Dehydration and Gatorade

Friday afternoon Chloe started complaining of a bad headache, so Matt gave her some Motrin to help. She picked at dinner and at seven decided she was tired and got herself ready for bed (which is a definate sign that something is wrong). I checked her temp than and it was 101. Over the next hour it steadily rose until it reached 104.9 by eight in the evening. I loaded her up in the car (she was shaking so bad she couldn't walk) and rushed to the ER.

God's hand was on us Friday night at the hospital. Usually it is a horrible experience dealing with incompatant doctors and impatient nurses. But God saw too it that we had an incredible doctor who was nice, sweet to Chloe and right on top of things. The nurses went out of their way to make Chloe comfortable and to make the whole experience less traumatic. Right away they wanted a urine sample and blood drawn. Chloe did amazing! She held still (while screaming like a banshee) when they drew blood and kept her arm still when they put in an IV line. I was so proud of my little girl.

Chloe had two bags of fluids pumped into her body through an IV. Her bloodwork and urine were clean except that her potassium levels were low (a sign of dehydration). Once the first bag got into her body she was feeling much better and talking up a storm. The doctor wasn't sure exactly what was wrong, maybe she had a virus that caused the dehydration or she was just dehydrated. Once the bags were empty they released us and sent us home with a fever of 102. We had to keep her cool and keep the meds in her all night to keep her fever down.

This morning she was doing all right and seemed to be in a good mood. This afternoon her fever spiked again and it took a dose of Motrin and Tylenol at the same time to get it back down. Getting her to drink more has been a battle as well so we went to Wal-Mart and I let her pick out some sports drinks to get some electolytes back into her system. She seems to be doing good this evening and her fever is down to 98-99.

After thinking about it, I think she is just dehydrated (which can cause high fevers). She has been very active this week, playing hard and joining me on a walk every day. I don't think she got enough fluids to keep up with all her exercise. So I am going to keep forcing the liquids and keep up the meds to keep her fever down. So please keep her in your prayers as we work hard trying to get her body back to normal.