This girl...

...has been giving me a run for my money this week!

It all started on Tuesday afternoon...WHY does everything have to happen on a Tuesday? It's my busiest day of the week and this week was NO exception.

I got a phone call from Lauren on Tuesday saying she wasn't feeling well...I was JUST starting a cooking class with Jonathan, so I told her to get a drink of water and lie down in the office for a while...then I would pick her up when we were done cooking school. She seemed O.K. with that...

Then, I got a call from one of the Vice Principals and he said that Lauren didn't look so good and he thought it best that I come and pick her up right away. *sigh*

So, Jonathan and I miss cooking school (no refunds) and head out to pick her up...she looks like crap...so, I decide to pick up Colin from school and head downtown to Sick Kids. You would be AMAZED how quickly you get service when you present the ER with a cardiac kid who is short of breath...AMAZING!

We got a room and were seen RIGHT AWAY in the ER. Gynecology gets called in, because she has been bleeding quite heavily for a couple of weeks and they think perhaps this is the cause of her light headedness. On further investigation, they decide that her heart is not the issue (phew!), but that the bleeding is to blame...

Draw some blood (hemoglobin = 76 = NOT good), start an IV to push some fluids into her and hopefully make her feel better.

Gynecology decides that the bleeding MUST be stopped, so they give her estrogen by IV...and another dose 6 hours later, which makes her vomit, so they give her some gravol to sort that out...

Scott stayed with her over night, because I just simply do NOT function well if I don't get enough sleep. Add to that the stress of having a kid in the hospital and I would have been a complete basket case...they would have needed to get me a room at Mt. Sinai in the psych ward - UGH!

I headed back down on Wednesday afternoon as Jonathan had a "meet and greet" scheduled at the school he will be attending in the fall. I took over and Scott went to work.

Come to find out that gynecology really wants to consult with cardiology about mixing estrogen with Lauren's blood pressure meds...especially considering the possibility of clots associated with birth control.

Cardiology NEVER comes to see her, so I put a call in to her cardiac nurse, Marilyn, and she comes down to see Lauren...this of course totally confuses everybody who seems to think that Marilyn is the initial "team member" and prompts gynecology to stop bugging cardiology for the consult...yeah, I know...don't get me started.

It's a good thing I know my way around that hospital...I bypassed the cardiology consult and had Marilyn consult DIRECTLY with Lauren's cardiologist. Dr. Carvalle said there was no need for an echo or transfusion - FINALLY some answers...

Gynecology decides to keep her overnight AGAIN (but at least this time we're in a room) because her morning blood work revealed that her hemoglobin was now down to 71...DEFINITELY not good!

This time, I stay over night with her...not the best choice...everytime something beeps (even if it's not Lauren), I wake up...everytime her nurse comes in to check on her...I wake up...I think I may have gotten about 3 hours of quality sleep...Remember? I don't function well on a lack of sleep.

Call the cardiac nurse again on Thursday morning who by now has spoken directly to Lauren's cardiologist who still thinks that if gynecology can stop the bleeding a transfusion will not be necessary.

Another round of blood work...YAY! Hemoglobin is back up to 76. Still not good, but at least it is on it's way back up. And her bleeding has just about stopped, so we are good to go on that front.

Dr. Spitzer (gynecology) starts Lauren on a round of birth control to sort her out and to get her hemoglobin back up. And we are discharged - WOOHOO!!!

Gotta pick up drugs in the pharmacy and then we are outta there!!!

We went to see Phantom of the Opera (happy birthday to me!)...but that is a whole other post, because this one is already MORE than long enough!