""We treat it. If she gets better we know that we're right." - Dr House, character from the series "House"
I have a long history of feeling too good about things. I should know by now that if my happy meter rises above a certain point then the universe is going to balance it out somehow. In this case, Elise is back in the hospital.
We'd been off to a good start out of the hospital, but then she woke up Wednesday morning with significant pain in her back like a muscle cramp. She was a little warm and the thermometer registered a slight rise in temp but nothing approaching the "call the team" level we'd been briefed on. I gave her some Tylenol, rubbed her back for a while and she went back to sleep.
About 3 cups of coffee and some mindless web surfing later (for me), Elise woke up again nauseous, a little dizzy and with a slight headache. Still no significant fever and the back pain was gone, but we called the hospital anyhow and headed to the NIH Pediatric clinic to have her checked over.
They checked her vitals and the only unusual thing was a significantly elevated heart rate. After repeating the symptoms 10+ times to a steady parade of medical personnel, they drew blood, put Elise on IV fluids and sent us to the day hospital while they all conferred. Once in the day hospital they started broad spectrum antibiotics and continued the fluids.
Eventually they decided to readmit Elise to continue to the IV antibiotics while they waited for the blood cultures. By the time they'd decided this she was feeling fine and, of course, wasn't very happy about being back in the hospital.
Becky volunteered for the first night shift (not even a paper, scissors, rock contest!). She texted me saying one of the Drs had dropped by and said the preliminary culture indicated a bacteria and that the IV antibiotics ought to cover it. We don't know much more than that, but the Hickman catheter is a likely point of entry for bacteria and such. We should hear more today.
Elise is obviously feeling well because she's texted me a McDonalds food order. A good sign from lots of different aspects.
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