You may have noticed that things have been very quiet out here on World of Wild this past week. We've had quite a challenging one, deciding to forgo our traditional work/weekend arrangement and embark on a detailed critique of all the local hospital emergency rooms.
The first adventure of the week, which we fully expected to be THE adventure of the week, was Zach's pneumonia, hinted at here.
But that wasn't enough for us. Oh, no no no. On Thursday I was home with Zach on his first day back from the hospital, and Brooke awoke from her nap breathing irregularly, her face white and her hands and feet blue. I know a little about medicine, and that is not normal.
So we hopped into the car and sped off to Beaumont, letting nothing and no one get in our way. By the time we got to the hospital Brooke was very bad off, and everyone in the ER knew it - their glances to each other told me in no uncertain terms. They got serious fast and started work. Brooke's temp was 105 and she was shaking violently.
Just as the fourth attempt to get an IV set in Brooke failed, and they were getting out the drill to do an intraosseous one, a nice lady came and took wide-eyed Zach for a tour of the ER popsicle fridge.
Heather told the ER staff that there was no way they were going to drill into her daughter, and that they should try Brooke's scalp instead. Sure enough, they found a vein and continued work.
We were admitted and initial testing indicated that Brooke had RSV and a very bad E. Coli urinary infection, possibly going septic. Further testing revealed that her infection was in her kidneys.
They put her on powerful IV antibiotics and her fever went down and she got much better very fast.
The next step is to see if there is a reverse-flow (reflux) condition in her little bladder that caused this infection to go to her kidneys, a sort of "plumbing problem".
But first she has to get all better. More testing in two weeks...
...The fun will continue...for now we're glad to be back home!
1 comment:
I'm so glad everyone is home and on the mend. There's no greater heartache than a sick child. They're so helpless and innocent and don't understand what's going on. I know you were the best caretakers and gave lots of TLC. Now stay well all you little people! And big ones, too! See you soon.
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