Low Body Temperature

The past couple of days, Rachel has been very clingy and fussy and her appetite has been decreasing. (And for all of us that know Rachel, that is NOT normal!) We didn't think too much of it until Wednesday. She was very fussy yesterday morning and I put her down for an early nap, thinking that she was just tired. She slept for 6 hours before we decided to wake her up. While I changed her diaper, she just laid on the bed wanting to go back to sleep. Because of the way she was acting, we took her temperature figuring that maybe she had a fever and was fighting something (even though she felt quite cool to the touch). Our thermometer read 93-95 each time we took it, which of course is quite low. I googled low body temperature and couldn't find much of anything on it, but to be on the safe side I called our pediatrician and also IM'ed my brother, who is currently in med school. The pediatrician wanted to see her right away, so we drove to the office immediately. After running a CBC and urinalysis, there were a couple things that didn't look right so the doctor ordered a lot more blood work and urged us to get it done right away.

Well, I'll try to make this as consise as possible...we headed to the hospital lab and they attempted to draw blood 3 separate times from Rachel's veins. She has apparently inherited my veins...they like to hide and are quite small. The lab then told us that they didn't want to attempt to get the blood anymore, so sent us on to a different hospital where they deal more with babies. So...off we went. When we arrived at the next lab, they told us that they couldn't draw blood after 5 pm because of liability issues and advised us that the only place we could get blood drawn at the late hour was through the emergency room. Ugh! We did not want to go through that entire process, but felt that we needed to do all that we possibly could do based on the doctor's advice. We registered Rachel then with the emergency room and began the long process of...waiting. It took them 2 more attempts in her arms and 2 attempts in her feet to finally obtain the blood necessary for the tests. Once they hit a vein in her foot, it took 10 minutes for the blood to drip into the vial...all while holding our precious baby down. Talk about agony for her and for us!

After more waiting, the blood tests came back normal for which we are VERY thankful for. I am thankful the Lord chose to answer our prayers!! Rachel has a follow up with the doctor today and we are continuing to monitor her. Her appetite is still lacking, but perhaps her body is just fighting something. Her body temperature is back to normal and we're continuing to monitor that.

Thank you to all of you at church that prayed for Rachel last night.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."