Not the way we thought it would be

I think we may have to have a re-do of the first week of school for Miss Mallory. Poor girl hasn't been back to kindergarten since the first day! I knew she might have some sick days, but four in the first week is crazy!!

A little history about our first born. She's been having vertigo (waking in the middle of the night saying her bed is spinning) and headaches every three months for almost two years. Last summer, we saw an ENT doctor. She had a hearing test done (passed), a thorough exam (passed all the balance, inner ear tests) and we basically left, not knowing why this was happening. Over the past year, we've really noticed a trend with her vertigo, or "spinning" episodes. They come every three months, in the middle of the night and watching TV helps with the spinning/pain. Weird. Not your typical, lights out in a dark room, migraine. Since December, she's actually pinpointed the pain to the back of the head.

So, when August came, we kind of joked that it was time for one of her episodes, hoping to get it over with before school started. Sure enough, Tuesday around 1am, she woke up with a horrible headache and vomited. We layed out a pallet on the floor in the living room and did our usual...Netflix for several hours. She usually falls asleep for a couple of hours and then is totally fine for the rest of the day. This time, however, she woke up grabbing her head and screaming in pain. She also vomited again. For the remainder of the day, she had episodes like this. By dinner, she seemed a little better. She ate a sandwich and did her normal bedtime routine. Around 8:30, I peeked in on the girls. Mallory was sitting up in bed and then started with an episode. I picked her up and brought her into the living room. She promptly vomited all over me and her. I emailed our pedi and so began our night of fun.

Our pedi called in Phenergan. I gave her a dose around 10:30. She fell asleep about an hour later, but still woke with episodes of pain/vomiting. By 1am, she had nothing left in her tummy, but was still vomiting mucous, with blood in it. After a call to the ER, we knew that is where we needed to head. My very sweet friend, who happens to be my neighbor, came over at 2am to stay with Morgan and Max while they slept. Brad and I took Mallory to the ER.

We went right back to a room, saw a couple of doctors and told Mallory's history probably three different times. Through all of this, she was very drowsy from the Phenergan, but still waking with her episodes. She had a CT scan of her head, an IV, blood drawn and Zofran for the nausea. Everything came back normal (so, so grateful for that!) and the Zofran stopped the nausea and let her sleep. We were discharged home around 6am. She slept until 9 and then spiked a fever of 101.7. I emailed our pedi again and we determined it's probably a virus that triggered her headache episodes, and intensified it.

So, here we are on day #3. The nausea and vomiting are gone. She still has fever and a small headache...nothing like what was going on, thankfully! When I called the school office this morning, I didn't even have to give our last name, they immediately recognized her name, and said that they have had lots of kids out for the same virus. We are hoping she can go back on Monday. And, we're waiting for a referral to a pediatric neurologist.

It's been so weird having her home this week. I emotionally prepared myself for her to be gone, so to have her home (and sick) is so strange already. I'm bummed for her to miss all the fun stuff during the first week of kindergarten and missing out on getting to know little friends. I think Mallory's a little bummed, too. Tuesday morning, she asked, in a really sad voice, if I could call her teacher and tell her she was sick. Then, later she said, "I wonder what my friends in kindergarten are doing right now."

So, the first week of kindergarten didn't go exactly as we imagined. We're ready to be in a school routine and for Mallory to have some fun!