, he wanted it to drain on its own, which it wasn't doing and the infection was spreading to her leg and abdomen. The surgeon stopped by Lior's room at eleven o'clock on Saturday night and after a very brief conversation where I explained that we wanted her to have surgery, he stood up and said "If you want me to cut her, I'll cut her! They will come and get her in ten minutes." After I picked my jaw up from the floor, I called Matt and had him go to the neighbors house while I called my mom to come over and sit with Sydney. Matt flew to the hospital and made it just as the orderly was coming for Lior.
The surgery was over within twenty to thirty minutes and we were able to go and sit with Lior immediately. She was fine and happy to see us, which was good because I was having some contractions while she was in surgery and needed to lie down. It was amazing, her fever broke the next day and we were released on Monday. I think if I had not insisted on the surgery, Lior would have had a longer hospital stay and perhaps more than one operation to drain the infection.
Things were not that easy when we got home because we had to pack her wound every time the packing came out or she went to the bathroom. Packing is definitely a two person job and one we never want to have to do again. We soaked her in the sink with bleach prior to each packing and fed her junk food and let her watch television while she soaked so she would sit. By the time she was ready to get out of the sink, Matt would come home from work and we would start the packing process, which was complete torture for her and for us.
After about a week of packing we went back to our pediatrician for a quick check. That morning I noticed a suspicious lump on Sydney's tush, the pediatrician took one look and put her on antibiotics immediately and suggested we take her to the surgeon.
We had an appointment with the surgeon in two days so we thought we would wait until then, giving the medicine time to work. When we got to the office he took one look at her rear and looked up at me and asked "When was the last time she ate?" We were off to the hospital for an out patient surgery and another ten days of packing. This time it was much easier because we got her on the medicine early enough and the infection did not have the chance to spread through her system. We were home by eight o'clock and avoided a stay in the hospital. We still had to pack Sydney, which was even harder than packing Lior because of the position of the wound and Sydney's strength.
We were off to Disney a week after Sydney's surgery, we all needed a vacation after all the doctor visits and before the new baby came!