Spoke too Soon

I should never have discussed Maggie’s good health and her ability to stay out of the hospital for all of 2008. No. She is not in the hospital, but 2009 did not start out well.

The nurse left early on New Year’s Day. I was up at 6AM. Maggie was awake, but just barely. I worked on my computer just outside her room and let her drift back to sleep. I suctioned her every few minutes, but she was really sleeping. For a long time. I started to get a little concerned because it was so unlike her. I wrote that I thought she was adjusting to her teenage status. Nope.

When I started her morning routine at 9AM, she was already a bit listless. Not enough for me to freak out about, but noticeable. Without getting too graphic, there was a serious – and I mean serious -- diaper situation. Two loads of wash serious. Worse than I have ever seen with her. Steve and I tried to clean her up but this was too much. We had to just carry her to the shower chair and hose her off. She remained listless. We had several more incidents like that. We just treated the symptoms with pedialyte and over several hours she perked up more and more.

At 6PM the afternoon nurse went to give her the antibiotic and noticed a problem. The brand new bottle that we opened last night was empty. The night nurse gave her the entire bottle – 60ML instead of 5ML of Cipro. He confirmed it when I talked to him. He realized he made an error but didn’t think anything would happen – and he didn’t tell me before he left. That is 12 times the dosage. Of course her body is going to react. Sheesh.

How could this happen? There are orders in the chart specifically listing the proper dosage. Moreover, commone sense should kick in at some point. No one take 60 mls of an antibiotic. That is two ounces. The largest adult would not take that amount. I know it’s a mistake, but it’s a mistake that could have been disastrous.

She is lucky it was just diarrhea. It could have been much worse. I called her pediatrician, who is a good friend of mine to ask if there was anything else we should be worried about. She wasn’t even the doctor who prescribed the cipro and it’s New Year’s Day – but I can call her anytime, which is an incredible gift. She talked me down and told me things that *might* arise. I am on alert, but was not too worried at that point.

Again, I speak too soon. At 11:00PM last night Her fever spiked to 102.4, which is the highest she has ever had in her life. Also we have to take her temperature under her arm so technically it’s a bit higher than the read out. Considered the emergency room but decided to see how the night went. The fever came down a bit with Tylenol, so I thought it was safe to stay here. We can pretty much do it all here and Maggie is less freaked out. She has a one to one nurse with her here, which is better than I’m going to get in the ER. The nurse was gong to wake me if ANYTHING changed for the worse.

I slept for a few hours with one eye and one ear opened. Not very restful but better than nothing. The fever is gone for now, and her heart rate is down out of the stratosphere. I have to call Pulmonology today to see what to do next. She’s supposed to be on that drug for another week, but I don’t want to give her any more of it until her body recovers from this overdose. I suspect they will tell us we have to head up to UCSF this morning, which is not what I want to do, but it’s better than sitting here wondering.

I cannot let my guard down for a minute. It is exhausting.