Well, I haven't been blogging much lately. And I've been posting this weekend's events on facebook instead of the blog, but I figured I should update the blog for all my faithful fans out there. (ha ha ha) :) We've had quite the adventurous Labor Day weekend, and certainly not the one we had planned.
Last Thursday night Tabitha woke up in the middle of the night with bladder pain. This can happen if her bladder is too full, but even after cathing she woke up again crying, so we knew something was wrong. Friday morning I took her to the pediatrician to check for a UTI. She did have an infection, so they prescribed Bactrim (the antibiotic she's been on for a few years but stopped in July once the kidney reflux was fixed.) She had thrown up twice Friday morning, and had a slight fever but was acting pretty normal the rest of the day. Friday night we went to our friends' house for a cook-out, campfire, etc. She was feverish and tired but slept fine that night. Saturday morning she threw up half an hour after taking her antibiotic, so I wasn't sure if that dose had enough time to be absorbed or not. She also had a higher fever. A little while later we decided to go to Urgent Care since it didn't seem like the medicine was working yet. So that was another day of 4 kids in the waiting room (since Heath was working). They handled it pretty well though. :) Urgent Care said if she couldn't keep down her medicine they recommended going to the emergency room. But by that time her fever had gone down to about 101, she wasn't throwing up, and she was totally happy and acting normal. So I took her home, put Rayanna down for a nap, and let Tab just rest. Heath came home, and she was still feverish, but just napping on the couch. Late afternoon we took her temperature again, and our thermometer read 107! We've since learned that the temporal thermometers can be off, so maybe it wasn't really that high. But it was definitely scary!
Heath took her to the ER at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, an excellent hospital which we're very thankful to live near! By the time he arrived the fever was down again, and he was feeling like it may have been silly to rush to the ER. But because of her history of bladder and kidney problems they wanted to keep her. It's a good thing they did! They did a renal ultrasound and put her on a different antibiotic and fluids via IV. At 4 am, they finally got taken to her room.
Heath stayed with her overnight and all day Sunday. Sunday night I switched with him, and he'll switch back with me tonight (Tuesday). Since checking in, she's continued to have fevers whenever the tylenol wears off, and the infection is definitely still there. But her creatinine levels (which shows how the kidneys are working) are going down, which is good. Whenever her fever spikes she's really miserable--shivering, having bad dreams, and just really uncomfortable. But when the tylenol kicks in she's fine. The last few times the fever spiked haven't been as bad though, so that's encouraging.
The culture showed that the bacteria is Ecoli, and she's on the right antibiotic for that; they're also going to look to see if there's something else there too, since she's still having fevers. Now we're getting ready to go do x-rays and ultrasounds to see how things look. They've been in contact with Dr. Alam (her urologist in Cincinnati) as well, so I feel like everything's being well covered, and she's in good hands. She's happy most of the time, except when the fever spikes or we have to cath her. Cathing started hurting her so much yesterday that we switched to a Foley (a catheter that stays in and is attached to a bag). But other than that, she's fine. She's starting to get grumpy because she's sick of being here, and I can definitely understand that!
Yesterday was our anniversary, and we had great plans for a trip to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. So we're pretty disappointed to miss that, especially since it was a non-refundable purchase. But a friend of mine called the hotel yesterday and got them to refund our money because of the circumstances! We are so thankful for that. Even though we missed our trip, at least now we can afford the co-pay for the hospital stay. My dear and wonderful husband managed to still make our day special. He asked his mom to stay with Tabitha, and he took me out to dinner last night. It was very nice to get away from here and spend some time with him. He's coming to switch places with me today. I'm looking forward to going home this afternoon, seeing the other kids, taking a shower in my own normal shower, and sleeping in my own comfy bed.
As annoying and scary as all of this is, we're very thankful to live so close to an excellent hospital, to have excellent doctors for Tabitha both here and in Cincinnati, and to have excellent insurance that prevents us from being in debt until eternity. Of course we're very thankful that things aren't any worse too. As tough a time as Tabitha's had, there are plenty of kids and families going through worse. We have much to be grateful for.
Tabitha has to be fever-free for at least 24 hours, and they have to make sure the infection is going away and that she'll be OK on oral antibiotics, and THEN we can go home. POSSIBLY tomorrow, but probably more like Thursday. Or Friday. Or who knows. One day at a time, right? Meanwhile, the boys have enjoyed their time off from school. When your parents are the teachers, substitutes, and principals, you get some unexpected days off. :) They won't be too thrilled to hear that I plan to have them do some work tomorrow!
Thanks again for all the emails, facebook comments, phone calls, and all-around support. We appreciate our friends and family so much!
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