Update on Rachael

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen these updates last night.

Here's the scoop.

On Monday morning, Rachael woke up with a moderate fever (102°) for the fifth day in a row.  Due to the fever and not feeling well, she also hadn't eaten more than about 4 bites per day in three days.  She has also had cold-type symptoms (coughing, runny nose, runny eyes) for 10 days.  She saw the pediatrician on January 29th and was diagnosed with a cold.

The only way I seemed to be able to get the fever down was with ibuprofen.  Now, I know what a fever is (the body's reaction to fighting off a virus/bacteria) and I'm not one to fret over a fever that has lasted a few days, however, FIVE days is too long to be running a temperature of 102°.

Monday morning I called the pediatrician and there were no appointments available in the pediatric or family practice clinics, so they scheduled her an acute care appointment at the US Air Force Academy (nearest military treatment facility with acute care capabilities) across town.  The appointment was at 2:20.  The boys stayed at our house with a sitter.

At this appointment, the doctor checked her over and then wanted to do some urine tests.  I am not quite sure why, but rather than using a catheter and gathering the urine immediately, he decided to put a "u-bag" on her.  Just Google it - I won't be explaining that one..... And then I proceeded to wait an additional 2½ hours (she had already had a dry diaper on for over an hour) for her to provide a sample for testing (:: I had to wait for her to pee in the little baggy thing::).  She was already mildly dehydrated at this point.

In the mean time, her temperature had spiked to 104.2°.  They gave her some ibuprofen and we then had to wait an additional hour for the test results and her temperature to go down.  She was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection, prescribed some oral antibiotics and sent home.  By this time it was nearing 6:30pm a full FOUR hours after we'd arrived at the clinic.

On the way home, she began vomiting in the van.  I called the acute care clinic and they wanted me to take her to the nearest ER since she had a new symptom and it was probably an indication of an additional kidney infection - and the clinic didn't have the capabilities to run the necessary test.

We went home first so Rachael could have a bath and I could get her nasty carseat out of the van and into the wash (I adjusted Eli's carseat and she used that since hers was washing).  

Then we proceeded to the ER.  As with most ER visits, we spent quite a while waiting...

Once called back, they took more urine (this time they did it the quick way).  By this time she was refusing all drinks, so once they got the test results back, she was started on an IV for fluids.  When that was finished, she was given IV antibiotics to help with the infection.

Once, the fluids were in her, she was a completely different child!  She decided she wanted to eat some snacks and have some juice and play with anything in Mommy's purse she could find!

She was discharged with instructions to continue fluids, keep the fever down with meds, fill the prescription for the oral antibiotics and start them sometime today and follow up with our regular pediatrician on Friday.

We arrived home at 1:30 am, exhausted.

I am so incredibly thankful for our wonderful friends (friend and her 14 y/o daughter) who spent most of the day and half of the night at our house yesterday so I could get my baby taken care of without having to spend the extra energy to also keep track of the boys and keep them occupied.  I'm certain I would have been quite insane at the end of the 11 hour ordeal if the boys had been with me!

I'm also incredibly thankful for the prayer support we received last night after my tweets.

Oh, and evidently, the cold and the bladder/kidney things aren't related. Two separate issues - which I definitely think is accurate since the boys have also had the same cold symptoms.