Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Day +6: Fever City

Buckle up, the ride has gotten bumpy.

I arrived back at Seattle Children's this morning to Jeff telling me that Zoe's temperature was hovering at 40 celsius (that's 104F for all you Americans) all night--and she's continued that trend all day today.

Also, they've found blood in her urine.

The blood samples taken 24 hours ago did not grow any signs of bacteria yet. They just pulled some more blood this evening to be tested again. Their approach is to draw blood for testing once every 24 hours that the fever is still present. Her urine has also been sent to be tested for infections as well.

The concern is that her high fever and bloody urine points to a higher likelihood of some sort of infection, possibly bladder related.

Ugh. This is it, right here.

This is where the work for parents, like us, of children, like Zoe, lies. The watching, the waiting, the working to understand that all we can do is sit here, love her, and not let the pit of fear that this huge unknown creates overwhelm us.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yep. The protocol became a given, long ago. It's the "what." Now your confidence in your team counts more than you knew. They are the "how." They give the protocol its best chance to do its work. And you. You are doing a terribly hard thing, yet you are doing it incredibly "off the scale" well! And yes, how you do it matters. It's our honor to be your witnesses.