First let me preface all this by saying that we are okay. Some of you probably heard about the bombing in our city this week. We have been in Mussorie (at the foot of the Himalyas) for 3 weeks now and will be here for another 4 weeks. And now, on to the drama:
Josiah started acting a little strange on Monday but we weren’t too worried. I mean, he’s nine months old (yesterday) and he’s never been sick. I figured that maybe he was just having a bad day. Well, Monday night I put him to bed as always and that’s when the vomiting began, then came the dry heaves. We ended up taking him to the hospital at 7:30 on Tuesday morning. We had to go to the emergency room because the hospital doesn’t actually open until 8:30 AM. The doctor said that Josiah was dehydrated and had to be put on an IV and admitted for testing. I have never experienced a mixture of emotions like I felt as they held my little man down while he was screaming and stuck the needle in his veins. They blew the first vein and had to try again, this time on his wrist and they got it. It felt like an eternity. We were taken to a room that was really small but pretty clean. Josiah was in pain (I think from his stomach) and he arched his back and cried for hours. In fact, he’s still a little hoarse from all the crying. The nurses came in to take his blood – of course, they didn’t wear gloves – and they asked us for a stool sample. Well, when a child has diarrhea, it’s a little hard to get a stool sample out of his diaper.
During this time Aaron was running around trying to get all of Josiah’s hospital supplies. The way things work here is that once the doctor sees the patient he writes a list of all the things he’s going to need to treat that patient. He lists any medications, syringes, fluids, bandages, etc. Then you have to go downstairs to the pharmacy and buy all those things and take them back up to your room so that they are available for the doctor’s use. There is no such thing as a line here. It doesn’t matter if you’re standing right in front of the desk; people come up and cut in front. You basically have to elbow your way past everyone else and throw your paper in the face of the person behind the desk. Aaron was busy pushing and shoving his way through the many lines. First he had to go to one desk to pay for all the items he needed from the pharmacy, then he had to go to the pharmacy with his receipt to pick it up.
Anyway, the doctor came in twice during the day to see about Josiah. At about 3:00 PM he decided to take him off the drip, but wanted to keep the port in for an emergency. Having the port in Josiah’s wrist was miserable. He had to be held the whole time so he wouldn’t pull it out and he wouldn’t let anyone but Mommy hold him. It was a really long 16 hours… So, 5:00 PM rolls around and we were starting to get antsy because we were ready to go home. We asked for the doctor to see when we could go and we were told that all the doctors go home at 5:00 PM and Josiah’s was already gone. Basically, the doctor just left without telling us that he wanted us to stay overnight, what to feed Josiah, how often, if the blood tests came back, or even what they thought was wrong with him. We were livid so the nurse called the doctor and he came back to the hospital. Then he told us that he needed to keep Josiah overnight (we still had not been able to get a stool sample) and that his port had to stay in until midnight so they could give him some medication through it.
Since we had to stay overnight we asked to be moved to a room with two beds. They took us upstairs to the “deluxe” room. They were still “cleaning” it when we took our bags up. We started getting ourselves settled in for a long night and Aaron saw that the table beside his bed had some kind of dried fluids on it…not sure what kind…I only know it was brown. The bathroom was dirty and still had the previous occupant’s towel hanging up. Aaron put some blankets on our beds because it’s chilly here at night. A few hours later, one of the nurses came to check on Josiah. He saw the blanket on Aaron’s bed and I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that he said “Where did you get that blanket? It’s a bad blanket, don’t touch it again!” Then he proceeded not to take it out of the room, but to throw it on the table which was covered in fluids. When Aaron asked what was wrong with the blanket, he said “It’s very bad!” Okay…scary! Aaron promptly went in the bathroom, poured kerosene all over his body and lit it. Not really, but he did scrub down with hand sanitizer. Now that we can look back on this episode and find it slightly humorous, we refer to it as “The Blanket of Death”. I mean, seriously, what could possibly have been on that blanket? I shudder to think… So, the long night continued and at 11:30 they finally came in and gave Josiah his meds and took out his port. I was so relieved to be able to put him down. We all went to bed at 11:45 but we were awakened by Josiah having a blowout at 12:30.(We finally got our stool sample!) I changed him and he was shaking like a leaf. It scared me so badly. I called the nurses and they took his temperature. They said “Oh, he’s okay. He’s just running a fever of 101.3.” and they proceeded to walk out. I actually had to ask to give him some Tylenol for it – I mean they were just going to leave and not worry about a nine month old with a temperature over 101. I sat up with a cold rag on his head until 2:00 and finally put him in his bed to sleep. He slept well (and his fever broke) until about 6 AM.
The doctor came in at 8:30 and announced that according to the stool sample, Josiah has a bacterial infection and would need to be put on antibiotics. So an hour later we still had no release and no antibiotics. I understand that even in the US it takes some time to be discharged, but my child needed that medicine. Aaron went to check on it and they said it would be ready in a half hour. Long story short (as if this story isn’t already long enough), three hours later and still no medicine. At this point Josiah had gone through about 10 diapers and was losing all the fluid that we had been building up in him. Aaron barged into the doctor’s office and demanded the prescription. The doctor said “Well, it’s just a formality.” Aaron told him that Josiah needed his medication now because of the diarrhea. The doctor then said “But the medicine won’t stop the diarrhea immediately.” Aaron said “Yes, I understand but that’s three hours earlier that he could be feeling better.” Needless to say, Aaron finally got Josiah’s prescription so he could go fight the lines and get his medicine. Although Josiah was diagnosed at 8:30 AM, he didn’t get his medicine until after 12:00. To top it all off, as I was packing our bags I looked at the headboard of Aaron’s bed and saw dried blood on it. Lovely.
The moral of the story is don’t get sick in this country. If you do, don’t go to the hospital – you’ll either catch something else from the “Blanket of Death” or you’ll have a heart attack from the stress of fighting to get anything done.
And yes, Josiah is feeling better. Yesterday was rough but he seems to be much happier today. I missed that amazing smile and contagious laugh but it’s coming back slowly. Aaron’s blinding rage and chest pains have now subsided and he is sure that nobody will ever find the bodies that were left in his wake…do not look in the hospital kitchen (remember Fried Green Tomatoes).
My poor little man finally fell asleep after lots of screaming.
All the stuff Aaron had to buy from the pharmacy.
Josiah's port for the IV.
He's a very sick little boy.
I took a picture of the blood on the headboard because I know that some of you won't believe me. Gross, huh?!?!
And we found this very comforting. We were staying on the second floor and this was the emergency exit door for our floor (notice the padlock)!!!
My poor little man finally fell asleep after lots of screaming.
All the stuff Aaron had to buy from the pharmacy.
Josiah's port for the IV.
He's a very sick little boy.
