The Good Life: July 2011

This post is a bit belated. We spent the weekend at MUSC hospital in downtown Charleston with Samuel about 2 weeks ago. I had noticed blood in his diaper on Friday evening, and we decided to keep an eye on the next diaper to see how it was. It, too, was abnormal, so I called the after-hours line for the pediatrician. The nurse I spoke to recommended I take him to the ER because Monday morning was far away.

We decided Ryan would stay home with Danielle. We weren't overly concerned because Danielle had a bloody diaper once and it turned out to be that she had strained her bum while pooping. So I took him in to Trident, hoping there wasn't a long wait since it was already 11pm. When we got checked in, they took his temperature and found it was 101.9. Apparently, fevers in newborns are not normal and are treated rather seriously. Because he was just over 28 days, they ran blood tests, urine tests and did a spinal tap. NOT what I was expecting. They had trouble with all 3 procedures, especially drawing blood. His veins were so tiny that it was hard. They ended up putting an IV in him, and it was in his head, since the veins in his hands and feet kept collapsing when they tried it there.

We were transported by ambulance to the Medical University of SC hospital around 6 in the morning. They were admitting us for at least 48 hours, to give the cultures a chance to grow. If it turned out to be bacterial (which is was), he would have a head start on the treatment, which was to administer antibiotics. I was up all night and most of the day with him--I only managed to nap for an hour at a time with all the doctors and nurses coming in and out. Here's what sheer exhaustion looks like on me:

Ryan brought Danielle to the hospital each day. Samuel had an IV in his head and a monitor on his foot, and the room was pretty small. She was hyper and didn't want to sit still. Not a good combination! So it was kind of hard having her there and they only stayed a few hours each day.

When they got the results back, they found he did not have any infections in his blood, urine or spinal fluid. His diaper contents had been tested, though, and they found he had salmonella. We were absolutely floored by this. The infections disease doctor (yes, we had to be cleared by a specialist) told us it wasn't our fault and that there was no way to know how he contracted it. It's transmitted orally, but not through breastmilk. When adults get salmonella, they may just have diarrhea, it's not something they need hospitalized (or even treated) for. But because Samuel was so young, they needed to give him antibiotics to make sure he didn't get a systemic infection (in his organs, blood, etc). When we got home Monday afternoon, the Department of Health called to ask us questions, to determine if our case was linked to others in the area, so they could pinpoint the source. They will keep our information to compare with future cases as well. All of this was very surreal--not something I expected from our visit to the hospital Friday night.

We are all home, obviously, and Samuel is doing well. We are taking extra precautions with hand washing and I went a little nuts re-sanitizing bottles and scrubbing down the kitchen. It's a bit ironic that this happened to us, as I've had numerous comments about how much I clean. I'm a bit overzealous with guarding his pacifiers and screening who touches him, but I think it's understandable for now. I don't know how parents deal with long-term illnesses in children. I was strung out for two days after we got home, just from having Samuel in the hospital for 2 1/2 days. It's nerve-wracking. But, like I said, he is fine now.