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I keep getting asked what happened on our Disney trip, so I thought I’d better finally get this post up.  The day before we left for Disney, Will (my 20 month old) was throwing up.  I called the doctor and was told it was a 24 – 48 hour bug.  By the next day, he seemed fine.

When we were boarding our flight, Madison threw up at the airport.  The decision we made right then made us the worst parents ever!  Seriously.  We figured that since Will beat it, Madison would get over it in 24 hrs too.  How wrong we were.

When we got to Florida, she looked like hell.  She threw up on the Magical Express (Disney’s transportation to the resorts).  However, here’s the weird thing (and will had it too), they both were completely fine between puking episodes.

Saturday morning she only threw up once.  We had her drinking all day and all night (over night she drank half a bottle of water).  Sunday morning was our undoing.

See, we thought she’d perk up if we took her to Magic Kingdom.  How wrong we were!  She just looked worse and worse, so we took her to the first aid clinic there.  They couldn’t treat her but called to get us transfered.  What I didn’t realize is that they were taking us to Urgent Care.  On the way there, I filled out the paperwork and even wrote on there we were there for dehydration and the flu.  At this point, she had thrown up only once.

We sit at Centra Care for 2 FREAKING HOURS!  Now, remember I have a puking kid, so we ask for a bag.  They give us attitude but hand us some bag they got from like a drug sample person.  Madison throws up, and we used it.  Bill went up to get another bag, and we were told “she could use the bathroom”.  Now, I have a sick 5 year old who couldn’t walk because her legs her so bad but she could use the bathroom.  Bill didn’t tell me that’s what they said till after we left which is probably good since I would have had a fit.  Then, after sitting there 2 hours, Madison had to use the bathroom.

We get called back and are told we need a urine sample.  I tell them there is no way they are getting that.  She is dehydrated and she just went!!!!!!  I’m like did you not read what I put on her admitting forms!  Then they refuse to treat her.  I KID YOU NOT!  After sitting there 2 hours with a severly dehydrated child, they won’t treat here.  When I have a fit (which I had every right too), the nurses cop an attitude with me.  Bill even noticed the attitude I got (and he normally noticed nothing).  So now we are walking out the door, and Bill says “Are you charging us for this?”.  They are like “no”.  He responds “then where is our copay?”  Basically, if he wouldn’t have asked for it back, we wouldn’t have gotten it back, since the girl who had to refund it back did not know how to do this!

We next get sent to Celebrations Hospital.  I tell them our sob story which of course I get told that too bad so sad, it doesn’t bump you anywhere near the front of the line.  Now, remember, we have a 1 year old we have to keep occupied while this is all going on AND I know she is dehydrated.  We’ve done this before when she was 2.  What happened was she got the throwing up flu and ended up in the hospital dehydrated.  Her counts went off the charts, and we ended up at a geneticist.  At that time, we were told it was a fluke.  Not so much a fluke anymore.  AND TWO HOURS MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE WHEN YOU ARE DEALING WITH SEVERE DEHYDRATION AND METABOLIC ACIDOSIS!  Okay, sorry for yelling, but if we wouldn’t have lost that time (that is, if Disney wouldn’t have sent us somewhere that couldn’t treat her and if that damn Urgent Care would have read their form), she may not have gotten as sick as she did.

I can’t complain too much about Celebrations Hospital.  We only ended up in the waiting room for about an hour.  The doctor tells me what I know and that they need a urine sample.  Umm, the kid is dehydrated, you just told me that, and how do you expect me to get her to pee.  I swear I could smack these people upside the head.  Here’s what she looked like:

Yes, she looked that bad.  So they hook her up to an IV and then we get kicked out of that room.  They take us to a room that has about 15 other people in it.  Basically, it looked like a holding area.  Now, again, we have a 20 month old with and are told that Bill and Will can’t come into that room.  Seriously.  So Bill spent the next 5 hours walking the hospital with Will.  Andddd to make matters worse, he had to cab it back (which Disney did not reimburse), since nobody bothered to tell us that the free transportation ended at 6.  We sat and sat and sat in that room.  I kept asking for her test results and kept getting told the nurse was too busy.  After being in there at least 4 hours, I am told that they are waiting on a urine sample.  Sigh.  And nobody could have told me that 2 hours prior?  Soooo I take Madison to the bathroom.  She refuses to walk because her legs hurt.  Do you think they give me a wheelchair?  No.  I had to carry a 50 lb kid from one end of the ward to the other.  I was a little pissed about that.  Soooo I had to carry a 50 lb kid and her IV with no help.  She did pee and I was told her CO level was 10.  Now, your CO level should be 24.  We are now told that have to spend the night.

Now, you’d think this wouldn’t be a problem.  Think again.  The Celebrations hospital (which is where we were sent) doesn’t treat kids.  Yeah you heard me.  If you have a scrape or a broken arm, you can get treated.  If you have to spend any amount of time there, well you are screwed.  We got sent (by ambulance) to another hospital 25 miles away.  Now, remember, we are there on vacation.  That is a $53 cab fare each way.  We have no car seats either.  It took another 2 – 3 hours for them to even get us into a another hospital.  What a freaking joke.

So we get to the other hospital at about 2 am.  Now, I haven’t eaten or drank anything since the day before.   At least the nurses here were able to at least give me a soda to drink.  We were sent to the Florida Children’s Hospital in Downtown Orlando.  This is the next day:

Now, she actually looks a lot better than she was here.  We didn’t get to go home, because her potassium was low, and they couldn’t get it back up.  She was on a potassium IV drip all day, and that still didn’t raise it.  That night they had to give it to her orally (I missed this.  Bill decided he wanted to stay the second night with her).  She also ended up with EKG too.

She did get out the third day (with 2 days left of our 7 day vacation).  She looked like hell.  We stayed and finished our vacation.  When we got home, she had to go to our pediatrician who ran a bunch of tests.  Madison is still complaining her legs hurt.  Now, the first time we ran these, her liver enzymes were elevated.  She was retested last week and those enzymes are back to normal.  Woohoo!

Now, we are still waiting on the records from Florida (its only been almost a month since I requested those records and we are still waiting).  My pediatrician needs those to determine our next step.  We need to see if her test results mimic what happened when she was 2 to determine what our next step is.  My fear is that we are going to end up in the hospital every time she gets the throwing up flu.  The pediatrician even said that there is no way she should have had a CO level of 10.  Her body should have been shutting down, and it wasn’t.  She shouldn’t have been still peeing, and she was.  They also told me that her blood was acidic (which would be metabolic acidosis).  We aren’t going to be lucky that she’ll get this once every 3 years after she starts school.

I’ll be writing another post about what we actually got to do at Disney, but that’s the medical update. Would we go back? Actually, yes. I will be writing another post about what fun we did have after she got out of the hospital. We still had to take it easy but we were able to salvage a little.

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**PLEASE READ THIS FIRST:  This post was written at Disney when I hadn’t slept or ate pretty much in 3 days.  I’ve gotten some pretty horrible emails and forum posts about what a bad parent I am.  Should we have stayed home?  Hell, yeah.  Did we know it at the time?  NO.  My son had the same flu and kicked it out of his system in 24 hours which is what we thought would happen with her.  Why did we try the theme parks with her?  Because after she threw up, she was fine and acted fine (though looked a tad pale).  It wasn’t until Day 3 we knew we had a problem.  Was this Disney’s fault?  NO.  Never said it was, I just wanted someone to help us save our Disney vacation.  Just wanted a little Pixie Dust thrown our way, since all I ever hear is how Disney makes everything right.

I guess I am not allowed to be an upset mother who won’t be able to take another vacation for several years due to the cost of this vacation.  Excuse me for wanting my daughter to remember DISNEY not the hospital.  (And Disney did come through.)

Edited to add:  We have been sent to geneticist for her, so there was a lot more to this than we ever knew.  Everything you are ever told to give your child for the flu is the exact opposite of what we need to do for her.  We now have to carry special sugar to give her and carry a letter from the geneticist to tell the ER what they need to be doing.

Madison got out of the hospital tonight with no restrictions.  Yeah!!!!  Bad news — we only have 2 days left of vacation.  For us to stay an extra day (or more) unless somebody pulls some Disney magic out from somewhere, we can’t.  It costs way too much.

I’ll be honest, I am seriously disappointed.  We lose the tickets the days we went into the park and Madison got sick and we left.  We lose the tickets that we don’t use too.  We lost pretty much the entire dining plan too.  If we stay even one day later, we lose the dining plan even though we haven’t used one sit down meal yet.   I bought the travel insurance which supposibly covers some of this.  However, from my dealings so far, this is going to be pulling teeth to get them to pay.  I especially love that Disney sent us to Urgent Care that made us sit for 2 hrs before they told us they wouldn’t treat us.  They then sent us to Celebration Hospital who was much quicker but doesn’t deal with kids. We then were sent by ambulance to another hospital that was 25 miles away!!!!!  Let me tell you, its a $53 cab fare — each way!!!!

I asked Disney for help and was pretty much told — too bad for you.  Now, all I have heard since I let people know we booked this trip, is the Disney makes thing right.  Well, Disney, help me fix this.  I even asked if we could do something special for her tomorrow at Magic Kingdom and was told they wouldn’t help with that either.  Hell, I can’t even get the housekeeping to make animals with our towels.

I am tired of having sick kids since we got here.  I am tired of sitting in the hospital for 3 days.  I am tired, I am beat, and I want somebody to help salvage the next two days.  If anyone has any connections, please let me know and pull whatever strings you can.  I have a 5 year old that would certainly appreciate it.

I’ll be honest — right now, I don’t ever even want to come back.  That’s how disappointed I am right now.  I know they don’t have to do anything.  I get that.  But for them to not even try makes we want to crawl into bed and seriously cry which is where I think I may be headed now.

The next two days we will spend at Magic Kingdom.

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