Modern Medicine

This week we are grateful for modern medicine.  Micah and I spent most of the week in the hospital for him to be treated for a UTI/kidney infection.  It all started on Monday morning.  He felt hot at 5:00am but I figured, "It's 5 am  what am I gonna do."  So, when he woke up at 8 and was still hot I took his temp under his arm and it was 100.1!  I called the Dr. and made an appointment.  (7 week old babies aren't supposed to get fevers).  They told me to give him some tylenol so I did.  By the time we got to the Dr. the fever was gone and he had no symptoms of anything else.  He's had a cold so they did an RSV test which came back negative.  So, they sent me home saying, "Just watch him."  He was pretty much fine the rest of the day until...

He woke up at 7:00pm and was BLAZING.  Kind of scary.  I fed him and took his temp under his are which was 99.5.  I couldn't remember if I needed to add a degree for that or not, so I called the Dr. again.  Since we'd already been seen that morning they were hesitant to have me come in.  They told me to give him some tylenol and see how he does.  I decided to take him temp in his bum, just to be sure.  It was 101.3!!!!!  I called the Dr. back right away and made an appointment.  Luckily our pediatrician's office has an after hours clinic.

This time I didn't give him tylenol and his fever was still high when we got there.  That's when things got hard.  The standard work up for such a young infant with a fever is pretty intense.  They told me the tests that had to be done and that we'd be going to the hospital for at least 24 hours to start IV antibiotics and be observed until the cultures come back and they can figure out what is causing the fever.  The tests included a catheter and a spinal tap.  AWFUL!

We ended up in the hospital until Thursday morning!  We had a little scare with the spinal fluid, but it turned out fine.  Needless to say it was HARD.  Our friends really pulled through for us with taking care of Ryan and dinners.  Poor Ryan had a hard time.  He went to bed on Monday night as Micah and I were heading out the door and I told him I'd be back to give him a kiss before I went to bed and then I didn't come home for 3 days.  He came to see us lots, but still...

We are happy to be home and Micah is doing great.  We are so grateful for the doctors and nurses who cared for Micah.  They were awesome and if it weren't for modern medicine we would have lost our sweet baby.  So, now we have to finish out the antibiotic at home and then do more tests to figure out WHY he got an infection in the first place.  We'll keep you posted...