Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Fevers, fevers, fevers....

Fevers are not my friend.
They are not Elaina's friend either.

Today Elaina had her highest fever ever. It was 40.9 Celsius. Round it up and 41 C translates to 105.8 Fahrenheit, so she was just burning up. They gave her an "ice bath" by putting cold wet washcloths all over her body and under her arms. She's also on a cooling blanket. At one point her heart rate was 220 due to the fever, but once she cooled down, her heart rate went down too. The hard thing is that it keeps going back up if she's not constantly cooled and given both Tylenol and Ibuprofen. They drew more blood for cultures and also took a stool sample. I guess her diapers are very liquid with mucus and there was a tiny bit of bloody streak in some of the mucus in one diaper, so they decided to send a culture just to be on the safe side. They also stopped all of her diuretics and increased her fluid intake by quite a bit because she's just so dehydrated from the constant high fevers. Anyway, at this point I really don't know what's going to happen or when we will be going home. I talked with one of the nurse practitioners tonight about the possibility of transitioning to a Pediatric Transitional Acute Care facility and then to home. There are definite pros as well as cons to this possibility. There is just a lot that I have to think about. These fevers are scary and I truly want what is best for Elaina. I have some serious praying and tough decisions to make.
Ben and I had a great day today! We went to his Kindergarten assessment this morning. We asked the teacher about getting into the all day program and she said that we would need to test first. Well, he did such a great job that she told us that it was very unlikely that he'd get into the all day class. She said that the all day class is tailored to kids that don't know their abc's or how to write their names and such. I guess Ben's just too smart for his own good! I took him to lunch and to run errands afterwards and we had a great day together before I came up to the hospital.
Well, thanks for all the love, prayers and words of encouragement. This journey is difficult, but I know it's worth it.
Love,
Hollie, Ben and Elaina

4 comments:

Tina:0) said...

Sending cooling thoughts along with continued prayers!! Poor little cutie pie... I always hated seeing Vaeh's heart rate that high!

Way to go, Ben! Such a smart guy, I'm sure he'll love kindergarten!

The Portas said...

Fevers are so yucky. We'll pray really hard for that heat to escape that sweet little body. Sending prayers and hugs your way...hang in there. xooxxo

carolyn q said...

Oh Hollie,
This news just breaks my heart that she is continuing to deal with these fevers. I really hope the source can be found so it can be treated correctly to get it under control.
We all knew she was at Hottie, but not in this way.
And but of course. . .Ben is a smarty pants!
Heart Hugs,
Carolyn

Unknown said...

Those darn fevers. I freaked out when Arianna hit 102.6 the other day, so I can only imagine how you felt. This little girl is bound to keep you with those ICU nurses. She must like all the attention...but lets tell her she can tone it down a bit.

I'm so glad to here Ben is doing so well. He is going to love kindergarten!