Possible Infection
Shirley had a long and eventful night. We were up until midnight and decided to stay the night here sensing that it was going to be an active one. Around 3am Shirley spiked another fever just over 101. They pulled all the stops this time. It was pretty much non-stop activity from 3 to 8am. Shirley wasn't the most cooperative and just getting an IV placed took a considerable amount of time. Two nurses and a few pokes later they were finally able to get into a vein that would draw. They swabbed her nose and throat and tried to place a catheter for a urine sample. The urine sample was also very hard to come by. They wanted to start a broad spectrum antibiotic at 6am but didn't want to begin until after they had urine. One more try for a catheter at 8am worked out well and got enough to send to the lab. Her nose and throat swabs came back negative but her blood did show very high levels of c-reactive protein (CRP) which is an inflammation marker and also a good indicator of a possible infection. Still waiting on the full blood results but the initial urine sample came back positive for leukocytes and protein. Lets hope that it is as simple as a UTI. The complete urine and blood results will hopefully single something out. Until then, she is on a very broad spectrum antibiotic that will be changed out for something more specific once her results are in. Thanks for praying for our little girl.
Short Day
I wrote the first half of this post at 10am, it's now 9pm and I'm going to try to finish. Shirley responded almost immediately to the antibiotics. Her fever subsided and she slept the majority of the day. She was pretty much crying for 6 straight hours this morning so you can imagine how exhausted she was. There was a slim chance that she could have had an infection in her heart tissue and an echo revealed nothing. There was also the possibility that her heart was failing which could cause the temp and tachycardia but the echo showed no signs of decreased function beyond what she already has. Although her complete labs are not back yet they are pretty confident that she has a UTI and that the first dose of antibiotics hit it pretty hard. They are going to continue antibiotics for 48 hours.
Family and Friends
We almost canceled Shirley's visitors today but her Uncle John, Aunt Tish and baby cousin Lillie Belle traveled from San Diego to see her. She was either going to get worse from her infection or get better and we thought either way they should just come see the little girl. Some family friends also stopped by to say "hello." We had a few games of cribbage, doted on Shirley, and ate dinner.
Scare
Last night was scary but the nurses and doctors taking care of Shirley are amazing. They also let me be involved in almost every situation. I had a role throughout the entire night/morning and didn't want to be anywhere but next to Shirley. It was very difficult but it was also another good experience. There was nothing we could do to actually make Shirley better so we prayed... a lot. Last night and this morning proved to be the most difficult day for me. Surgery was a difficult time but it wasn't as scary. Surgery seemed so much more controlled and the outcomes so well explained. Last night was just tense, waiting on answers, and praying that it wasn't a worst case scenario. The sadness of thinking that her best days are behind us and that it was possible that these events could be the end. Those are the scariest thoughts I've ever had and it felt like a heavy weight on my chest. It's strange to me, but for whatever reason when I think of losing Shirley what scares me the most is not being able to look her into her eyes and tell her I love her. Her eyes have such a unique grip on me that I can't bear the thought of not being able to stare into them.
As I write this now Shirley is sleeping peacefully in her bed as if nothing ever happened and we went through the day almost as if last night was just a very bad dream.
Here are some pictures from this evening just after her bath. She looks like the Shirley we know so well, alert and content.
-Joseph
