Doogie Houser, MD

Oh, yes, we made a trip to the ER last night! Daddy had just left to go pick up a few groceries and a Redbox movie while I got everyone ready for bed and tucked in. Per the doctor's instructions, I tested Tater's protein level before bed - and it was through the roof! I have never seen it that high. So I made an emergency call to the doctor and she sent us to the ER. Unfortunately, the medicine Tater takes to control her kidney problems can mask infections, making fevers lower than they really are and hiding other symptoms. Because she is immuno-suppressed (the medicine again), we get a room right away at the ER, which means avoiding the hours in the waiting room. The other good thing about our ER is that it is in a children's hospital and they are amazing with kids!

So we got to the hospital around 8:00 and were in a room by 8:30. We sat for about an hour, made numerous bathroom trips trying to get a sample to test (yea, fun!), and waited for the doctor. All of a sudden, this boy walked in - and yes, I do mean boy - my first thought was "What is he, 12?". Well, I'm sure he wasn't and he was great with Tater (Funny thing is, I noticed on the discharge papers this morning that his initials are the same as Doogie Houser - coincidence?). So, he checked her, ordered a slew of test - chest x-ray, blood work, etc. - and said we would be precautious and rule it all out.

The x-ray went fine - she was such a big girl standing there and she even got to see her "pictures" and they explained what she was seeing - pretty cool! Then it was time for the IV - not so good! She had to be held down and she screamed the entire time. She was crying so hard it was hard to know exactly what she was screaming but we caught bits of "Stop it!", "Let me up!" , "Get off!", and lots of "Momma, help me!" As traumatic as it was, Daddy and I flashed back to when we were there a year ago to get her "itches" (aka "stitches") in her chin and remembered her screaming the worst thing a three-year-old could think of - "Stupid doctor!"

Long story short, everything came back fine except her protein levels. So we were able to come home with a diagnosis of a virus (they always say that when they don't know what else to say!) and script for Prednisone! We knew going in that that was going to happen but we still held out hope that we wouldn't need those "stupid steroids!"

At midnight, they woke her to take out the IV ("Oww! Get it out! Stop it!") and we were home with a very sleepy child by 12:30. She slept in until 8:30 this morning and is happily watching Maggie and the Ferocious Beast right now. Her protein was still very high this morning but we will have to give the medicine time to work. We will update you all when we see the specialist on Tuesday - funny thing is that it's a regularly scheduled appointment!