This Heart Broken

Apparently, Zoe. I took her in to her pediatrician yesterday because she was having lots of diarrhea and pretty much no wet diapers. He said she was dehydrated but gave me until 4pm to get enough Pedialyte down her to rehydrate. It didn’t work so at 6:00 Paul and I took her to the ER to get another IV placed which wasn’t fun. They rehydrated her via IV fluids, gave her a dose of IV antibiotic and let us come home around 1:30 this morning. She still has the IV in because they anticipate we’ll be back this weekend to be admitted. She hasn’t been wanting to drink/nurse so her fluid intake has been minimal. I talked with her cardiologist this morning and he’s giving us until 4pm today to stay hydrated. He’s willing to suspend some of her medications for the next couple days to help with the diarrhea but she’s got to start drinking fluids. She’s pretty wiped out today and sleeping a lot but she definitely feels better now that she got those fluids last night. There was some confusion as to why her antibiotic was changed by her pediatrician so she’s on yet another new one today. She’s sleeping right now in her crib (an improvement-she’s only been sleeping ON us the last few days) so I’ll see where she’s at when she wakes up.

We’re home again. They sent us home with antibiotics and appointments for next week. She’ll see her pediatrician on Tuesday and the heart center on Wednesday. She’s also going to have a scope procedure done in the next couple weeks to check out her bladder anatomy a bit. Any child who has a urinary tract infection (UTI) this young has to have one done because it may mean she has some anatomical structure that is causing her to be susceptible to this infection.

Thanks everyone!

Monday night was not a great night in terms of her comfort. She spiked another fever in the evening and so late evening they decided she needed another blood culture done to look at whether an infection had spread to her blood stream. I repeatedly told them it was useless to try and draw blood until after she received fluids because she was pretty dehydrated and a difficult stick on the best of occasions. Unfortunately, they didn’t listen and of course they couldn’t get any blood. The really disappointing thing is that the resident (possibly trying to make us feel better?) came in and told us that the clinical difference between the treatment they were going to start her on and the one they may have chosen if they had gotten the blood is negligible. Her attending comes in this morning and I’m going to express my concerns in the nicest way I can. Paul was here last night for everything which was a huge deal! We got her all changed into jammies, and snuggled up but she had been so upset and crying for so long that when she started nursing she chugged the milk and then threw it up. Ahh! We then had to strip her and her bedding and start all over. It was really late before she got to bed (almost midnight) and then they kept coming in to check her temp. At 4:30 yesterday morning she spiked her highest fever yet (over 103) and so they gave her Tylenol and Motrin (usually she can’t have Motrin because of the sensitivity of her kidneys). They also started her on an antibiotic Monday night because some of the doctors were fairly convinced she’s got an infection somewhere. However, it’s pretty obvious there are a lot of opinions about what’s going on but no one really knows. The fact is that we may never really know because they started the antibiotic on Monday night so any new blood or urine specimens would be useless for analyzation. There also seems to be some disagreement about whether this should have happened or not.

Yesterday was more quiet. They sent her for an ultrasound of her bladder and kidneys to see if that would show signs of an infection but here was nothing they could see from the scan. Unfortunately, the urine sample they took by catheter was also contaminated (probably because it took several attempts to get the sample) so there was no definitive answer as to whether she has a urinary tract infection or not. After her high fever in the morning Zoe had no more fevers all day but until late in the evening she refused to eat or drink anything. We had an awesome nurse yesterday and again today (Julie-Zoe has had her as a nurse everytime we’ve been in the hospital) though and she said it’s probably because she was getting IV fluids (some kids don’t feel hungry on them). Julie always gets things done and gets us home! Yesterday she rocked Zoe so I could go get coffee and today she sprung us out together! Zoe is enjoying herself in her stroller as I type looking at “real people”.

I think we’ll get sent home today on antibiotics. There’s really no reason for us to be here anymore; Zoe’s fever have gone away whether it’s because the virus is passing or because the antibiotics are killing an infection. She’s happier and awake much more. We’re just waiting to find out if the “possible” infection she has is responsive to Amoxicillan or whether she needs a heavier duty antibiotic.

I’ll keep you posted.

Thanks for dinner and chocolate last night Jen–Zoe actually ate when she saw the split pea soup!

Zoe’s fever came and went yesterday but last night was much better for Zoe. She rested really well and her fever seemed to subside. This morning she slept a lot but actually ate a little food and played with toys for about 5 minutes. I was feeling like things were on the mend but then her fever came back. Today they actually did rounds and her bacteria culture on her urine specimen came back positive. Now, that could be because when the collect urine in the bag it touches the skin and can get contaminated so they decided they needed to put a catheter in her to get a urine sample. Not fun. They’re still waiting to see if her blood had an infection but they are hoping her urine test comes back that she has a urinary tract infection. Okay, maybe I’m the one who hopes that’s what it is. I don’t like that no one knows what is going on with her and the longer it takes to find where the infection is the worse the infection could get. I’ll try and keep everyone updated.

Thanks to Missy and Harrison for the DELICIOUS meal last night!

We made it almost 9 whole months before having to be in the hospital but we are here again Friday night Zoe started running a temperature and it was much worse Saturday and by Saturday evening it was 102.6! We ended up in the ER last night where they drew blood to check for bactrial infection and various other labs. The bacteria cultures are not back yet but her white blood cell count was very low. They gave her an injection to boost her white blood cell count and admitted her for observation. We are expecting to be here 2-3 days. She seems worse today and the fever seems less affected by Tylenol but that could just be lack of distractions for her. She’s not eating well so there’s some talk about possibly giving her IV fluids. She’s sleeping a lot but only if she’s held which will make things interesting. They think she may have caught a virus. However, she’s got no cough, runny nose, ear pain or any other sign of illness. I don’t get it.

My mom is on her way from Spokane to take care of Noah while Paul’s at work.

More later…..