family (dys)functions: January 2011

so i suppose this is kind of a continuation from my last post. it's mainly to inform all the family about what happened. but i figure yall would like to know too. if it just drones on and on and on and on, my feelings won't be hurt if you stop reading. ;)

so jillian goes to daycare on tuesday, no fever and on antibiotic for ear infection. i pick jillian up from daycare tuesday, the area around her ear is quite swollen, pushing her ear out away from her head. behind her ear looks almost bruised-like. i'd heard that one's ear could swell from an ear infection. i'm concerned, but not alarmed. when i get home i bring this to justin's attention. both of us are concerned so i page the doctor. doc calls back but, based on what i'm describing, is unable to determine if it's normal swelling related to an ear infection. doc wants us to head up to houston to one of the children's hospitals as it's the only way for her to see a pediatric ent (ear nose and throat doctor, not a tree herder).

we head to texas children's. she needs a ct scan. not fun, but she kind of passes out, so no sedation is needed. they say ear infection in both ears, fluid trapped in both ears... surgery needed to put tubes in both ears and drain fluid, heavy antibiotics will be used until cultures come back on fluid drained. mastoiditis in left ear... infection has spread to mastoid bone behind ear, antibiotics will treat this also. and possible abscess behind left ear... too much fluid in ear so drum may have perforated to relieve pressure and created a sealed-off pocket of fluid, which may require surgery as any antibiotic will not reach the sealed off pocket as there's no blood flow to it. did you get all that? okay.

and so we're admitted. surgery wednesday to put in tubes, drain fluid. small incision behind left ear to check for/drain abscess, no fluid, good news. now waiting on cultures.

two iv antibiotics since admission (vanco-something and something else).

friday, based on preliminary findings in culture they suspect a strep bug. drop iv antibiotics and go to an oral antibiotic, one that no baby voluntarily takes. except jillian. haha. talk of release on saturday.

saturday, planning to release jillian. still preliminary, strain of strep "superbug" that babies are vaccinated for, but she may have contracted a kind of one-off strain, or mutation. change to a different antibiotic to send her home on. released around 8pm. sent home with dose of antibiotic so no need to find 24-hr pharmacy tonight.

sunday, justin goes to pharmacy to fill antibiotic prescription. they don't have it. five hours later, nobody has it, it's discontinued. i start calling numbers at the hospital until someone can get me in touch with the doctor that treated her. doctor calls me, pharmacy, and prescribes something comparable. justin picks up new prescription around 3pm and jillian gets dose of that med. around 6pm i get a call from the infectious disease doctor that treated her (who also told me they would call if anything needed to be changed, as they planned to research final culture results further). the strain of strep that jillian has is highly resistant to nearly all oral antibiotics. hindsight she wishes the doctors would've kept her for full round of iv antibiotics (10 days). bottom line is there is one oral antibiotic option that is available immediately (other is special order). that doctor calls in new prescription and jillian gets dose late that night. and of course she doesn't like this one because it tastes banana-ish. ::sigh::

i stayed home with jillian on monday and tuesday. with the frequent antibiotic switch i wanted to monitor her. and i don't really want her in daycare again yet. justin's dad offered to come down and stay with her during the day so i can get back in the office. very grateful.

so far she's doing well. she's VERY happy. she's seems to be having some stomach issues. i'll mention them to her doctor tomorrow but doubt that anything can be done as she needs to be on this med.

so there are a few things i need to mention/vent about...

the strep bug jillian has is title for this post, also called strep pneumo 19A. it's a superbug. one from which she should be protected as she's up to date on all her immunizations. like i said before, the docs suspect that she contracted some kind of evolved version, perhaps. however the vaccine still helped in that the infection did not move to her brain (meningitis) or blood (sepsis?), which is what docs were worried about since it went from minor ear infection to mastoiditis so fast. obviously we were dealing with heavy stuff here. so when we got home we did what any normal parents would do... we googled it. it's quite serious and i'm feeling very blessed at the moment.

for any of my medical field friends, please forgive me if i'm doing a hack job on all of this information. it was a lot to take in. i'm doing my best.

jillian's pediatrician is awesome. she was calling the hospital for updates and texting me to see how things were going the whole time we were in the hospital. obviously she had concerns too, as only one day prior this was a little ear infection in one ear.

i felt like we were on an episode of house md. twice a day this whole team of doctors would come in to consult with us, run through the timeline of events. "and this only started how many days ago?" "and this is her first ear infection?" "and she's current on her immunizations?" were frequently asked questions.

have you ever seen an infant get multiple shots, as is the case with immunizations? as a mom it's a little tough, but a necessity, and it's over before they really get started. jillian screams when they give each shot and when i pick her up she calms right down. she's mostly just a little miffed. ivs are just like that. times 1000. heartbreaking. they tried 3 and the vein blew each time. i didn't really think that was the nurse's fault, but it didn't stop me from wanting to jam the needle in her eye. and later i found out that the while a baby is screaming its blood pressure get so high that the veins blow. sorry about that needle in your eye, nurse. anyway, after about 20 minutes another guy comes in, calm as you please, baby screaming, he gets it in just like that. whew. you think the kid's blood pressure was high? i cried in the dark like a little girl after all that mess. jillian just passed out. poor baby was so exhausted by then.

okay, besides some douchebag nurse guy that came in the middle of the night to do vitals and took her temp rectally (never done before) while she was FINALLY sleeping peacefully and then left her blanket up ON her face and the side of her freaking crib DOWN... and besides the fact that they couldn't remember ONCE to bring her tylenol every 4 hours for pain (they offered her morphine for heaven's sake! can she just get some tylenol?)... yes besides those two complaints... texas children's is a fabulous hospital. they even provided my meals because i still give her breastmilk. very supportive. all of her doctors and nurses were wonderful (except previously mentioned douche)... always sweet to her, playful with her... they really seemed to like what they do.

any questions? if you'd like to know more about this superbug, google the title of this post.

just after she was admitted to a room...