PHEW what a long 5 days it's been!
Saturday, we arrived to a friend's wedding reception. Charlotte was at home with a high fever and as I pulled Genevieve out of her carseat I noted that she was REALLY warm. She'd been warm and fussy all day, but I'd been more focused on Charlotte and had just let Genevieve sleep all day. That's the problem with an easy baby after two not-so easy babies...I didn't register that something wasn't right with her until I started getting her settled into the sling at the reception...the right side of her neck was hugely swollen.
We made a quick U-turn out of the reception and headed straight to the ER.
I'm currently a fan of triage- a crying mother holding her 6 week old fussing/lethargic baby with a swollen neck got us in real quick.
Over the next 12 hrs they did every test you can think of: Blood cultures, nose swabs, urine test, ultrasound, xray, eventually a CT scan...
Here's the time-line of treatment/diagnosis:
Saturday, 6pm: First guess was mumps.
Saturday evening: Pediatrician came and said it was most likely not mumps, either swollen node or cyst. Started on powerful antibiotics.
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| Soothing... in the ER while we wait... |
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| I have SUCH an amazing family with non-stop support. |
Sunday morning: fever is gone. ENT said he was 90% sure it was a branchial cleft cyst- a congenital deformity.
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| Yay! My fever is gone! Also, I'm 6 weeks old today!! |
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| Swollen neck :( |
Sunday afternoon: Transferred us to Children's Hospital, had to hold off feeding in case surgery was that night.
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| My dad taking a turn to calm her. Side story: One of the nurse looked at me and said, "Mom?" and then looked at him and asked, "Are you Dad, then?" That's mistake has been happening since I was in high-school! Guess that's what happens when your name means "The Handsome One" (Kenneth) |
Sunday night: After holding off a very hungry baby for 4.5 hrs they decided to do surgery 7am the next morning. Cue ravenous nursing session.
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| My mom was my saving grace- here she's helping to hold her off for a SECOND time to prep for surgery. |
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| Holding her off for the last few minutes. |
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| Off to surgery |
Monday morning: Surgery to drain swollen node/cyst showed that it was an almost empty cavity (can't tell unless they do invasive surgery...but either result would end up with the same treatment so they just put in a drain)
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| Post surgery |
Tuesday: blood cultures came back negative from first hospital. Lots of stools due to heavy antibiotics :(
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| Big Sis got to visit! |
Tuesday night: GREAT night of sleep. Still no cultures from fluid taken from empty cavity during surgery, although there were lots of white blood cells, which means something was there, but most likely was taken care of by antibiotics gotten from first hospital.
Wednesday morning: No longer think it's the branchial cleft cyst. Cultures showed a little bacteria but antibiotics will take care of it. Not sure what caused it and still don't know if it's a node or cyst.
Pro-biotics are helping with poops. Drain is removed, she's doing great without tylenol, going home after lunch!
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| Just chillin' after a GREAT night of sleep! |
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| Drain is out! |
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| Time for a morning of naps now... |
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| Excited for earlier than planned discharge. |
Phew!
3 comments:
Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry to hear about all of this! I'm so thankful everything seems to have turned out ok. I will say a prayer for your family.
Oh my goodness, Kim! What a nightmare! Family is always so amazing in these situations. The not nursing is had to be so hard for both of you.
When I hear of babies having to have surgery or some other procedure that requires fasting, I literally have a panic attack. With Lourdes' scans, she has to be fasting 8 hours. Three separate times in her NICU stay, she had to fast as she was headed back into surgery. The second time I couldn't nurse her for three days. A part of me died with the trauma of all she went through. So thankful you are home!!! I'm so sorry you had to go through that. My heart breaks!
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