Busy 24 hrs for our Luke. Haylen noticed that he was too warm and his heart rate too fast (2 key symptoms of compensation by our body). She and the kind, pregant Rn watching Luke requested a Complete Blood Count (CBC) and he in fact had an infection. So then an IV goes in and a catheter to see if he has an Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) - yep, hes got that.
A few antibiotics and an uncomfortable lumbar puncture (to rule out meningitis - which we discovered he does not have), and now he is resting easy with a ticket to the NICU until next Thursday.
Haylen is a good clinician and she knew that for everyone elses kids - you need a CBC, Lumbar puncture and urine sample to diagnose and treat. NOT easy, as we found, to do for your own kid. The single most anxiety producing event we have experienced yet.
Objectively, he is in the right place, getting the right care, at the right time, with the right clinicians. Emotionally, however, we are hung-over. Luke is tired but eating, breathing easy on his own (no support needed), and appreciates his parents attention. His dad has 3 years experience in working with clinicians on preventing the serious consequences of infection (sepsis) and no clinician working with Luke was unclear about what to do if things took a turn. Dad was with him for every proceedure to soothe the little guy. Luke was so brave and barely reacted to the pokes.
Luke's Mom was very astute about his condition, and saved her boy from a painful, fiery infection in his kidney (which would have first shown up as breathing issues). Haylen is a hero! The staff at the unit have been great! We are next tackling all the noise in there -going straight to top to quiet things down in there. After all we will be there all week!
Nothing to be nervous about anymore, Luke is good and will only get better. Just delayed until next Thursday when his antibiotics will be done.
A few antibiotics and an uncomfortable lumbar puncture (to rule out meningitis - which we discovered he does not have), and now he is resting easy with a ticket to the NICU until next Thursday.
Haylen is a good clinician and she knew that for everyone elses kids - you need a CBC, Lumbar puncture and urine sample to diagnose and treat. NOT easy, as we found, to do for your own kid. The single most anxiety producing event we have experienced yet.
Objectively, he is in the right place, getting the right care, at the right time, with the right clinicians. Emotionally, however, we are hung-over. Luke is tired but eating, breathing easy on his own (no support needed), and appreciates his parents attention. His dad has 3 years experience in working with clinicians on preventing the serious consequences of infection (sepsis) and no clinician working with Luke was unclear about what to do if things took a turn. Dad was with him for every proceedure to soothe the little guy. Luke was so brave and barely reacted to the pokes.
Luke's Mom was very astute about his condition, and saved her boy from a painful, fiery infection in his kidney (which would have first shown up as breathing issues). Haylen is a hero! The staff at the unit have been great! We are next tackling all the noise in there -going straight to top to quiet things down in there. After all we will be there all week!
Nothing to be nervous about anymore, Luke is good and will only get better. Just delayed until next Thursday when his antibiotics will be done.
Details for those who are interested: His CBC had 16% neutrophil banding (>10pct is a sign of infection), he is on amipicillin and gentimyacin 7 days IV and will leave with oral 3 day course. IV in, csf was clear and had no bacteria, urine was turbid and had bacilli present. Brokars have a family history of urethral reflux which most grow out of.. continued infections could lead to kidney issues so we will continue to monitor and treat as necessary
No comments:
Post a Comment