Tuesday, September 22, 2015

High on hydration

We had a near-dehydration episode again a few days ago. C. had been dry for over 12 hours so I cradled her head in my arms as she lay in bed and diligently administered over one liter of water in the space of 45 minutes.

In my defense, C. opened her mouth and willingly drank every gulp. Nevertheless,  her stomach became slightly bloated and her diaper stayed dry.

Finally she expelled the water.  But through the wrong orifice. Her mouth a geyser, the stuff gushed out with frightening force.

We speculated about blockage of some kind even though we had no clue medically what we were talking about. Another trek to the Emergency Room seemed unavoidable. What kept us from racing there was that C. seemed pretty OK in every other way. No lethargy or distress, and as responsive as usual.

So we stood her up and began re-hydrating her again. This time I did it slowly. We then transferred her to her chair. No more vomiting. I then gave her some very liquidy food. It also stayed down.

Finally, after around another 45 minutes of drinking, we celebrated a wet diaper. She's been wetting regularly ever since.

Lesson learned: do not give C. tons of water too quickly or while she's lying down.

And here (above) is her beautiful face saved by those two stitches.

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

I let out a big sigh after reading this post. Of relief and also of released stress. There's just no end to it, is there? How do we do it?

The Sound of the Silent said...

How do we do it - the million $ question. Trouble is, it seems we're the only ones who ask it. Everyone else, for the most part, wonders why we don't accomplish more! Or why, if we're complaining, we don't just get our daughters out of the house and institutionalize them. They don't realize, as you wrote in your latest post: "We don't have choices. I wouldn't have it any other way, though."

Nor would I.