Rachel update

She's home and doing so much better. Here's what happened.

Tuesday and Wednesday last week, her appetite diminished. She basically didn't feel well. She held her head on occasion. I gave her some Advil and watched her. She also had a minor diaper rash - nothing red or aggravated - just some little bumps. I changed her soap and thought it would go away.

Wednesday (and the next 4 mornings) she woke up soaked in urine - no diaper could hold that much!!

Thursday she got a fever and I took her to the pediatrician. I thought it might be an ear ache since she is teething. Her ears were clear and no fever.

Friday morning I ran errands with her, she napped in the car. We had lunch (of which she had 2 bites) and she went to bed. She woke up and promptly threw up on me. Lovely. By the time I got Jacob from school and had dinner going, she was ready for bed. She didn't play much - she sat on the couch. Very out of the ordinary for her. I put her to bed and began looking on line for what our insurance covered for an ER visit.

Saturday morning, she threw up the clear liquids I gave her. Her fever was 103 and we went to the ER. They thought she had a gastric bug like 50% of the other kids there. She got an anti-nausea drug and IV fluids. They warned us that diarrhea would start, thankfully it never did. We went home 6 hours later. She woke up around midnight for a brief snack and some more pedialyte. I put her down to go get a book. She lost her balance and pretty much collapsed. She hadn't eaten in 2 days - she was very weak.

Sunday, she slept 18 of 24 hours, waking only for a little pedialyte, advil and a clean diaper. Then she would go back to bed. The nurse at the ER said that sleep was good for her.

Monday I called the pediatrician's office to bring them up to speed. I also asked the Dr. to call me back when he got in from Rounds. It was noon before he called. She had thrown up the water I gave her. We agreed it was time to go back to the ER, mainly because they don't do fluids in the office and she was in need of another IV. They called ahead and off I went. Her fever was up to 103. I also noticed that when I picked her up from her crib, changing table and her stroller that she curled up in pain from the shoulders up.

The ER nurse was there from Saturday. She agreed she looked worse. It was good to have another set of eyes. She was great - I was thankful for the familiar face. The ER doc came in and began the exam. The biggest red flag was no diarrhea. The gastric bug always has both vomiting and the other end too. Second red flag was 4 days of fever. Third red flag was pain in the neck. He was very gentle but said they had to start ruling out the big ticket items.

X-rays to rule out pneumonia. Blood work to check for white blood cells. IV for dehydration. Lumbar Puncture (Spinal tap) to rule out meningitis. Catheter sample to detect a UTI. Advil and Tylenol for the fever. I stayed for all but the spinal tap. The offered to let me stay but that 99% of all parents leave the room after they start pinning her down -'nuff said, I'm outta here.
X-rays showed 4 days of constipation - got a suppository and fixed that.IV helped the dehydration.Blood work showed elevated white cells - definitely bacterial problem.The urine test showed a "raging" infection. Spinal Fluid didn't come back 100% clear - it was sent off for a culture. 8 white blood cells showed up. They wanted 0. It turned out negative, but that was the reason we were admitted.

By 10:00 they had me in the system to stay overnight. By 2 am we were in a room. By 3 she was finally asleep. I went to move my car from the 2 hour parking into the garage. I didn't have a ticket, but I had a big Yellow sticker - YOU ARE PARKED ILLEGALLY. Duh.

Every nurse, security guard, information desk, ER staff, Attending Doctor, Intern, Resident, x-ray person.... was fantastic. As a teaching hospital the medical staff are crawling all over the place. They are as thick as flies!! Children's has a "family center" that offers free to families - computer access, library, all the comforts of a living room (including a Wii), laundry, showers, lockers, massages on Tuesday, refrigerator space.... etc. They have a separate club house for school aged siblings to hang out while they are on site. They have rocking chairs in every room. They give parents free beverages in the cafeteria - coffee/tea/soda. They have staff that do nothing but make sure you are comfortable - that the kids have toys to play with - that you are getting everything you need. It was amazing.

Rachel ended up with a UTI. In hind sight, she told me with her fever, urine soaked bed (withholding during the day and flooding at night). They cultured the bacteria and it is E-Coli. Not the bad Taco Bell kind, a different sub category. Cultures take 48 hours, that is why we were there for 2 days.

The doctors were also afraid she had high blood pressure. Once she was not in pain, they came down to normal. The kidneys regulate blood pressure. Combining a UTI and high blood pressure gave them reason to do an ultrasound. Her kidneys are larger than they expected. We are going to see the nephrologist this week. She is having a urinary void and reflux test in January. She's on an antibiotic until then.

Thankfully, tonight we are home. Everything will be fine. I'm going to go have a glass of wine.

ho hum.

It has been a month. I am not sure I'm making any progress. I feel like I'm spinning my wheels. House hunting isn't producing the plethora of houses I had hoped for; the apartment feels very temporary as we've not hung any pictures, nor unpacked 80% of our stuff; the kids and dogs are existing but none are thriving in a back yard yet, etc.

We're doing all the right things. We've got Jacob in school, we've joined a synagogue, I've joined PTO, we make outings to the park or museums, but it isn't home yet. We've jumped in with both feet and we all will make friends, it is just taking time. We've only been here 4 1/2 months. I do know a dozen people. I do think we'll get there, I just wish we could get there faster. Our son needs friends to go ride bikes with on the weekends (not just mom).

Our daughter is entering the terrible two's and expressing her desires.
Michael is finished with one quarter. He's doing pretty well. It is an adjustment for all of us.

I'll try to update more, but there hasn't been much going on.