First and Second trip to the ER...for Ruby

Two days after Ruby's birthday, she complained of a tummy ache.  I kind of thought she was faking it because she ate a good breakfast, hadn't gotten sick, and was still acting like her normal self.  However, that night, her tummy ache got worse.  I couldn't get her to sleep.  She couldn't get comfortable.  She was miserable and inconsolable...to the point of screaming.  We finally decided to take her to the ER around midnight.  Paul stayed home with Jace and I took her in.  When we tell people this, they ask why Paul didn't take her.  Since only one of us could go, we decided that without Paul there, the doctor could make a decision on their own instead of just asking Paul what he wanted to do.  And because Ruby really only wanted me while she felt so miserable.  The doctor we saw thought it was probably just gastroenteritis.  They also did a strep test because she had some spots on her throat.  It came back negative.  By 2 am...still in the ER... she was exhausted and finally fell asleep.  I got her home and she slept until 6am.  We were supposed to travel to Sibley that day for my family's Christmas.  Because we weren't sure what was going on with Ruby and because the weather wasn't great, we decided to postpone our trip.  Ruby had her tummy ache off and on all day.  She had another screaming episode later in the day and nothing we did for her made any difference.  Paul was pretty sure it wasn't her appendix, but he wanted to rule out intussusecption (telescoping of the intestines).  We decided around 5:30 to take her back to the ER.  They did an ultrasound which didn't show anything.  We were sent home again with no answers.  We decided to travel the following day and by the grace of God, we had a fairly quiet drive.  However, for the entire time we were in Sibley, Ruby's tummy pain continued.  She also ended up with a rash, two different times, which made it clear that she most definitely wasn't faking this!  The entire week was a roller coaster.  She felt fine one minute and the next she was doubled over in pain.  Paul felt helpless as this mystery illness was out of his realm of knowledge.  Unfortunately and fortunately, we never did find the cause of her tummy pain and it went away after 8 miserable days.  Hopefully, it was just some odd virus that has finally made its way out of her body!

First ER trip  

Second ER trip

And throughout the week