*FYI: This is a bit of a lengthy post*
The title of this post is a bit of and understatement... in my opinion at least. Yesterday was an awful day. Claire had her 2-month well baby check-up scheduled for early yesterday afternoon. I had called the pediatrician's office the day before to give them the phone number for the Logan Regional Hospital so they could request her medical records (more on that will come in a later post!) from her trip to the ER while we were in Utah. I asked to speak with the same nurse I had been checking in with while we were in Utah. I ended up with a different nurse on the phone, but she assured me she would request the medical records and answer any questions I had at the time. I told her about Claire's UTI and that her blood culture came back positive for E-Coli. I informed her she was on an antibiotic and wanted to know if the doctor would want us to come in that day, or wait until her scheduled appointment the following day. She told us to wait. OK. Then I asked if Claire would be having a repeat of her cultures to see if the infections were gone (these tests are hard for a mommy to watch her 2-month old go through, so I wanted to be mentally and emotionally prepared). She said no. We'd have to wait until she was off the antibiotic so we would have an accurate reading. OK.
Now I have to back up a bit to Wednesday. Our dog, Jasper, who we've had for 5 years went missing on Wednesday. Justin said he was acting strange all day Tuesday, and then Wednesday morning he was gone, and we hadn't seen him since.
So, I had made arrangements with my friend Kadie to keep Grace while I took Claire to her doctor's appointment. After dropping Grace off I was headed back toward town to get on the highway to Longview when I noticed something on the side of the road. It didn't register with me until a few seconds after I had passed it. What I had seen was Jasper. He had been hit by a car and was dead. I immediately called Justin to let him know. We couldn't believe it. He was several miles from our house. We have no idea what he was doing that far away. He never wanders away from our yard. We are so sad. We got Jasper when we moved to Wisconsin when he was only eight weeks old. The hardest part is that he was Grace's best friend. She loved him so much. She would play in the backyard with him for hours. She keeps asking to play with Jasper (*tear*) and stands at the window saying, "Jasper, bye-bye?" It's heartbreaking.
Now, back to the doctor's appointment. When Dr. Chaiken came in we talked about Claire's UTI and after a moment I realized she had no idea Claire also had a blood bacteria. She was shocked. Logan Regional did not include the blood culture results in the information they sent her. She was livid! Apparently, Claire should've been admitted to the hospital and put on IV antibiotics no matter what if she had a positive blood culture. She was also really ticked off at the nurse I spoke to because the E-Coli in the blood should have been a red flag for her to inform Dr. Chaiken immediately, which she obviously didn't do. Dr. Chaiken also said she would have insisted on seeing Claire the day before, but the nurse told me to wait until our regularly scheduled appointment. The nurse also misinformed me about the repeat cultures. Claire would be having them done that day, and the antibiotics she's on would not alter the outcome of the tests. Yay. I wasn't prepared for my baby to go through all that. Dr. Chaiken was on a man-hunt to find out which nurse I spoke to. I'm pretty sure the unemployment rate just went up. So, not only did Claire have to have a catheter urine test AND her blood drawn, but she also had to get 3 shots in her thighs. It was horrible. I had to hold her tiny little body down and try to comfort her while they pricked and poked her. The nurse wasn't very happy about it either. As soon as she finished with the shots she was outta there, practically in tears herself.
Now we're waiting on the results of the cultures. If the blood culture comes back positive Claire will be admitted to the hospital and put on IV antibiotics and possibly have to have a spinal tap. If the urine culture is positive (which we don't think it will be) she will do another round of antibiotics. As soon as we get a negative urine culture Claire will be scheduled for a renal ultrasound and a voiding cystourethrogram, or VCUG. Because of her age, the UTI may indicate a bladder reflux problem. Sometimes the valve at the top of the bladder doesn't function properly and urine will reflux back into the kidneys and cause infection. Depending on the severity of the reflux she will either be prescribed a daily antibiotic for 6 months, or need surgery to correct the problem. We're praying that there isn't anything wrong with her bladder or kidneys.
So there you have our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
Grace and Jasper... Best buddies
Claire with her battle wounds
Once it was all over and she had a bottle, she was a pretty happy baby.
