LIFE WITH MY CHILDREN PART 16

My life was going good. I had a job I loved, a man I was crazy about and, as hard as it was for me to believe, he was just as crazy about me.

Then Tammy got sick. She had a cold and sore throat for which she had been to the doctor a couple of times and seemed to be getting better. Then the school called me at work and said Tammy was sick. She had seemed fine that morning. I picked her up about ten and dropped her off with my brother. He and his wife and baby had recently moved just a couple of blocks from us.

Loretta, my sister-in-law called me just before noon and said Tammy seemed to be getting worse, but she didn't have a thermometer to check her temperature. I went by my house and got my thermometer and went on to check on Tammy. Her temp was 101. I bathed her in cool water and got it down to 100. But it immediately went back up. I called the doctor's office and they said to bring her right in.

By the time the doctor saw her, her temp had risen to 102. In his examination, Tammy complained that her back hurt, her head hurt...and she was seeing double. The doctor said to take her immediately to the University Hospital in Ann Arbor...and to take her out the back door of the office. He said he suspected she had polio.

I was frantic. And scared to death. The doctor didn't even want her to wait for an ambulance, saying I could get her to the hospital quicker. When he left the exam room to make a call, I called Aunt Susie. She said she would be waiting by the road for me to pick her up. We made the fastest trip to Ann Arbor I had ever done.

In the ER, Tammy's temp was 103. They rushed her up to the fourth floor, where just a few minutes later her temp had climbed to 104. They wrapped her in an ice blanket and tried to make me leave the room, but I refused. Finally, the doctor said to let me stay if I stayed out of their way. I was holding Tammy's hand...it was the only body part I could reach with all the medical personnel around her.

The doctors didn't talk to me, but to each other. And the more I heard, the more scared I was. They discussed whether it could be polio or meningitis. From what they were saying, and from their tone of voice, I knew she was dying. All I could do, as I held her hand, was pray. Please God, don't take my baby, I pleaded, over and over. Tammy was asleep, I thought. Then the doctor tried to rouse her with no response. He said to another doctor, she's slipped into a coma...we can't wait. The spinal tap has be do done now. At this point, I was hysterical and a nurse pulled me out of the room. I begged and pleaded to be allowed to go back in and stay with Tammy. Finally, the doctor came out and told the nurse to let me go back in. Aunt Susie, bless her heart, barged right into the room with me and said to the nurse, just try to make me leave them. They let her stay with me.

Then, a miracle happened. That's the only way to describe it. As soon as the doctor did the spinal tap...even while the needle was still in her back, Tammy woke up and started crying. The nurse took her temp and it was down to 100. She was alert and got the number right when the doctor asked how many fingers she could see.

Tammy was sent to ICU and I was allowed to see her for five minutes every hour. Before I was allowed to see her, I had to put on a hospital gown over my clothes and wear a mask over my nose and mouth. Ater I saw her, about 9 p.m., the nurse told me I should go home. She said I could not go into see Tammy anymore that night because she got too "agitated" when she saw me and they needed to keep her quiet. I adamantly said I wasn't leaving and that the only reason Tammy got upset was because of the mask and gown I had to wear. The nurse was not nice about it and said if I insisted on staying, I'd have to stay in the lobby on the first floor.

By then Uncle Troy had joined us at the hospital and my brother had been there for awhile, as well as Avanelle and Phyllis. They didn't stay long because nobody was allowed to see Tammy except her parents...which was just me.

I was really upset, mad and crying when I told Uncle Troy and Aunt Susie what was going on. Uncle Troy went up to the ICU floor and talked to the nurses. Afterwards, he convinced me to go home saying they promised to call me immediately if there was any change.

After I got home, I called Mark in California and told him what was going on. He said to keep him informed. I sat in the corner of the couch beside the telephone all night and was back at the hospital by 8 a.m. and began the five-minute visiting ritual again. A little after noon, the nurse told me they were moving her from ICU into a private room on the isolation floor.

In isolation, I still had to be gowned and masked, and still was the only person allowed to see Tammy. Then at 8 pm. the nurse said visiting hour was over and I had to leave! Tammy remained in isolation for two weeks and during that time I was the only visitor she was allowed, except for my Mom and Dad. They came up the first weekend after Tammy got sick and the hospital allowed them to see Tammy once, gowned and masked.

After Tammy was moved into isolation, I was only allowed to see her during regular visiting hours. Since I had to work, and it was too far to go on my lunch hour, that meant I could only be with her from 6 to 8 pm every day. I left her crying every night. That was just hospital policy back then. They thought parents were a nuisance. I'm so glad hospitals have changed the rules and parents are allowed to stay with their children now.

On the day Tammy was released, I talked to one of her doctors and asked just what it was she'd had. He told me he wasn't sure. The only positive diagnosis was a severe kidney infection. I was furious and demanded to know why she was kept in isolation for a kidney infection. He hemed and hawed around and said, "she might have had meningitis or polio."

Even our family doctor, who was a D.O...Doctor of Osteopathy...couldn't get a firm diagnosis from the hospital. Back then D.O.s didn't have hospital privileges anyplace except a D.O. hospital. He said it was obvious that Tammy'd had a more serious condition than a kidney infection, that hospitals did not isolate a child unless it was absolutely necessary. And that the treatment she had received indicated viral meningitis, or even polio, but he was leaning towards meningitis.

D.O.s might have been considered second-class, or even lower, on the medical doctor scale, but I am convinced that ours saved Tammy's life.