About 4 weeks ago our baby daughter developed a fever. She came home from the sitters at 7:00 and then about 2 hours later I noticed she felt warm. I checked her temperature and it was 101.3. I gave Tylenol and we watched her. Over the next couple of days here fever was pretty steady - high, high, high at 103-104. She was also pretty grumpy and needed to be held most of the time. We stayed home most of the time, too.
Then, after about 2 1/2 days the fever resolved for about 30 hours so I felt good about dropping her with the sitter. I went into work and Ms. B sent me a message saying BB was warm and her temperature was 101. I notified my office manager my afternoon patients would have to be canceled and I called my pediatrician's office to schedule an appointment.
We went right from Ms. B's to the pediatric clinic. Her temperature was dropping since we administered Tylenol and the on call doctor (not our normal provider) could not find anything wrong with her. With her duration of fever without cause she mentioned the three differential diagnoses which I know all too well - pneumonia, urinary tract infection, and sepsis. We agreed that she did not seem septic and her lungs sounded clear. She suggested a urinalysis. However,getting a clean catch sample from a baby is usually done via catheter. I declined because I thought I could get a clean catch sample from her since we do elimination communication. The doctor asked a few questions about how I did it and was surprised but agreed to let me give it a try.
I took BB home and I followed her around for 2 hours in the bathroom waiting to collect my specimen. Finally, she went and I caught what I needed for collection purposes. It was a Friday night so I had to run it to the hospital where the doctor was on call. I noted it was kind of odd that the person taking the sample at the hospital did not ask for any information from me. I actually stopped at the registration desk to give my info.
The next day I received a call from the doctor and the hospital, the specimen had been mishandled and it needed to be redone (I handled this well - honestly, I think with age I really am getting more patient, kids can do that to a person). Since the lab was closed I had to go into the actual hospital lab and get another collection cup. I drove down to the hospital again and brought home yet another collection cup. I was able to get another urine specimen that night but we could not take it in until Monday.
Monday we dropped it off and I had the day off but the baby was getting worse over the weekend. She seemed a little less feverish but then woke up Monday with her fever jumping from 101 to 103 and staying there. Even with medications she was still feverish and she had developed a productive cough. I pulled out my own stethoscope and could hear crackles over her left mid-lower lobes. Finally, I decided it was time to do something and the pediatric clinic was not calling back fast enough for my comfort.
I was missing a management meeting because the baby was ill. At that management meeting all three of the doctors I work with would be there. I called my boss and asked him to take a look at my baby. He, of course, agreed. I immediately drove over to the office. When her temperature was checked it was 103. He listened and definitely found some focal findings in the same place I had heard the crackles. He started her on antibiotics for pneumonia.
The next day BB's fever was resolving and I called the ped's clinic to check on urine results. They were positive and we needed to wait on the culture but we had to change antibiotics to cover for both infections. The antibiotics would then end up being nearly as bad as the illnesses themselves.
It was a rough 2 weeks but we all survived. Thank you to everyone offered help and prayers.
This would be why we are behind a few things. For now, I will leave you with our photos from July 4th fireworks. It is becoming a bit of a tradition for our neighbors to bring their fireworks over, combine with ours, and make a nice little display. The kids enjoyed it once again. BB was fast asleep inside but Grandma and Grandpa N joined us which was a special treat. The smoke bombs, pop-its, tanks, friendship pagodas, worms, and sparklers are always big hits. This year we added some laying hens and turtles. I even made some shields out of plastic cups so the kids would not get sparkler sparks on their hands.
1 comment:
Your poor baby! I completely understand about not updating. You're a mother/nurse first, then a blogger.
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