November 3rd 2008 - Little Change in Plans (+pictures)

This past week things didn't go exactly to plan. It all started on Monday when Linda and I noticed that Alicia pee smelled really strong. It smelled like that before when she had had a urinary tract infection. We decided to bring her into the doctors just to get a little test done for her. Everything came back ok, but she took it pretty easy the rest of the day. Then on Tuesday, as I wrote in the last blog, Alicia had seemed tired and kind of out of it. On Wednesday by 11:00 we had packed the car with Alicia's stroller and had everything else packed and on the bed waiting for me to transport it to the car. That's when Linda thought that Alicia had been looking too uncomfortable, so she took Alicia's temperature. Sure enough Alicia had a temperature.
When Alicia gets sick it is better to error on the side of caution. A fever, in someone who has epilepsy, can be a trigger for seizures. When we brought her into the children's hospital waiting room she started to seem worse. Alicia was groaning a little bit as her eyes were closed and she felt warm. When we meet the doctor she told us the temperature was up to 103.9 F (39.9 C). Linda and I were calm and not too worried, but still kind of a little nervous. The doctors gave her some medicine for her fever. About 20 minutes later she made a really abnormally stinky in her diaper. Right after we cleaned her up she was looking better. We don't know what was making her feel better the medicine or going to the bathroom, but it was great to have her feeling a little better. When the doctor came back in she was amazed at how Alicia, who had just had 104 degree temperature, could be laughing and talking. It was actually kind of funny, the doctor would ask Alicia something and before the doctor could finish the question Alicia was yelling and talking right back to the doctor. Unfortunately however, the fever had not gone down too much, it was still at around 102. For the next couple of hours Alicia would have times when she would laugh and hold her head high up, and periods where she was tired. She just really had a good attitude through the whole experience.
The doctors wanted Alicia to stay the night just for observation. Everybody thought that it was probably just a urinary tract infection that was causing the fever. I went home and grabbed a couple of things for Linda and Alicia to have for the night. Linda and I have gotten pretty good at knowing what we want to have packed with us when we are staying at the hospital. We were staying in a new wing for us. It was the area for the kids who might have an infectious sickness. The rules are a little different than in the other place that we have stayed overnight at. The kids have to stay in the rooms, the doors have to be shut, and people are supposed to wash their hands when they come in and out of the rooms. Linda and I got to talking about which of the two wards do we prefer to stay at. We both decided we like the other one upstairs better. But then we thought about it and thought that it was better that even if we liked the other area and other doctors better, at least Alicia was in a ward for infectious illnesses rather than the other ward where she had been when she had seizures. It was ironic in a sick humor kind of way.
The next day I picked Alicia and Linda up from the hospital. Alicia's fever was gone and she did not have a single seizure! The doctors got some tests back which said that she did not have a tract infection, just some kind of bacteria (a cold). The doctors gave us penicillin for Alicia to take and we were released from the hospital. We got home fed Alicia and then made the decision to make the 6 hour trek to Stockholm to see Alicia's friend Madison.
The weather was pretty crappy when we left and when we got about 3 hours into the drive it started snowing hard. It was actually accumulating on the highway. Linda was driving and we had no winter tires. It was a stressful situation for everybody, but after a total of 8 hours we got to Stockholm.
On Thursday the weather was awful, cold, wet, windy and dark so we decided it would be a good day to go to the museum. We went to a natural history museum with Madison's mommy Anja, Linda, Alicia and myself. Alicia, still recovering from the fever, took it pretty easy and slept most of the day. She did however have enough energy to take a look at the "Animals in Sweden" exhibit. I think the lynx was her favorite.




The next day it was beautiful. Linda, Alicia and myself went into the old town by the metro...... Speaking of metros, Alicia had a couple of firsts on this trip. It was the highest she has ever gone up in Sweden, the first time she has seen snow (I think), the first time she has been on a metro in Sweden, and the first time she has seen a wild moose.....When we were in the city we just walked around for a little. Alicia was still pretty tired.













That night us parents had a feast. Meanwhile, Madison and Alicia seemed to be taking turns on who was going to be awake and who going to be asleep the whole time we were up in Stockholm. It was wonderful to be able to go up to Stockholm and stay with good friends who also have a baby. It is neat to see the changes that a baby makes in someone's life.
Ross