Update on Kendall

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers... again.  Kendall is doing well and except for being in the hospital, you'd never know she was sick.  Things aren't all sunshine and lolly pops, though.

We're still trying to figure out why the bacteria came back.  I have my suspicions about the whole thing because the ONLY thing that has shown the bacteria is the first culture that was pulled when we came to the ER on Tuesday night.  They've drawn blood twice since then and everything is coming back normal.  Both doctors did say it's possible the antibiotics starting working that quickly and that's why all of the cultures have come back negative since but still, it makes you wonder if there's really something there or if the first culture was just contaminated?

Everyone has said that it's extremely uncommon for the bacteria to come back once it's been treated once.  The doctors have a few theories:

1. The original infection never cleared.  This seems to be unlikely because they cultured her blood and spinal fluid before discharging her after the meningitis.
2. The blood clot that developed in her leg could have contained a colony of bacteria.  As the blood clot dissolved, it could have released the bacteria back into her blood stream where it continued to multiple until she got sick again.  This seems like the most viable theory to me.

The doctors have ordered test after test to try to find the source.  She received another MRI of her brain to see if there were abscesses from the meningitis and that came back normal.  Now, they are concentrating on her right hip and thinking she may have an infection in her bone.  She received a bone scan yesterday afternoon and it did show an area in her hip joint that absorbed the contrast dye more than any other areas.  The doctor warned that bone scans are typically very non-specific so it's not conclusive.  She has ordered an MRI of Kendall's pelvic area to see if that shows anything.

If it turns out to be an infection in her bone, she'll be in the hospital for up to 6 weeks.  That presents several issues and concerns.  She has such small veins that they are already having a hard time keeping her IV going.  It's in her scalp right now because the vein in her arm blew the other night.  We might be able to keep going with the periphereal IVs if she's only here another week but any longer than that, and we'll have to consider a longer-term solution such as the PICC line or central line.  You may remember she didn't do well after the central line was put in last time and developed that blood clot. 

The other issue is her length of time in the hospital.  Right now, she's in the hospital where they were born and it's only 5 minutes from our house.  She's in a private room which is allowing my husband and I to stay with her longer and to spend nights.  If she has a long-term IV placed, she'll be transferred back to the hospital that treated her meningitis.  That hospital is about 45 minutes from our house and she'd be sharing a room with another child.  It's not very accomodating for parents.

The other issue (and a blessing) is that DH finally got a job offer and will be starting that within the next few weeks.  We're hoping after the holidays but he'll start whenever they request.  I'm so thankful he's been home this whole time (remember his company was sold and he's been on severance since the end of September).  When he returns to work, I'll be watching the kids until I go back to work on February 1st.  If Kendall is tranferred to that other hospital, it doesn't allow us a lot of time to see her.  I'll be watching Christopher during the day and then it's possible that only one of us could visit her at night.

DH & I are holding up OK during all of this.  We're like ships passing in the night.  I've been staying with her during the day and then he spends the night with her. I'm praying the MRI doesn't show anything and she'll be home with us by Christmas.  I can't imagine having to do this for another 4-5 weeks.   I know her health is most important and we want to get this under control so she's not back in here but it's so frustrating.  We waited so long to have a baby and I feel like we're being robbed of all of that family bonding.  It just wasn't supposed to be like this.