A Soul Marker

I always assumed I would end up in the ER with one of our kids at some point  - twisted ankle from soccer game, a few stitches from a fall outside…but I NEVER pictured rushing to the hospital, or having a hospital stay, with one of our babies.  

Remember the fevers the girls were having 2 weeks ago?  Well, Adalyn quickly recovered, and so when Eloise spiked an alarmingly high fever, I didn't think much of it - just another virus, I figured.  But our sweet Eloise did not recover like Adalyn did.  For 4 days, I waited out the fever because there were no other symptoms other than fussiness and crying.  But by Thursday, I decided to take her in and have her ears checked, just in case.  Well, ears were clear, flu test was negative, and given big sis' similar fever early in the week, we were told to go home and wait it out but come back the next day if fever was still high.  I waited another day because I know how those viruses can be. 

By Saturday morning however, Eloise was still 103-104 so I brought her back to pedi.  She wasn't eating or nursing at this point and was clearly getting dehydrated.  After an emergency blood draw and urine test, her urine came back with nitrates so we assumed it was a UTI and she was started on antibiotics.  And when the labs came back from her blood, it was clear that there was some sort of bacterial (not viral) infection going on her little body.  Cultures from both urine and blood take about 2 days to come back, so we had to wait it out and keep her on broad spectrum antibiotic until we found out what organism was kicking her butt.  Unfortunately, Eloise would still not drink anything and after syringing pedialyte down her all day, fighting a fever, and then vomiting up her antibiotic, it was clear that we were going to need to head to the ER.

And so we did on Saturday night. She was immediately given an IV for fluids and another blood and urine test.  IV antibiotics were started as well, and she was admitted for the night because her fever was still high.  The cages, um I mean cribs in the hospital were horrifying to look at - tall metal things that really did look like a zoo animal belonged inside.  I knew E would not sleep in there, so I signed a waiver and had a regular hospital bed brought in so that I could sleep with her and nurse her if she wanted.  She did drink some that night.

The next day she was doing a bit better, but anytime Motrin would wear off, she would have these awful, awful, awful, gut-wrenching screaming and thrashing fits.  She was just the opposite of herself.

The in-betweens were honestly just as painful to watch.

This image.  This image?  Well, it's a soul marker.  It makes me cry.  It makes my heart ache for parents whose children have terminal illness.  It makes me so grateful that whatever is likely to be going on inside our sweet little E is common, curable, and won't affect her long term.

On Monday morning, she hadn't had a fever for 10 hours and they said if she didn't vomit or spike a fever that we could go home.  An ultrasound of her kidneys revealed moderate hydronephrosis of her left kidney, which is basically an enlargement that they assume is caused by reflux of urine back up into the kidney (urine should only go down).  When she got the UTI, the bacteria was able to travel up into her kidney, thus causing all of the pain, high fever, and infection.

As if this sweet little girl hasn't been put through enough, she will undergo a VCUG this Thursday at the hospital where they will insert a catheter and dye and then take x-rays to see what her urine does.  Once we know exactly what is going on, we can be more clear of the next steps.  For now, she will stay on a low dose of antibiotics to prevent any further infection of her kidney.  We will meet with a Pediatric Urologist after the test to confirm the reflux and treatment plan.

We were so delighted to have her home Monday night, and in no time, she was back to her own smiley self.  We were also happy to learn that despite not eating for a few days, that she didn't lose any weight!

Our sweet TEN month old, at 15lbs 13oz. with 3 teeth!

She came with me to the studio today to test out my new real wood backdrop.  Oh how I love to see her well and happy.  :)