The worst day

Wednesday early morning I got up to feed Kadence and thought she felt a little warm. I had her burrito wrapped though so I didn't think too much of it. I fed her, loosened her blanket a little and put her back to bed. Around 8am she got up again and I brought her downstairs and laid her on the couch. Doug came over, kissed her head and said "She feels warm" not really thinking anything of it either. I grabbed the thermometer and took her temp. It came back as 102.7 and my heart sank. I am so scared of fevers and with a newborn I was just sick about it. I called my pediatrician's office and they couldn't get us in for an hour so I just took her to the ER. Her temp was 103 by then. They immediately started running tests and gave her some tylenol. They put a catheter in and collected urin. They tried to collect blood with an IV but the 18 year old girl (or there-abouts who I don't even think was a nurse) couldn't get the IV in her tiny veins. Kadence was bright red and screaming louder than I had ever heard her scream. Her fragile body was burning up and as I laid there, hunched over her trying to provide what comfort I could while avoiding the sight of the needle peircing her skin,  my tears were soaking the bed and I couldnt help but imagine how Heavenly Father must have felt as he watched his only son on the cross. They finally gave up on the IV and colected blood from a heel prick. Then the doc came in and managed to get an IV in and had to perform a spinal tap to test for menengitis. Luckily he wanted me to leave while he did so. I went to the cafeteria and called Doug to fill him in on everything. He was still home with Averi and neither of us were really sure how serious Kadence's condition was. I headed back to check on her and was stopped by the front desk lady. She asked me to sign a few waivers and informed me that they couldn't figure out why she was crying so much. No mother wants to here that. I followed the sound of my screaming baby back to her room. They were just finishing up the spinal tap and unfortunately I saw all the blood and mess from the procedure. I wrapped her up again and held her. It took her about 20 minutes to really calm down. When I laid her back on the bed for the next nurse to check her, I noticed a petichiae-like rash covering both legs. The doc came in and looked at it. He said "This is bad news. This is a sign of infection for sure. Scary stuff." They ordered an ambulence to come and transport us to Phoenix Childrens Hospital (mainly just because her IV was already in and they couldn't let us drive her there with it in). I called Doug and finally broke down telling him that I needed him there. He came in right away and gave her a blessing while we waited for transportation. We finally made our way to PCH. Doug went with Kadence in the ambulence and I followed in our car. I prayed most of the way there. There in the car, mid prayer, I was reassured that Kadence would be fine and that everything would be okay. I then began to pray for faith. We got to the hospital and she was still very hot. Her fever was still around 102 and she was obviously uncomfortable. They did a nasal swab and checked her out a little more. Dr McCleod came in and talked to us a little bit and informed us that we were just waiting for lab results at this point. The main suspicions were menangitis, Strep B or Strep Initus (sp?). She battled a fever for about 3 days. The Tylenol would kick in and it would go down but then it would wear off and her temp would go right back up again. By Fri they had gotten some lab results and everything came back negative. The Doc took a look inside her throat and decided that he thought she had Herp Angina which he described as like having chicken pox in the back of the throat. The next day they got more results back and they came back positive for Strep Pneumoniae which is a bacterial infection in the blood and can be treated with antibiotics. The doc then changed his diagnosis to that. By Saturday she wasn't fevering anymore and she seemed pretty much back to her old self.  Late that night though, her IV went bad and they had to put in a new one. Two different nurses tried and failed. They called the IV team in and around midnight, they were able to get it in. Since they had already blown through so many of her veins and were running out of good ones, they decided they wanted to put in a Picc line (a longer term IV with a catheter that follows the vein up towards the heart). On Monday afternoon they had to give her general anesthesia and they put it in. Luckily there were no problems and everything went great.

Kadence is still in the hospital until Friday night just to finish out her ten days of antibiotics and then she can come home and we can resume life. I am SO grateful for my beautiful and healthy baby girl. She brings me so much joy and I am eternally grateful that I still get to have her in my life.Thank you SO much to all my family and friends that prayed and fasted on her bahalf.

 I am also grateful for Phoenix Childrens Hospital. It is really an awesome place. I loved all the nurses, all the PCTs, and one of the two doctors I saw ;) That place is so amazing. They would come by and give everyone free hot chocolate every day, and twice a week a book cart would come around and anyone who wanted, could come take a book free of charge. Not to mention, all the free snacks and cable tv :) Once Kadence was feeling better, it really wan't too bad being there!

My friends Poiette and Ami came to pay us a visit one night and for some reason the hospital made them wear all this protective clothing. Pretty funny.