the hospital revisited

We have been hangin' out at Children's hospital for the past week with Sasha who has a urine & kidney infection. The good news is she is doing super and is recovering nicely. The bad news is only that we'll be here until Saturday the 24th.

Last week I thought I had "cooked" our little one when we were out for a long walk on a hot day. I thought we were both overheated from her being next to me in the snuggly. But afer the second day when she was still very warm I took her temperature and found she had a fever. At first it seemed it was going down on it's own, but then it went back up so I got her to the hospital asap on Wednesday morning.

I was feeling pretty guilt ridden and thought I had damaged her myself, but it turned out she had an infection which we could not have done anything to prevent. I've been told repeatedly that these kind of infections are a luck based phenom...you either get them or you don't - and they are very common. Not that this made me feel much better! It turns out that boys often get these in their first month of life, but it is a problem for girls from the 2nd month on (I actually had a urine & kidney infection when I was in high school). Yet another thing women have to deal with that men don't. Until they are really old...then it switches back to a male problem. Very strange.

I must say I'm very impressed with the level of care she has received here at Children's! From the moment I brought her to emergency (thanks to her Uncle Heath who 'delivered' us here!) she was instantly the recipient of much attention as everyone worked quickly to determine what was causing her fever. They take fever in babies very seriously and she was put through a battery of tests in no time with a high level of TLC from the ER staff.

Once the type of infection was determined she was instantly put on antibiotics and we were admitted to our own room for our stay here. We had to wait for further test results to find out the exact bug we were contending with. It turns out that 90% of these types of infections are caused by E Coli, and 10 % from three other types of bugs...and wouldn't you know Sasha has one of the 3 super bugs!

Her meds were switched and she has been doing great since the antibiotics began entering her system the first day we were here. Today is day 5. She has had many tests done - ultrasound, ECG, and many others...for a while she was radioactive baby even! - to rule out any possible damage the infection may have caused as well, and it looks like ridding her of the bug is the only challenge we have yet to face.

Though it looks like we will be here until the weekend there is still a chance we might be released earlier. They want to ensure the super bug has been flushed from her system before we head home so we need to stay for the full course of antibiotics. The jury is till out on how long this will take. We are waiting for further test results and should know definitively sometime Monday.

I'm certainly not looking forward to another 5 days here, but at least she is getting super care from the nursing staff and the pediatric team who are looking out for her. Everyone has been really amazing here and I am grateful for their care. We also don't want to take her home before knowing for sure that she is perfectly healthy again.

I'm also grateful to our visitors who help keep my positive energy replenished! Words can't express how nice it is to have company in this place. I only have the smallest idea of what it is like for parents who's children need long term care (for any reason), yet still can't imagine what it is like when what your child is going through isn't "normal". If there is anything we have been fortunate with it is that everything Sasha has been through has been totally 'common' and 'easy to treat'. (Jaundice and now the infections) Yet this is still the hardest thing I've ever been through!

Once we are home again I will post more pictures and provide another update. I can't wait for you all to see how gorgeous she is when she smiles...which she is now doing on a regular basis! :)