Your Prayers Are Working!

Thank you so much to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.  They are working!

Kendall was moved out of the PICU last night and into a regular bed in the pediatrics ward.  Her vitals have remained stable and she is now off oxygen.  She's still getting 2 antibiotics every 6  hours.  Her color has come back now but I can tell she still isn't herself.  She's 1,000 times better than Friday night but it's only been 4 days and she still seems weak and fussy.

Our biggest obstacle right now is keeping an IV in tact.  When she was admitted, they put the IV in her arm but that fell out last night.  The doctor explained to me they like to insert a PICC line when they expect to do fluids and/or antibiotics for an extended period of time.  We know she'll be on antibiotics for at least 2 weeks.  A PICC line is another IV line that is inserted in the arm and feeds into a larger vein in the chest, near the heart. The PICC team evaluated her and said she wasn't a candidate because her veins are too small.  They consulted with the NICU but it sounds like they are completely overwhelmed and didn't want to "treat" a patient that wasn't in their area (risk of infection, taking something back from Peds to the NICU, etc.). 

So, tomorrow morning, they will do another procedure that will be similar to a PICC line and they're hoping to insert a line near her subclavian vein or in her groin.  They will need to sedate her so she doesn't move during the procedure but there shouldn't be any major complications from it.

I still don't have a timeline for when she might come home.  At one point, the doctor said if they could get the PICC line in, she could potentially come home on Saturday and they would let us administer the 2nd week of antibiotics from home.  With this other line, I don't know if that's still a possibility.

They also did another spinal tap last night to see if the fluid is becoming sterile and is clear of bacteria.  As of this afternoon, it wasn't growing anything but the doctor said it's not conclusive until closer to 48 hours so we should know something by tomorrow morning or afternoon.  If the fluid is sterile, she'll go down to one antibiotic which will mean less blood draws and less fluid being pushed through the IV.

The highlight of my day yesterday was the doctor's response to my question, "Do you expect her to have any long-term effects"?  He said he thinks we caught it early enough and that they've been able to stay ahead of it so he thinks she'll make a full recovery with no side effects.  Of course, only time will tell if he's right but it was reassuring nonetheless.

We've been keeping a close eye on Christopher since we don't know if Kendall got the Strep B from me or environmentally.  So far, he hasn't shown any symptoms.  We did have some baseline blood drawn on Monday and we should get the results of that tomorrow. Since we haven't heard anything by now, I'm assuming it came back fine. 

I definitely feel like I have been initiated into the world of motherhood.  But, seriously?  We couldn't get a cold or ear infection first?! It had to be a life-threatening infection? 

I hope I NEVER have to endure another night like that night.  The feelings of helplessness and fear were overwhelming.  She was so sick and I couldn't help her.  Thank God for the doctors and nurses that were in the ER that night.  They recognized it was an infection within 20 minutes of seeing her and started her on antibiotics immediately.  I'm convinced that saved her life.