Ambulance Ride

I have never seen a child get sick faster than Averi.  She spent the entire morning hanging out, playing with toys, and laughing and smiling.  At lunch time I flushed her broviac lines (we have to heprinize them every day) and Dan fed her 2 jars of baby food with no complaints.

I kid you not, within minutes she went from happy to inconsolable.  At 1:00 she wouldn't let Dan put her down and kept fidgeting.  That's when we noticed that her skin was mottled and her arms and legs felt cold.  We took her temperature but it was normal so Dan continued to rock her and try to keep her warm.

Then the projectile vomiting started.  Once we changed Averi's clothes, I called the Oncologist on call.  After explaining the situation, she insisted that we call an ambulance immediately.  Dan went to change his shirt, believing that he could get to the hospital faster than it would take the ambulance, and was demanded back into the room as I told the doctor to hold on because my face was being puked on.  Averi continued to throw up everywhere and I hung up and called 911.

By 2:10, Dan was climbing into the back of an ambulance with Averi to be taken to the hospital.  She did fine on the ride but picked up with the vomiting as soon as she was out of the ambulance.  Once in the Emergency Department's Critical Care Unit they took blood cultures, pushed several boluses of saline into her line, and put her on CPAP to help with her labored breathing.

As soon as she was "stable", they moved her up to the PICU.

(Averi getting ready for the transfer from the ED to the PICU...

yes, she's sucking her thumb while on CPAP.)