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| Dr Miller |
We had such a fun weekend last weekend. We went to stay at our good friends house with two other families for the 4th of July. There were 6 adults and 7 kids. We were outnumbered and we had so much fun. On our way home on Saturday we stopped by Lake Kachees and threw rocks in the water for a few hours. It was such a great weekend.
Then at 3am on Sunday morning McKinley woke up uncomfortable. Her pain got increasingly worse and at 4:30am she started throwing up. She had a fever and was complaining of severe abdominal pain. We called our pediatrician and he recommended we take her to the ER. So, off we went. After 5hrs in the ER they diagnosed her with a UTI and sent her home with some antibiotics. But the pain wouldn't go away. By 7pm that night she was in excruciating pain and had a 106.3 temp. Talk about being freaked out! We stripped her down, jumped in the car and rushed to the hospital, getting puked on the whole way there. The ER Dr's sprung into action once they saw us and that began some of the most difficult days we've seen McKinley have. The Dr's decided that she had a kidney infection which for McKinley, with only having one kidney and the one she does have is multicystic dysplastic, this was really not good. I was doing ok until I heard a Dr describe her as critically ill and decided to have the Risk nurse from the ICU check on her for 3 nights straight. That might have been the beginning of my breaking point. For days her fever would spike to 105 and we would pack her in ice. She was on a constant regime of Tylenol and Oxycodone to try to control her fevers and her pain. Her IV's wouldn't stay in but her IV antibiotics were crucial so she would get poked over and over again for hours, and for some reason always at like, 2 in the morning. Her veins are all pretty much worthless right now, they've all been poked too much.
Being in the hospital with an almost 3 year old is way different from being in the hospital with a 6 month old, or even a 2 year old. She is so aware of what is going on around her. She is very cautious around the Dr's, or anyone wearing blue gloves and tends to not tell them how she really feels because she's afraid they're going to hurt her if she does. She communicates so well how she is feeling and what hurts, and it breaks your heart when you can't fix it.
We were admitted Sunday night (Monday morning) and not until today (Friday) have we begun to see the light at the end of the tunnel. She hasn't had a fever for 36 hours and her pain seems to be subsiding.
What is still unknown is how much damage has this done to her kidney. How likely is this to happen again? Is this the beginning of her kidney failing and are we going to be looking at a transplant sooner than we had hoped? All of these questions scare me, and probably can't totally be answered by the Dr's. We have had such an incredible past year, to the point where I had almost forgotten McKinley was sick at all. I don't like being reminded that she is sick.
As always our INCREDIBLE friends and family have stepped up to care for us while we have unexpectedly checked into hotel Children's. Katie has organized meals, Jenn had brought us food and shampoo (this was a crucial need for me by day 4!), Alison & Matt brought the most awesome goody bag of treats, Kristin and Sue have brought us amazing meals, Cerissa & Beau, Jenn & Stephen, Mike & Sue, Nana & Papa, Heather and Tony's coworkers have sent flowers, stuffed animals, books, tutus and the most incredibly awesome balloons we have ever seen! McKinley's room has gone from being depressing and decorated with IV poles and monitors to being overwhelmed with color and cheer. Every single gift she has received has brightened her mood and brought a smile to her face, which is priceless to her mommy and daddy.
As of this morning the Dr's are talking about discharging her tomorrow! If she can keep her temp down and her vitals good then we should be out of here, just one day shy of a week! She most likely will come home on a permanent antibiotic and have some more testing done to see if/what we can do to prevent this from happening again in the future. For her health and all of our sanity we cannot have this happen again!
As always, thank you all for your kind words on Facebook, by text message or voice mail and above all else, your prayers! McKinley is once again astounding us all by bouncing back from something that was very, very scary. I truly believe a lot of the credit is due to all of you, who stop everything to care for her and her family, and pray! That and her incredible strong will and feisty spirit...
