Living in the Hospital!

The whole month of October was pretty much spent in the hospital. On Tuesday, October 7, I went to pick Braxley up at Ms. Joanne's around 5:00 when I got off of work. I brought her home and it should've been time for her to eat, but she would not hardly eat at all. I noticed she was burning up with a fever. The week prior, Braylor had the flu. Dr. Myers had prescribed Braxley some tamiflu when he prescribed Braylor's to give to her as a preventative in hopes that she would not get it. My first thought was that now she had the flu. Since all the doctors' offices were closed, I went straight to the ER. I figured it would be a quick visit....they would say she had the flu, give her some medicine, and we would come back home. Boy was I wrong! We get there and they immediately want to do all kinds of tests. I told them to just do the flu test, because I really believed that's what it was, and if it came back negative, I would allow them to do the other tests. It came back negative! They immediately started poking her to get blood, got a catheter urine sample, and Xrays of her chest. Her fever was climbing by the minute! The ER doctor admitted that this was over his head, and was 3-way calling the pediatricians at Flowers and at Children's. The results of her tests showed that she had bacteria in her urine and very high liver enzymes. This concerned them because she was only 7 weeks old. They thought it would be best if she was sent to Children's in Birmingham immediately on the ambulance. This scared me to death!

 They tried and tried to get an IV going, but the needles were too big and her veins kept blowing. So finally, they gave up thankfully. We get to Birmingham in 2 hours on the ambulance! Thankfully, Heather met me up there to help me, because Brady stayed home with Braylor. They immediately take her in to the Special Care Unit, and want to get a lumbar puncture (spinal tap), and they had to put the IV in her head because she had no good veins left after all the pokes she had at the ER. They did every test imaginable, and her fever got really high!

The next day, after being on IV antibiotics and Tylenol, her fever was gone. Brady came, and Heather left. We were moved to a regular room, and she got an ultrasound on her kidneys. The ultrasound showed that her right kidney had "hydronephrosis," which is basically swelling of the kidney. We met with Dr. Kitchens, the urologist, and he explained why that might be. She was diagnosed with a UTI.  He scheduled us to come back in November to get a VCUG done to see what was causing her to have UTI's at such a young age. This is a dye test that would be used to show if she has renal reflux. We went home on an antibiotic after 48 hours, and all was better!

A week later, she woke during the night burning up with a fever. Brady took her to Dr. Myers the next morning. He is thinking something is wrong since we have been on antibiotics, but yet she still gets sick. He admitted her to Flowers in Dothan. He also did the lumbar puncture. All of this happened while I was at work and a nervous wreck! I couldn't even work out the Math problems correctly on the board because my mind was not at school....it was with Braxley! I ended up leaving at 11:30 and met them at the hospital in Dothan. When I got there, they were doing another ultrasound on her kidneys because the urine that Dr. Myers took looked cloudy. We then went back to the room, she got hooked to an IV, and they immediately started antibiotics again and fluids. Her fever went down, she got better, and all of her tests were coming back normal. We had several visitors. Gaga spent the night with me the first night down there. Mimmie came and stayed all day Friday, and Aunt Jonnie Jo stopped by. Nana and Papa came Friday night along with Aunt Eleanor and Rex. Bro. Glenn and Mrs. Carol came and brought a goody basket, Mrs. Sandi Merrill came and brought a goody basket, and Mrs. Rhonda Andrews and Mr. Girtman's sister who works at the hospital stopped by. Erica and the kids and Heather and Erin stopped by Saturday before we were released to go home. Brady had already left because he had to get home to watch Alabama football!! . All the tests came back normal, she was feeling fine and gaining weight, so we were released to go home Saturday afternoon! One of the main differences between Flowers and Children's was that Flowers fed me, and I had a bed to sleep in! The doctors and nurses were not near as good, though.

A week later was like a repeat of the previous weeks. She again woke up during the night, and had a low fever. Brady took her to Dr. Myers the next day, which was a Thursday morning. It was actually a follow up visit from the hospital stay the week before. He mentioned that Braxley had a low grade fever. Dr. Myers concluded that it must just be a side effect of the antibiotic she was on, because that was a listed side effect. That night, she had a fever again, but it was higher. We went ahead and sent her to Ms. Joanne the next morning. When I picked her up that afternoon, Ms. Joanne said something was just not right. She was burning up with a fever, so I drove straight to Dr. Myers. He checked her out, and was praying it was something simple like an ear infection. It wasn't. He said something is just not right if she keeps getting sick. He thought it best that we go to Birmingham again. I told him I was not leaving Birmingham this time until we KNEW what was wrong and had some answers! In the meantime, Brady is calling me because Braylor "locked" him out of the house!!! Perfect timing! So, while all of this is going on, Brady is calling like crazy, needing me to come on home and let him in the house, because Braylor is in there by himself! I finally get home around 6:00, and let him in. We immediately pack our bags and Braylor's bags and head to Birmingham. We planned to meet Nana and Papa in Union Springs, and drop Braylor off with them. When we met up with them, we handed them Braylor, but somehow managed to leave his bag with all of his belongings in the car. I thought Brady put it in their car, and he thought I did. Boy, did I get cussed out good on the way up there after it was realized!!! We finally get to Birmingham around 10:00 pm. We go in through the ER and have to wait for a while to see a doctor and get to a room. It was after midnight before we were seen. We tell the same story we have been telling; however, this time, we refuse to leave without getting answers, and we make this well known. We requested to have the same team of doctors that we had last time, since they were familiar with Braxley's history. They came around the next morning and drew blood and ran all kinds of tests, but again, we would not get most results for 48 hours, and since it was a weekend, it would be Monday before we would know anything. Brady went home Saturday because he just had to watch the Alabama game. Thankfully, Aunt Steph came up, though, and we had so much fun watching 2 different games on 2 different TVs simultaneously! We also ordered Domino's pizza! She also taught me how to SnapChat while she was there. We were sad to see her go Sunday!

I took off and stayed Monday. Brady came up that afternoon after work just in time for Dr. Kitchens and the team of doctors to make their rounds. An ultrasound and a VCUG was scheduled. The results showed that she has Renal Reflux on the right side, which is where her ureter tube is not routed correctly and her teetee doesn't go out correctly on that side but instead refluxes back up which causes bacteria to fester and cause UTI. Her reflux was rated a grade 4 with 5 being the worse. The bacteria that was found in her urine can only be treated by IV at her age because the only antibiotic that can treat it is not safe for children under 1. So, we had to stay long enough to run the full course of antibiotics through IV. I went home and went to work Tuesday, and came back immediately after work and stayed Wednesday and Thursday. Brady and Nana came Thursday after Brady got off work and they stayed that night and Friday which was Halloween. I was so, so sad that I would miss Braxley's first Halloween. I was so excited about her little crochet mermaid costume! We knew Braylor would really enjoy trick-or-treating this year, and I didn't want to miss that. Thankfully, Brady dressed Braxley up in her costume, entered her in the costume contest at Children's and she WON!

 Braylor LOVED trick or treating too, but my heart yearned for my family to be together. I joined Brady Saturday morning and we were waiting for a plan of action to take with us so that another hospital trip would not happen. Sunday morning, we were given an action plan and were released to go home. We were to give Braxley antibiotics daily to prevent UTI. If she were to have more UTI, which she will, Dr. Myers would give a shot of Rocephin and Genomicen, and wait for the urine cultures to show which antibiotic would be the best treatment. We would keep a close watch on the effect of everything on her kidney by having several ultrasounds, and in a year, we will come back and have another VCUG. Most kids grow out of this condition the older they get, as their body grows upright and their organs have more room to stretch out. However, if they don't, surgery is an option, and it corrects the condition 97% of the time. We can only pray she outgrows it or that the surgery will work. This was definitely the most trying time of our lives and the most tired I have ever been! We were so blessed with prayers and generosity of so many. Although I felt the situation was so bad, I constantly reminded myself that it could have been SO much worse....especially as I looked around and saw all the kids with cancer and situations where there was no hope. This was just another trial and we endured! Thank you Lord for your blessings!