Shell's Journey

For anyone who has ever struggled to have a baby, knows that this is an emotional rollercoaster! Thanks for sharing the ride with us!


Tuesday, September 25, 2007

"Someone will call you back"

I havent blogged in awhile. It has been absolutely crazy at our home. The past few weeks are a blur to me. Teagan was so sick and i was so stressed that I havent had the thought to write it all down.
It started on September 11. Jeff and I took Teagan with us to a Royals baseball game. We went with my brother and sister-n-law. During the game, Teagan was extremely cuddly, she fell asleep on my chest....I thought it was sweet (she never does that!) She felt a lttle warm but I thought it was because she was laying on me and she had a sweatsuit on. When we finally got home around 11pm, she still felt warm, so I gave her some tylenol. I then decided I should probably take her temperature, just incase. I took the temp under her arm, where it soared up to 102.8.....whoa, I had always been told to add a degree....so to me she had 103.8 fever. I waited about 20 minutes, hoping the tylenol I had given her would start working. I then took her temp rectally and it was a whopping 104.3. Panic mode set in, I had never had a baby with such a high temp. I quickly called the doctor and we proceeded to put her in the tub to see if we could cool her down. The doctor called back around 12am. She stated that just to keep her comfortable, and switch to motrin, as that usually works better on fevers. We had a rought night and she never got her fever down under 102.
I called the doc in the am and they said to bring her in that afternoon. She was seen by a nurse practitioner. They decided that because she didnt have any other symptoms, they would do a urine check. The results would take 48 hours. In the meantime, she was put on Amoxicillin, hoping that would help. The NP told me she would probably run a fever for another day but would be ok......well after 2 doses of the antibiotic, she was not better and she actually seemed worse..so I called again.
We went back to the doctor. This time she was seen by another doctor. The doctor said they didnt have any results back yet but she would give her a shot of Rocephin (a powerful antibiotic)to hopefully jumpstart her getting better. They gave her the shot, then gave me a single dose of another antibiotic to give to her the next day (friday afternoon). The doctor felt that they should ahve the results back from her urine test by then and they will then prescribe the most sufficient antibiotic for her. Friday afternoon came around and I hadnt heard anything from the doctors office.....so I began calling them. The docs office does not answer the phones after 4pm and the weekend was coming, so I was getting nervous. I called the office at 3:30pm, they said they would check things and call me back. Finally got a call back, the nurse says "the results aren't in yet, so just keep her on the omnicef"....I then told her that we were only given a single dose...and she did not have any medications for the weekend. Her response was "oh, well someone will call you in the morning".....I repeated back to her "someone will call me tomorrow?" she said Yes. Well saturday morning came, Teagan seemed a little better but was still running high fever and not eating. I waited all morning for a call from the doctors office. They have urgent care from 9-11am, so I figured I would get a call after they were done seeing the patients. When I didnt get a call by 11:30am, I called the oncall number. A nurse practitioner (not the same one) called me back. I explained the situation and told her someone was supposed to call me with results of the urine test and call in a Rx. The NP said that they had already left the office for the day and she had not seen any results. I told her again that the baby had no meds and she was very sick. She said she would call me back (so sick of hearing that) She did call back and said they would call in a Rx for more omnicef. She then proceeded to tell me that when she got to the office on Sunday (1pm) she would look for the results and would call me (yeah, right). Sunday came and went, no one from the doctors office called.
On monday morning, I started calling the doctors office as soon as their phones were open. Again, I explained the situation to the nurse....."someone will call you back" ARGH!!!!!!! Finally the actual doctor called me back (2pm) and confirmed that Teagans results were in and she was indeed a very sick baby. When I told her that Teagan still had a fever, she became worried and said that she wanted to have an u/s done on her kidney today or tomorrow.....she said she would have the nurse schedule it and you guessed "call me back" At 3:30pm, I had not heard back, so knowing that the phone lines close at 4pm, I again called them. The nurse who answered tells me this "oh, well I just got the file and it just says schedule ASAP"...What does she thinks this means???? I told her that the doctor told me that she wanted it done today or tomorrow. "oh, well I will call and schedule it and (say it with me) "call you back" At 4:15pm, she called back, the u/s is scheduled for Wednesday am. Whatever.
On Tuesday, Teagan was doing tons better and only had a low-grade fever (99). Wednesday we had the u/s done and the radiologist couldnt believe that the film was from a child who was outpatient...her kidney looked pretty bad. The radiologist and the pediatrician spoke to each other and decided that since she was feeling better, she didnt need to be admitted.

Finally by Thursday, Teagan was fever free and doing much better. My girl seemed herself again. On friday the doctor called us to check on her and stated that she needed to be seen again for a recheck..
Yesterday (monday) I took her in for the re-check. Her urine was visibly better but we have to wait for lab results. She also has to have a dye-test done to check her kidney/bladder function. She has been put on antibiotics for the next 6mos to make sure she doesnt get sick again.
I am so upset by all of this. I should have just trusted my mommy instincts and taken her to the hospital, but I didnt want to be "the panicky" mom. Never again!

Her Dye test is scheduled for Oct 2.

Here is a picture of Teagan cuddling with me at the ballgame

posted by Shell at 2:05 PM comment(s) made: 0

Read & Make Comments

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, September 03, 2007

our weekend in Colorado

Me, my mom and the 2 younger kiddos spent the weekend visiting my brother in Colorado springs. Lots of fun, glad to be home though!!!

posted by Shell at 9:45 PM comment(s) made: 0

Read & Make Comments

--------------------------------------------------------------------