update...

Claire had quite the day yesterday. She was needing a diaper change about every hour, so they decided to take out the IV yesterday about 5pm, but leave the port so they could inject her antibiotics. She still had a leash, though. The oxygen level/heart monitor was left on, so she could only walk about 5 feet in our tiny room. She was bouncing off the walls! It was very hard to contain her from pulling off her tethers. She wanted out, out, out! Obviously a sign of improvement.

Anthony, Camilla and Miles stopped by last night with a doctor's kit for Claire. It had a stethoscope in it. What an idea! She wasn't nearly as spooked of that this morning! Miles was a riot! He was so happy. A nice change.

It was not as hard to leave her last night to go to sleep because she had been so whiny all day. I was ready for a break.

She slept like a log. When they came in to inject her antibiotics, she went right back to sleep. Not a peep. Not even after they drew blood at 4am. Nick held her tight. She didn't scream or fight like she has before.

I got a call at about 630am to tell me that her potassium was looking high and that the doctor would like another blood draw...sigh. So, at about 7:30, we did another one. She had a few shouts to the mean ladies poking her again from her sleep, but one tear and she was done.

She's been itching like crazy. We finally had to cover every body part we could so that she wouldn't be able to itch as easily. She drew blood a couple of times. Benadryl doesn't help. There was even an anti-itch med in her IV, but it hasn't touched it. I'm sure a bath will help, but that's not allowed until she has no IV.

Doctor Stevens came in about 8:30 with the results:

-CRP (the inflammatory one) is down to an 8. They feel confident that it will continue to drop.
-White blood cells are normal from this morning's blood draw.
-Blood culture hasn't proven to have too much bacteria in it (phew).
-Spinal culture is normal (phew).
-Nasal culture is normal (phew).
-Urine culture is growing like crazy! But of the four cultures they were trying to grow, this is probably the best outcome. They still don't know what it is specifically, that comes later, but the infection looks to have stemmed from the urine. This is so interesting to me because I can remember that when she went to the bathroom in the last few days was when she was feeling the best.

They want to check the cultures one more time, so we will be going home this evening or tomorrow morning if everything continues to improve.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, prayers and fastings. My daddy (who is diabetic) even fasted and was all shaky and sweaty before he broke it. I know it's sacrifices like this that really turn the Lord's ear, head, heart, whatever. Thank you, thank you, thank you.


Love,
-Nick, deb, Claire and M#2 (Monster #2)