Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Update Number Two

Thanks to Christie's generosity, I am able to email you all from her laptop here in the hospital.

We have just spoken to the pediatrician and there is a very strong chance that Masyn will be able to come home tomorrow. She just has to make it through the next 24 hours without getting a fever .....

Her body is responding well to the antibiotics and she is starting to show signs of our happy little Masyn again. The ultrasound has come back indicating that her right kidney was full and that the lining was a little thick. This could be a result of the infection but the doctors feel that it is likely that she has Vessico Ureteral Reflux. This is basically where her urinary tract is a little immature and could be refluxing back into a kidney when sending the pee down the chute. We will be able to determine for sure if this is the problem by getting a Voiding Cysto Urethrogram (VCUG) in a couple of weeks. This test is done by sending dye via a catheter up her urethra and then a series of x-rays will be taken to follow the path up to the kidneys. If there is reflux action, it will be seen via this test. Because she is so young, there is no real procedure to correct this problem other than waiting it out and letting her outgrow it. It could take up to 2 years for that to happen. During that time, she will have to undergo urine samples every couple of months just to monitor that another infection doesn't happen.

In the short term, if she is able to come home tomorrow, she will be on strong oral antibiotics for the next 10 days, then will continue to take a lower dosage of antibiotics up until we can get the VCUG test done. The pediatrician has put her saline IV on the lowest drop today to try and get her body to start eating again. The last couple of days she has had little to no appetite resulting in her losing about 6 ozs in weight. If we can get her food intake back to about 2/3 of her usual intake, it gives her reasons to get out of the hospital all that much more.

That is it for today unless something is to come up. Thanks again to everyone for their well wishes!! Hope that you are all doing well and I will be sure to visit everyone soon to see what kinds of exciting things are going on in your lives.

5 comments:

Stephanie Wilson she/her @babysteph said...

I am glad to hear the update and hope all is smooth sailing here on out. I hope you are getting some rest!

Steph

Goofball said...

oh Allie, so great that Masyn reacts well to her treatments and that the doctors are digging out the problem to the bottom! And so great to hear that Christie flew over to help out. What a great sister!

And it would be great if Masyn could come home that soon. That really means that she is recovering well and it is so good for you all to have her at home!

I am so glad that you found the time to give us the updates.

About the seisures...Stef has had seisures from high fever spikes as well once a year ago and so far they have not come back but they could. But I am not going to try to explain anything about that as I am sure that Stephanie can give much better info about that topic than I can.

Also give Kaelen a big hug from me, it must be pretty confusing for him too and I am sure he misses his little sister as hell.

Andrea said...

Wow...what a crazy week you have had! I'm glad that things are starting to look better though! :) And I pray that Masyn will be able to come home tomorrow...it's no fun being in the hospital!

Jenn said...

Hey Allie,

Glad to hear that things are getting better. I'll gladly come and do the VCUG with you. E-mail me the date and I'll be there.

If it makes you feel any better, it is fairly normal for kids valves not to be fully developed. We actually do about 5 VCUG's everyday at the Childrens. I know it doesn't make it any easier when you are going through it, but have some comfort that the people you are talking to deal with this stuff all the time. Like you said in most cases the valves develop in the next couple of years. In some ways it's good that this is the problem, because it can easily be fixed.

It must be so great to have a private room too. And your sister is so amazing to come out. You are a lucky lady to have such a great sister.

Jenn

Anonymous said...

Isn't it wonderful to have Dr.'s around who can help us? So glad to hear she may be home soon. Still praying for you all!