we're home...

Hello!

So yesterday, after Claire's first 2 hour nap of the day, she ate almost a whole French toast! First thing she's eaten besides a few fruit snacks here and there. Go CMonster! Then she finally was so tired (again) that she fussed, fussed, fussed. We had to ask the nurses if we could give her her meds early so we could put her down. She was wiped. They hooked up her IV again and she slept. For THREE HOURS!

Right as she woke up, the doctor came by and asked if we wanted to go home. Ummmm...do you really have to ask?

Here is what he told us (this is MY understanding of it all...hopefully I got it all right):

-Cultures of spinal fluid, blood and nose all looked really good and normal.
-Urine culture showed signs of a urinary tract infection with some sort of bacteria that was weird and I don't remember.
-Urine also showed a second bacteria growing: staph. From what I understand, the staph had come on so strong that it was starting to get systemic (an illness that affects multiple organs, systems or tissues, or the entire body---Wikipedia), which is why she was having so many problems. The next stage would have been organ failure.

Treatment:

-antibiotics
-steroids

Most Likely Causes:

-Bubble baths (eesh! I do that all the time! Not anymore)
-Potty training (sigh---so much for having her out of diapers before Monster #2. We had really just started putting her on on the potty before/after naps/bed/bath. Nothing too aggressive, at least so I thought.)

Warnings:

-if she has another UTI, she will have to go in for more invasive tests to ensure that she doesn't have 'webbing' from the tubes that go from the kidneys to the bladder.

What does Claire look like:
-steroids have reduced the rash SIGNIFICANTLY! It's still faintly there...you can see the outlines, but so much better.
-Needle bruises up and down both arms. Only a small bruise from the lumbar puncture. and a huge bruise on momma's heart!
-Scratches all over her body---mostly scabbed over. All within the rash.
-Sunken, dark eyes
-Green tinge to whole body

We had our lunch (three hours late). Claire ate a ton of grapes and and some yams. Nurses pulled out IV's and monitors. We signed some papers. Claire was SO EXCITED when we told her we were going home (okay---so was I. Nick had to tell us both to be quiet a few times). We headed for home about 5pm.

She fussed and fussed and fussed. I was finally willing to put her down at about 8:30pm. Wouldn't eat anything else. Wouldn't drink anything else, either. Going to be hard to ween her off juice---her only source of food besides the IV's for the last 4 days (I don't like juice. She can eat fruit for her vitamins---she doesn't need the extra sugar!).

I assumed I would be up with her all night because of the upset to her schedule from the last three nights. She slept a full 12 hours. Even with me checking on her every couple of hours. Wow. Guess she was beat.

This morning she won't leave my side and expects me to entertain her at all times. Something I HAD to do in the hospital. I wasn't going to leave my little girl to be scared in the hospital, so I ruined that training for a while. Hopefully it will come back soon. She ate a whole bowl of yogurt with sunflower seeds and wanted another portion. Won't drink, but I'm sure that's just because I won't give her juice...unless I'm desperate.

We're doing great. Thanks again for all the support!