Back to the ER!
Well I got my answer to the question "When will the next crisis happen?" The answer was yesterday. Corey was so upset, just inconsolable, all morning yesterday. That's unlike him for that time of day. Normally he is awake and alert, and perhaps mildly fussy, but not crying and screaming and carrying on. We noticed that he felt hot, so we took his temperature under his arm - 100.2. I called the pediatrician on call for the weekend. She told me to take his temperature rectally, and if it was 100.4 or greater, to take him to the ER.We took it rectally, and it was 102.0. We called Dr. Spevak on his cell phone, and he told us to bring him to the ER. We gave Corey some Motrin, and so he was much less fussy by the time we got him to the ER. The doctors decided to draw blood for labs and urine by catheterization to see if a bacterial infection was causing the fever. They also wanted to give him IV fluids. First they stuck the cath in his tiny peter. Poor baby! Then they attempted to get blood and run the IV. The first tech stuck him, he screamed and cried, and she had no luck. A second tech stuck him, again had no luck, and again he screamed and cried. Then the ER doc decided to do an arterial stick in his tiny wrist - yet ANOTHER damn stick and no blood! I was ready to string these people up by their toes. Watching Corey get continually poked and poked just breaks my heart. Finally they did a fourth stick and were able to get the blood, but no IV was run.
After all of this, they tell me that the blood has clotted and they don't have enough urine. They wanted to cath him AGAIN. I said forget it. He'd been through enough. They were able to culture his blood, and they'll be able to tell me if there was bacteria in his blood today. If that is the case, we'll have to go in for an intense 14 days of antibiotics. They did give him a double dose of a major antibiotic to be on the safe side. One stick in each of his two thighs. That was possibly the worst. After everything, just when we got him lulled to sleep in our arms, they woke him up and gave him the shots. That was the biggest of all his screams. But we finally were able to take him home.
I have a follow-up appointment with Dr. McKay for an evaluation and another dose of the general antibiotic. And we're giving him Motrin every 6 hours. I took his temperature rectally this morning, though, and it was 99.7, so I'm hoping that we're moving in the right direction.
Timeline: Related Entries