Pump it up

We have had a crazy last few days around here. On Wednesday I noticed that Greyson was feeling a bit warm all day but I honestly didn't think much about it because the child is swaddled half the day and I figured it was just "toastiness" more than feverish...you know? Well, come Wednesday evening I was convinced that he was feeling feverish so I figured I'd take his temperature...it was 101.0. Now, my girls run some crazy temperatures. As in, when they have colds they can run 103 or higher like it's no big deal so I still wasn't too awfully concerned, especially since Avery was just getting over a cold and I felt confident Greyson had likely caught it. After taking his temperature we went upstairs for supper and I started thinking about this chart that they gave us at the hospital that had normal temperature ranges for babies. I got up from the dinner table and came downstairs to look at the chart and it said if a baby is running a temperature over 99.4 to call your doctor. Really?!?!? I decided to call the pediatrician, but mainly just to get the "ok" from them that it would be ok not to do anything but watch him because he likely had caught Avery's cold. Well, despite me telling the triage nurse that his sisters had been sick she acted like we needed to get right in to the ER because babies his age shouldn't be running a temperature like that (cold or not). Well, Tim and I had date night plans...the first since MAY!!!! So we had a hot date at Carolinas Medical Center Pediatric ER.

Long story longer - when babies of Greysons age have a fever three things are recommended if nothing obvious is detected on physical exam:
-bloodwork
-urinalysis
-lp (lumbar puncture aka spinal tap)

The physical exam was uneventful so we did bloodwork and urinalysis and there was an above normal number of white blood cells in his urine so they recommended we do an LP to rule out viral meningitis. I was completely freaked out about doing and LP and honestly I was really just looking for some confirmation that he had a little cold and nothing more, but they were hard core and recommended the LP.Apparently according to benchmark data - anything above 5 white blood cells indicates some type of bacterial process which in infants of his age can become septic (way more serious) and he had 12. The Dr. said if I declined the LP, I would have to sign a decline consent and according to my sister insurance may not cover our ER visit if I didn't do as recommended by the Dr. Our heads were swimming and we were exhausted but after getting a second opinion from my sisters friend who is a doctor - we moved forward at his recommendation. Y'all - three doctors attempted to retrieve spinal fluid from my son (while he screamed and cried the entire time) and not one was able to get the fluid necessary to run the test to rule out meningitis! After the failed LP attempts, they recommended we be admitted into the hospital for monitoring and immediate administration of antibiotics in the event that he had a urinary tract infection. In the meantime his urine and blood would be sent to the laboratory for culture and sensitivity testing and we would have results in 24-48 hours.

A viral panel would be done once we checked in and then we would simply wait for test results while Greyson was monitored and continually administered IV antibiotics to rule out possible infection. The viral panel showed a positive result for rhinotracheitis, aka cold. Despite testing positive for a cold and that being the probable cause of his fever, the doctors wanted us to stay in the hospital until the culture results came back.

We were finally discharged from the hospital yesterday around 5:00 because the cultures were all negative. Moral of the story: we were hospitalized for two days for a common COLD. I am very glad they were precautious with my baby as we have a friend whose 2 week old is currently hospitalized with viral meningitis and all he presented with was a fever! I am super happy that we are back in our normal surroundings and with our girls (thanks to my Mom who rushed to help out and to my sister who was a huge help while we were gone). Here are some pictures of my little man in the hospital:

 These next few pictures crack me up - they have nothing to do with "brothers" hospital stay, but they do give me a reason to smile in spite of our date night turned into hospital stay at the pediatric ER and our current crazy life:

Clearly these girls have been watching Mommy and they think they know just how this breast pump stuff is supposed to work:

I was laughing so hard watching them, I could barely take the pictures!

This sweet little pea makes me laugh more times than I can count in a day. She is such a character - always making funny faces and doing silly things. She's too smart for her own good and as it turns out she may be related to Mr. T.

Lots to be thankful for as we wrap up another week. Hard to believe Greyson turns 7 weeks tomorrow and Avery turns 19 months on Monday.