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!!!

pics i'm compelled to share

i have to put these out to someone in the ether...i haven't used them for my kcap avatar, but they're so damned cute, i can't resist.

okay, this one *is* my avatar right now, but it's too sweet:


when cheering a double play, khary felt moved to scream over and over, "BARACK OBAMA!!" still makes me laugh!


khalil's first swim...pretty much had this look on his face the whole time.


from the 4th of july trip, visiting granny


and a few seconds later


the obama mama, obama bubba, obama baby, and obama papa:


and the dirt monster (at daddy's softball games):

i get by with a little help from my friends

dawud's been gone since EARLY tuesday morning. it's now thursday night. kenna was supposed to spend the night with me during this time, but her grandmother got very ill & she needed to be with family. of course, that's appropriate, but omfg, i was NOT prepared to deal with both these boys by myself--alone! YIKES! tuesday was not pretty. we had peanut butter cookies for supper. my friend tresa came to hang out, but her kids had a meltdown an hour later. khalil went to sleep in the swing, khary was glazed over, half-asleep in front of the tube, so i got a much-needed shower & we all went to bed around midnight.

wednesday katje came over with linc. katje and her chopping sklz prepped my ratatouille that will be supper tomorrow while i made supper for us and the boys had their way with khary's room upstairs. (hmm, come to think of it, i still haven't seen the aftermath!) i was inspired & actually made a fantabulous mexican beans and rice dinner. i'll be making it again as soon as we get more chiles. tasty. after she and linc left, i actually managed to get khalil ready & asleep (or so i thought) in the swing so i could get khary a bath. as soon as i get the water in the tub, khalil wakes up screaming, so i'm running back and forth, being totally inefficient at both soothing the baby and bathing the 3yo. finally get it done, feeling like i'm having a breakdown & just want to bawl myself to sleep. but sleep we do & i got us all ready for bed. by myself. and i survived. only as i write this do i realize that i didn't brush khary's teeth at all during this time. eek.

this morning we managed to have real food for breakfast, real food for lunch, took a nap & were only 3 minutes late to gymnastics class. i EVEN returned play food to happybottomus AND that blasted yellow tumbler from almost two months ago to melinda. and then we went to abryana's house for playtime and supper--her yummy sesame noodles. when we got home, daddy was here & i got a break. ahhhh, friends make the world go round.