Blood Transfusion

Well... this past weekend Dominic got very sick. He was having loose stools (aka: diarreah) and was running a temperature for a could of days. I kept bringing the temperature up to the nurses and Doctors and they all kept listing all the reasons NOT to worry about it. "He was laying on that arm, that's why it's warmer" or "He was covered in blankets, that's why"... you get the idea. I brought it up a number of times and each time they had an excuse. I also brought up that he was more tired than usual and wasn't interested in eating his food. Early saturday morning he was throwing up more and having continued diarreah so the Doctors decided to run tests for viral or bacterial infections. I was at the hospital Friday night and noted to the nurse that Dominic's soft spot was sunken in, to which she said he was a little dehydrated. By the time I saw him on Saturday, he had lost all color and was so dehydrated that his soft spot was completely sunken in... I could feel all of the ridges in his skull. When I got there Saturday morning they still had not run the tests nor did they have an IV in for fluids. They decided it was time to put that in, but he was so dehydrated they had to try over and over. Poking his poor little hands with their needle. Then the Doctors decided to run their tests and they needed blood, urine, and fluid from his spinal area to test for meningitis. I tried to get the Doctor to wait to begin because his IV fluids hadn't been going for very long and he was still dehydrated- which means they would have a hard time getting the fluid from his spine and I didn't want him getting poked over and over again, but the Doctor assured me he could find fluid. At this point, we left to go eat and a couple hours later when we came back, they were preparing to try his spine again because the first attempt was unsuccessful. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!? I'm so frustrated with this whole ordeal because it's not like I'm some idiot who's going to disregard sound medical advice. I am his mother though, and would appreciate being taken seriously. I pay close attention to him and notice when something's different and it seems no one cares to hear what I think, even though I was right in this case- I kept asking the Doctors and nurses if his symptoms were early signs of illness or infection and they kept with their "reasons" why this or that symptom was explainable... from here on out I'm going to be even more assertive about things I see.
Sunday Dominic looked much better, but still a bit dehydrated. His soft spot wasn't nearly as sunken in and he regained color in his skin. He also was starting to get his appetite back. The Doctor told me that he thought Dominic has a stomach virus and we're still waiting for the cultures to come back to see if he also has a bacterial infection. Meanwhile he's got antibiotics and IV fluids still going in him. This morning (Monday) I got a call from his Doctor saying they wanted to do a blood transfusion for him. Apparently when they took blood on Saturday, his red blood cell count was very low. She said that he had enough blood cells fighting his current illness but if he were to get sick again, he wouldn't have enough to help him fight it off. She made it sound like a buffer of sorts to ensure that he could heal better. Of course there are risks when getting a transfusion but if he needs it, he needs it. I know they don't just give blood to people for nothing, so it's obviously a serious situation. I'm just so exhausted with this whole thing... it seems when we get close to him coming home something goes wrong and we're there another week. He's doing better (it seems) now and has regained some appetite, but we'll see. I just hope and pray that he doesn't have any more complications and can come home soon.
On an up side, Dominic is now allowed to have however much food he wants, whenever he wants!! This makes him a happy boy and it works much better for him because it's not such a high volume on his tummy at a time. He's keeping his food down better now and I just hope it stays going well. Thanks for reading and please continue prayers.

Stephanie