a day of boobs

a little late posting it, but last sunday (august 10) was the kc race for the cure. dawud ran in the 5k as always, and khary, khalil and i walked around the sponsor booths nabbing samples. after we met up with daddy, we headed over to the kids' area. khary met some firefighters in their cherrypicker (dawud had gone to h.s with one of the guys!), then he had a blast with the parachute play, played with some bubbles, then got his face painted.

then we went to church, then to big mama's church's farewell dinner for dawud's cousin aisha, then we were going to go to the LLL fundraiser at Wonderscope. we decided to go play at antioch park (for free) instead & had a lot of fun.

holy schmoly--i went running!!

i cannot even remember the last time i ran. well over a year ago, since a year ago i was pregnant. geez, no wonder i've felt cruddy--the thing i like to do for myself the most was something i felt prohibited from doing.

at the ppd chat tonight, the question was posed, "if you could do one thing TOTALLY ALONE and JUST FOR YOURSELF what would it be?" i didn't even have to think about it--running. so when i got home, i did just that. 1.4 miles in 29 minutes, which may have set a record for slowest run ever, but i did it, and i didn't stop once.

of course, now i have a headache and my calves are cramping like a mofo.... :P



also (i'm recording it here, see?) i had two mini-epiphanies at the chat. first, that i haven't had one on one playtime with just khary at all. i thought i had, but really, i wasn't playing with him, so that doesn't count. at all, as in 4+ months. :( and second, that i need to "fake it till i make it" when i'm having a bad day because he feeds of my energy and i get mad, and then we spiral out of control, me in a rage and him in a bundle of impotence and frustration. i think exercise and meditation would be great for getting me to that zen place...and running is both for me.

light at the end of the tunnel

children's mercy urgent care called back with the 36-hour test results of the 2nd blood culture...nothing is showing up at all so far. so the 1st culture was almost certainly contaminated. they also said the urine culture responded well to the abx we're using, so we don't need a different one.

khalil's been fever-free for about 36 hours now, and no tylenol for over 24h. yay!! he's a totally different baby--back to normal, thank goodness. he's sleeping a lot, but he's got a lot to heal yet.

dr greenwood scheduled his renal ultrasound and vcug test already; going to cms for those on aug 20. part of me hopes they come back negative, of course, but i kinda want the vcug to show a valve problem so we have an explanation and it can be easily fixed.

totally ot, but i also found out greenwood can do my plantar's wart excision AND my ingrown toenail fix himself in his office, no podiatrist needed. woot! hmm, forgot to ask about getting my own blood draw to follow up on the anemia and thyroid function tests, though. (see? now that i have it written out, i'll remember. :P )

8/23 update:
had the diagnostic tests wednesday--a renal ultrasound and vcug (another name for an evil test performed with a catheter). both came back normal--no physical abnormalities and no uretal reflux. both good and bad, as i said before. plus the poor guy got a horrible yeasty diaper rash after being on all those antibiotics. but it's better now, thank goodness.

hey, a hospital-free night!

no news yet. i called them & the nurse i talked to asked the lab & they told her that they wouldn't have anything till tomorrow. i told her what the deal was, that it was supposed to be 24h, not 48, just to see if the blood cultured *anything*, but she couldn't help me.

BUT khalil appears worlds better now!! he and i took a loooong afternoon nap & when he woke from it he had zero fever & was cooing and energetic. has been like that all night. well, now i think he's having tummy upset from the abx, but i'll take that anyday over systemic infection!

we have an appt with greenwood tomorrow, at which i will hound him about kidney function tests at cmh.

thank you all for your positive thoughts and prayers. i know we're not out of the woods yet, but i'm pretty certain we're on our way.

to hospital, to hospital, & back again

new update:
they found bacteria in his blood sample, indicating he has sepsis. they asked us to come back to cmsuc tonight for another blood draw to double-check the results from last night's sample. since he had the iv abx last night plus the keflex we started today, plus his fever being not as high (close to 102 still, tho), they are comfortable waiting for the results, which will be tomorrow evening/night. of course if he gets worse, we bring him in immediately. greenwood's out of the office tomorrow, so i guess i'll be seeing him on tuesday instead (unless it gets worse before then). poor baby had another rough time getting stuck for the blood draw. i'm starting to get pissed that they didn't just admit him last night with what must be a kidney infection so all the testing and everything would be done already. i'm really really uncomfortable with the "wait and see" when the possibility that it's actually sepsis is 50% and we're just fucking wasting time. i mean, if it is sepsis, the bacteria colonizing his blood may even be resistant to cephalosporins/keflex, anyway, so shouldn't he at least be monitored in case he takes a bad turn?!

worse than the sickies :(

went to children's mercy south urgent care this evening because khalil's temp spiked to 105.9 and didn't come down past 102.3 an hour after giving motrin. doc was worried b/c there was no obvious infection that would cause that high of a fever, so ordered blood tests and a urine cath. came back with HIGH white count and the urine showed an active infection despite being virtually clear, which apparently means the bacteria is going like gangbusters. had iv abx (rocephin) and start oral keflex tomorrow night.

getting the iv line was nightmarish, tho--had to do it twice. :'( surprisingly, the catheter wasn't that bad, though.

have to call greenwood monday first thing & arrange a renal ultrasound and tests for urinary reflux.

and to top it off...dawud said that khary puked tonight. yay.

case of the sickies

khalil officially has his first illness. (yes, i am "forgetting" the kidney infxn at 7w old.) poor little guy is a ball of snot, slobber & just is the picture of pathetic. :( he couldn't sleep bc the fever got up there--102.2--but is knocked out for the time being, thanks to some motrin.

...man, that kid can SCREAM!!!