do not depend on your own understanding.6 Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.7 Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom.
Instead, fear the LORD and turn away from evil.8 Then you will have healing for your body
and strength for your bones.
Last Wednesday I noticed around lunch time that Skylar wasn't quit herself. She was extremely clingy and wanted to sit in my lap all day. I took her temperature and it was 101. We chalked it up to her possibly getting her 2yr. molars. I gave her some tylenol and laid her down for nap. When she awoke she was running 103. By 5 that night it had hit 103.8. My sweet sister came over to bring me some extra medicine so that I wouldn't have to get out with a sick kiddo. I was doing my best to give it the pediatricians "Give it 24 hours alternating tylenol and ib prophen before becoming a paranoid parent." Although every ounce of me knew something was up.
By Thursday morning she was still running 103+ fevers all day. When she woke up from her nap it was clearly obvious it wasn't coming down. By 3p.m. it hit 105. I immediately rushed her to the Urgent Care just up the street. They rushed me back and said it looks like a UTI that has gotten into her kidneys and they wanted to start IV's. Using cold compresses we were able to get her temp back down to 103. At this point I didn't feel comfortable doing that at their facility and we headed straight to Children's @ Medical City.
Once we reached Children's her temp was back up to 104.1. They did a catheter culture to get more specifics on whether it truly was a UTI or something else. The procedure was awful. We both cried. There is nothing worse than having to pin your child to a table knowing that what they are about to experience is not going to be pleasant. Results came back slightly positive but not enough to call it the true source. They started an IV to get further blood work and to begin fluids to get body temp down. Her temp slowly came back down and the blood work came back stating that she had leukocytosis which is an elevated white blood cell count (caused by the high body temperatures) and indication of an infection of some sort. Because the only "Positive" test was the UTI they chalked it up to that and sent us home with some antibiotics. At this point it was 11p.m. and all pharmacies were closed so they told us to go home, keep up with tylenol and ib prophen and begin antibiotics in the morning.
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| Our sweet lil' baby with her 1st IV. Worn out and trying to kick her fever. |
She immediately fell asleep when we got home. She awoke around 1:30 a.m. screaming. I ran into her room only to find no fever, she just wanted up for bit and was hungry. I was relieved. We filled her tummy, let her play for a bit, gave her more tylenol as a precaution and put her back down for bed about 2:45. I was up all night checking in on her every hour or so. At some point around 4:30 I dozed off and awoke to her crying at 6a.m. We figured she was just ready to get up for the day because her schedule was off. When I walked over to pick her up her body was trembling. I could feel the heat coming off her body when I reached down to pick her up. I yelled for Carl and he brought the thermometer. It read 106! I began to cry. He quickly got changed so we could go to the hospital. He came back and we checked it again and all it said was HIGH!!! My heart dropped. We grabbed what we needed and ran out the door.
This was the scariest car ride of our lives. We kept checking on her the whole way because such high fevers can cause seizures and fainting and we live 40 mins. from the closest children's hospital. About 5 min. from the hospital she began throwing up, shaking and chocking. Carl dropped us at the ER doors and I rushed in with her. **WARNING** This is when my mamma bear instincts came out and I was not so kind.....I get to the front desk and Skylar is still vomiting in my arms. I get to admitting and tell her my child is running 106+ fever and just started shaking and throwing up. The woman looks at me, grabs her clip board and says I need you to fill out these two sections of this form and sign the other. I looked at her said,"REALLY!?!?! She is throwing up on me as we are speaking. We were just here 7 hours ago, they have our information! She pushed the clipboard at me and said,"Fill it out."It took every thing in me not to reach through the glass and shake some since into her. I am crying, Skylar is crying and her eyes are glossed over. Carl arrived at this point and gives her the paperwork. I was so livid, worried and sick to my stomach all at the same time. All I could do was cry and pray. She then holds onto the paperwork and begins flirting with a male nurse for the next 10 min. She finally sets our forms on the counter and immediately an RN picks it up and calles us back. Which means she was holding on to them just to be a jerk the whole time. I was soooooo mad.
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| She was tired of being sick and tired!! |
They rechecked the culture they took the night before and saw that it was growing bacteria and admitted her to be more closely watched until they could get her temp under control and more antibiotics in her system. The nurses, doctors and staff were amazing! It makes a difference when they talked sweet to Skylar as they do their job. She becomes less frightened which makes it better on us. Her fever continuously went up and down averaging a huge spike every 4 hours. They did an ultrasound of her kidneys to check for swelling and fluid. The results from that test confirmed that her right kidney was infected and it has now become a kidney infection. We were scared and anxious for what this meant. Now that it reached her kidneys the doctor said it needed to be treated more aggressively and we would need to stay for 72 hours of IV antibiotics. The bacteria that was growing was Ecoli and fortunately was reacting well to amoxicillin.
The medically correct term for this is...
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| On our last night at the hospital she got a spurt of energy and tried out her new high heels from her cousin Madyson. Making the best of this crummy situation! |
The medically correct term for this is...
PYELONEPHRITIS - It is an ascending urinary tract infection that has reached the pyelum or pelvis of the kidney. It is a form of nephritis that is also referred to as pyelitis. Severe cases of pyelonephritis can lead to pyonephrosis (pus accumulation around the kidney), urosepsis (asystemic inflammatory response of the body to infection), kidney failure and even death.
We are back home today trying to catch up on rest. According to her doctor this is something that will be in her system forever and can occur again at any time. If she were to run fever over 101 again we are supposed to rush her back to the ER. This concerns me because kids get fever for many things. How do we know what requires the ER and what doesn't? All we can do is leave it in God's hands and know that he is our protector and healer and keep faith that this will not happen again.
