One Month Strong

One month and this 11 pounder has been around the block or at least around the hospital. A mere few days after his 2 week well-baby which he passed with flying colors and given the stamp of health, Joaquin's body seemed to have contracted something it didn't like. He had a high fever, but we thought nothing of it (well, didn't want to think anything of it). Finally after a few days of this and a few tylenol doses, we couldn't ignore it any more. So on Friday at 4 in the morning we packed our new born back to the hospital for the inevitable---pokes, catheters, and the dreaded lumbar puncture.
(taken after all the tests---we aren't binkie parents but with all that he had to go through, he deserved that binkie)* All of the above and more started the long process of diagnosis:

UTI and more scary-urosepsis

So how did this happen. Well, after many hours of speculations, we were told our stay would be 48 hours just to make sure the lumbar test came back without the dreaded spinal meningitis. Everyone was positive that it would come back clean and clear. Thank heavens that came true. And, then as the tests rolled in, the doctors who visited our room seemed more serious and tacked on more time for our stay. More tests were ordered and x-rays and consultations with everyone from urology to infectious disease.
(urology needed to look at a radiology VCUG test that put a catheter up you know where. Let's just say it was a common response for sometime after to cry whenever he was laid on his back and diaper was touched.)

To get all these labs and to administer the various antibiotics to destroy the urosepsis and UTI in his body, Joaquin looked like a bruised pin cushion. In all fairness, infant's veins are impossibly small and wiggly. Still, it was all I could do not to suplex the various technicians pushing, rubbing, alcohol pad scraping my poor little guy's skin. He was a trooper.


Sadly, we finally blew the last of his 4 IV's for the antibiotics.
The last one only worked for less than a day. And as a testament to how celestially choreographed** our whole hospital experienced turned out to be, the nurse who was watching over night kept eyeing the IV site wanting to avoid any possible problems like the IV popping out of the vein and having the saline drip flow into his tissues around the site. No other nurse even checked once. They would flush the IV and hook up the antibiotics. This nurse neurotically examined it each time she came in. Thank heavens. Her fear of it slipping came true and we caught it in enough time to only produce minimal and non-lasting damage:


(that picture was taken hours after it had time to drain. . .it was really painful looking)

Final Discovery (we hope);

Urachal cyst--a left over remnant of his umbilical connection from his belly button to his bladder that didn't close off correctly leaving a pocket ready to collect goo. This goo caused the UTI or the urosepsis (chicken or the egg here).

Solution: daily dose of antibiotics until surgury in 6 months to remove the mass. How I wish we could do it sooner because I feel like I might miss an important sign that Joaquin will have a recurrence of urosepsis and it won't be caught in time. The beautiful thing about infants is that they can handle a lot, but they don't look sick. By the time they look sick, it is almost too late. The danger of the anesthetic at such a young age though is failure to continue to breathe. So thank goodness we are down one month and have only five to go.

*Binkies use is a personal decision. I think every family has a right to binkie or not. Our binkie decision is based on the battles we want to not have down the road. The other exception to the binkie for us is when the child appears to want to suck on their thumb (or finger as seen here:)

**It seemed that from the start of our stay, we happened to have the right person at the right time for what needed to happen. Starting with the fact that my mom was in town to help with Joaquin's birth. This is the first time she has been able to come and she sacrificed over 2 weeks of her vacation time to come. The first week and a half were uneventful in terms of baby needs (if you don't include the desperate need I had to recover his carseat). I felt more than not worried about my kids when we had to leave early to the hospital. I was even more at peace when I was told are stay would extend for 14 days. The nurse that helped us very first was kind of a no nonsense but very loving grandma character who even hugged me for awhile and attended to my emotional roller coster self. I would be strong as I watched his various proddings including the spinal tap, but broke down when they talked about how sweet and cute he was.


It also so happened that Fernando's parents had already arranged to come out the night that my mom left which covered the next week of kid watching. Fernando's schedule was nights which allowed him to help be a stabling influence on the kids and the list goes on and on.