Well, it has been an interesting week. Svea was more fussy than normal all week last week. After her vaccines, I figured it was normal for her to have a slight fever for a few days and so I gave her tylenol when she felt warm and didn't think much of it. Around the middle of last week when she was still fussy I knew it couldn't still be her vaccines causing her discomfort, but I thought she may have picked up a tiny bug while we were at the doctor's office for her well baby visit. On Saturday night and Sunday I noticed she was feeling really warm in between doses of tylenol. I decided to take her temperature when she woke up from a long nap on Sunday morning. It read 102.3. I gave her tylenol and left a message with the pediatrician's office, but I tried not to worry too much.
Sunday night was not very fun. Svea fussed unless I held her, and I finally ended up falling asleep in the guest bed with her, exhausted. I woke up sweating early in the morning - she was burning up with fever - I took her temperature and it was 102.8. I gave her more tylenol and we both fell asleep. She seemed to be doing better when we woke up, but I decided to call the pediatrician's office one more time - I really just wanted to make sure I wouldn't hurt her by giving her so much tylenol. The girl who answered the phone was taking down my question for a call back but she stopped me as soon as she heard Svea's age and temperature and told me I should bring her right in. They had an open appointment, so I rushed around getting the kids and me dressed and we hopped in the car.
Dr Aaron looked Svea over and agreed with me that she appeared to have only a fever and fussiness as her symptoms. Her fever was going back up at that point and he wanted to do some tests. A high fever with no obvious symptoms 1in infants two months old and younger usually points to either a UTI or spinal meningitis. Rather than send us all over town to get our tests done, he had me head over to the hospital ER, where we could get all the labs and results done quickly. Svea's temperature when we arrived at the ER triage was 40 degrees C, or 104 degrees F. Needless to say, they got us back into a bed as soon as they could and took a urine and blood sample from her. A cloudy urine sample pointed to a UTI, and the blood results soon confirmed that. Her white blood count was very high, so the doctor told us we were most likely dealing with a kidney infection and started her on IV antibiotics. I was told we would be admitted to the hospital so Svea could continue to be monitored and receive her IV antibiotics.
Erik headed over from work as soon as he found out we were in the ER, and he was able to take Soren for me so I could stay with Svea (no kids under 12 are allowed in the hospital right now). I'm so thankful Erik has a job that allowed him to stay home all week to care for Soren while I was gone. The boys came to see me each night, and after the first night Svea was able to come with me to see them.
Our stay was pretty uneventful. The first night was scary for me - Svea's fever still hadn't gone away, and she was not interested in eating. She looked so pale and weak that I found myself getting very emotional. It was great when the antibiotics started killing the infection about 24 hours after we were admitted and her high fever totally subsided. After receiving confirmation that this was a UTI, the doctor ordered a renal ultrasound to rule out any major anatomic issues. Besides some irritation in her kidneys from the infection, there were no other obvious abnormalities. We were able to head home Thursday afternoon after 72 hours of IV antibiotics with an oral antibiotic.
So, while it may sound crazy, I am very thankful that Svea was diagnosed with a UTI. If that wouldn't have been the cause of her fever, the doctors would have been testing for spinal meningitis and I don't even want to think about that scenario. A viral infection wouldn't have responded so quickly to treatment. This was the best yucky thing we could have gotten. It is pretty uncommon for such a tiny baby to develop a UTI. We are either really unlucky or there may be an anatomical reason for Svea to be susceptible to UTIs. The renal ultrasond ruled out any major issues, and we will be having one more test done later this week. We'll keep you posted.
Of course, four days of exposure to germs in the hospital plus very little sleep plus a whole lot of stress was the perfect recipe for me to catch a nasty cold. I am feeling pretty yucky today, but I have been able to take care of the kids needs, so things are going ok.
Ashley
IV :(
Cute little toes
Pale little baby
Soren enjoying some pizza on Friday
2 comments:
Oh wow. That IV pic is the saddest thing! Glad you guys are home and recovering now. SHeesh. Let me take Soren off your hands one of these days this week, okay?
Ashley! Talk about stress to the MAX. I'm totally stressed out just reading about it. I'm so glad everything is OK. It is hard being a mom sometimes. It's very very stressful, and I'm sure it was very tough for you to get through. I wish I had been there to help you out. Scary!
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