Today we turn the page on a new month, turn the page on a new season even.
i hate being “in” over the page turn. It’s just a weird mental thing. Like not stepping on sidewalk cracks or having to wear certain shirts inside out on purpose. It causes a glitch in the matrix.
But we really didn’t have much choice in the matter so i’m trying to accept it for what it is and move forward without focusing too much on the calendar or the changing leaves outside the window.
i really just wanted to get some kind of post up on this actual calendar day.
I know there are so many questions some of you have about the information we have gotten from various tests/studies we’ve been doing on kendall trying to come up with a good plan of attack for getting her home. As i am exhausted at the moment, i hope this makes a modicum of sense.
Basically, we fought back the fungemia, her initial presenting issue – pretty well. Pulling the line and supporting her body through the septic shock by being proactive based on her past history – that was almost the easiest part of this stay. And just when we thought we had things all set for discharge – BAM….down went kendall again. Acting very sick, being in a ton of pain, and essentially not giving anyone real warm fuzzies.
There’s so much i could write about – but the bottom line is this: her pain was out of this world insane for her, and she was requiring high doses frequently of narcotic pain meds, and because of, or maybe secondary to the pain, she was spiking fevers. EVery time she gets back over 102F, we have to re-send blood cultures to make sure we aren’t missing another infection.
So far those cultures have been negative, so we were really stumped as to what could cause her to look/act so septic and yet, apparently, be ok. She points to the pain as being located under or behind her ribs on her left side, and sometimes it radiates up that shoulder and sometimes its her right shoulder and sometimes it just hurts so bad she won’t take deep breaths and she gets in this hyperventilating breathing pattern. We have checked her pancreas and gall bladder – and while both are inflamed and angry and the gallbladder is full of sludge – the team doesn’t feel those are the problem. We know her spleen is three times its normal size and is not shrinking back down like it should be (it is stretched to capacity – and they do admit that could be pretty painful). We have ruled out kidney stones, established that she may have supermesenteric artery syndrome but that her renal pressures are ok for now, and essentially racked our collective brains for ANY other possible scenario under which we could be operating here. So far nothing new is popping out to anyone.
It is frustrating and heartbreaking and yet….I am glad we are looking. I am glad they are not giving up on trying to find answers for KQ. She is an enigmatic mystery for sure. And this pain – it is not my baby. It is new and whatever it is that is plaguing her it takes her WAY down when the meds have worn off and she is left only in this place of writhing, blinding pain.
We switched her antibiotics yesterday back to her old crazy plan where the nurses are scrambling, even with all the pumps and extra help, to fit everything in during their 12 hour shifts. And with that crazy schedule, her fever has not returned. Curiouser and curiouser. We have absolutely no idea what monster we are fighting.
This is …… it is one of the hardest battles I have helped my baby endure through. I am weary from this one, and I know her little body is so so so tired.
We don’t really have more of a plan right now. But this is what I know. I am exhausted so I will post this for tonight and hope that tomorrow brings renewed strength for the fight.
t.