Rota Virus

Maggi's surgery went great and we could not have been more pleased with how well she was doing and how quickly she bounced back. However, while she was in Scottish Rite for her surgery, she was exposed to the Rota Virus.

The Rota Virus acts just like any other stomach bug. Maggi started with it on Thursday night, only four days after her spinal cord surgery. We took her to our pediatrician on Friday and it appeared to be the stomach bug going around that had kids sick for about 7 days. Maggi's fever did go down and we continued with the constant changing of diapers and she began holding down pedialite.

Saturday her "going to the bathroom" got to be so intense that we just put her on the potty like a big girl. Sunday comes and our little girl's skin has turned yellow and her eyes were sinking in. Keep in mind at this point, we had talked to all of the specialists and even called Scottish and we were instructed to let her "ride it out", unless anything changed and didn't look right. Her fever was normal since late Friday night and she kept some formula and pedialite down...but, when we woke up to this child being so sickly looking, we went to Scottish immediately.

There were five other cases of Rota Virus with children that had contracted it the week before, while at Scottish for something else, like Maggi.

We were admitted immediately and were able to have Maggi put into a regular room the following morning.

Our doctor was FABULOUS! He is the best we have seen yet at Scottish, Dr. Morris. He gave us the news that she tested positive at about 2am on Monday morning, while in ER. We stayed on the ER floor until a room was available. An IV of fluids were started immediately and we were told that the yellowish color of her skin was a sign of her blood being sick with the virus...yuck.

We got into our room on Monday around lunchtime. We were still changing Maggi's diaper about every 10 to 15 minutes. This went on all through the night into Tuesday. Dr. Morris came in on Tuesday to visit her, giving us the update on the bloodwork. Her blood was being checked every four hours to make sure all of the levels that were super high were going back to normal....which thank goodness, by Tuesday, they had.

At this point, the doctor had not said anything about Maggi "making it or not making it"...we just knew that an iv was how to treat this bug...we knew that this virus kills about 500,000 to 600,000 children world wide in a year. So, I asked him what would have happened to Maggi if we had waited until Monday...and he replied that she probably would not have pulled through. The virus had already started doing severe things to her blood and was causing the yellowish color to her skin and her cells couldn't do their job. Her body could not process the food intake and would just flush it right out of her body. The next thing, her organs would have started shutting down... He said the virus is more deadly in countries that don't have hospitals like Scottish, where families have to walk miles to get to a doctor. We are so blessed.

So, I will write later on how we felt when we learned Maggi might not have made it. It is too difficult to express right now.

We are getting settled in tonight and we are spending every moment disinfecting the house, washing clothes in hot water and being careful with her feedings. She is really tired and cries when she is touched...I can't imagine how her skin must feel to her... I can't imagine at all what she has been through... and I can't imagine what we would do if it turned out differently.

Thank you for your prayers and MUCH Love,
Donna

www.rotavirus.org