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November 15, 2007
Too much for one so little. . .
For those of you who have heard bits and pieces about our experience last week or who maybe didn't hear at all- here's what happened with our Caroline.
On Saturday evening she felt a bit warm and had a temp of 101 to 102 by the middle of the night. I still wasn't alarmed and thought she was just fighting something off and for some reason I had 103 as the magic number before calling the oncall Dr. I hate calling the on call Dr!!! At about 8am on Sunday morning it hit 103.3 and I made the call. We were soon on our way to TC Thompson to be "evaluated". I was a bit annoyed by this (I think since this is my third child I was a bit desensitized to the seriousness of fever in a newborn).
Her temp at the ER was 101.6 and they took this very seriously, a fever in a newborn is anything over 100.4. Oops- so much for my 103 theory.
The nurse that was attending us mentioned getting a blood sample for the lab, which was not surprising, and she mentioned something about starting her IV at the same time. This sort of went over my head, but I did think- why do we need that? They also took a urine sample, trying to figure out where the infection was located. Then the Dr. came in and told us how seriously they take fevers in infants and that they would do a septic work up- blood, urine and spinal tap and we would also be admitted for 2 to 3 days. WHAT!?!?! This was quite a shock to us. Once I heard spinal tap, I completely lost it and didn't stop crying for a good while (even after the procedure was done). All in all our poor little one had a blown IV attempt in each hand, one blown IV attempt in her arm, IV in her ankle (finally!), lab work drawn from her other arm, heel prick, and spinal tap.
We were admitted that afternoon and stayed in the children's hospital for 3 days. They immediately saw white blood cells and red blood cells in her urine and so we were treated for a kidney infection. They culture all samples for 48 hours- all came back clear except her urine which continued to grow bacteria.
We are so completely grateful that we got a clear diagnosis and that the infection didn't spread or get worse. She responded great to the antibiotics in the hopsital and continues to be on oral antibiotics here at home.
Through it all she continued to eat and sleep normally, which is such a blessing since I am super hyper about how nursing is going. It's going so well in fact that they felt like I was providing enough for her and she didn't have to receive fluids through her IV. (they weighed every single diaper)
It was crappy the first day or so and lonely the rest of the time. It was hard to be separated from Andy for so much of that time. He was with me in the beginning obviously but once she did well, he spent his time between the girls and work. I wanted him to be with me, although that would have meant just sitting around the hospital and he needed to be here with our girls. It stunk. It was depressing to call home, I wanted to be with my family so bad.
But now its all behind us, it seems so strange. It was so tramatizing but now seems like forever ago.
We have no idea how someone so little gets an infection like this and will be doing a VCUG once we are done with antibiotics. They want to see if kidney reflux could have been the cause, we hope not but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Thanks so much to those of you who prayed for and with us. We have an amazing community around us and I felt it so much in the hospital. It's so comforting to know that we have friends to call on who will take in our girls, we appreciate you more than you could know.
Praise God it wasn't something worse, and it was treatable and she is getting better. I certainly do not want to ever go through it again!
| By JennR | 10:23 PM
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Comments
Jennifer,
My bro-in-law is a pediatrician and rarely takes his kids' illnesses seriously b/c he sees so many worse things in the ER and clinic every day. However, on the occasion that something goes wrong-such as my sister's struggle with nursing the first two and Isabelle's jaundice, Stephen can run to the hospital and get supplies and treat the kids at home. Maybe Andy should reconsider his career...
Posted by: martha at November 15, 2007 11:20 PM
You all are troopers, that's for sure. Praise God our precious Caroline is getting better. I don't want you to go through that again either! Love you guys with all my heart!
Posted by: Nann at November 16, 2007 11:33 AM
How traumatic! I know how I felt just watching Mandy get a heel stick - I can't imagine a spinal tap. I'm glad everything turned out ok for her.
Posted by: Lisa at November 18, 2007 05:49 PM
Wow! What a gorgeous little girl! It has been a while since I've seen her.
I'm glad you are all home and that episode is over. We are praying that VCUG comes back all clear!
Posted by: sara at November 18, 2007 10:17 PM