Baby James Has Had Enough!

Two Sundays ago I awoke to a horrid scene. Our precious James was not himself. He was pale as a ghost, grunting in pain and burning up with a temperature. At 10PM that night, Jay and I packed James up and rushed to the emergency room. We both knew something was wrong.

While waiting to see the ER Doctor, I changed James' diaper and to my surprise there was a tinge of blood in his urine. That prompted me to ask the doctor for a urine culture because having a baby with PUV means they are more at risk for urinary tract and kidney infections. After an examination and a heartbreaking catheter culture, the doctor released James with a prescription for antibiotics and told us to follow up with the Nephrologist that morning (at this point it was 4:30AM).

We drove home and caught about an hour of sleep then went to Baltimore to see the Nephrologist. The exam seemed to be going well. James is up to 15lbs, 25 inches and on the outside looks like your average healthy baby boy. Everything went well until the doctor checked James' heart rate. The look on her face told us things were worse than we thought. She excused herself and called James' pediatrician. By now Jay and I are tired, physically and emotionally tired. More bad news is not what we were prepared for.

Apparently James' grunting and tachycardia worried the doctors so we were sent down to the Pediatric ER. James had x-rays to rule out pneumonia and heart/lung problems, another catheter culture and a slew of blood work. The x-rays were fine but the urine showed infection as did the blood work. James also had a temp of 102.5 and his heart rate was around 202 bpm. The poor little guy was miserable, to look at him was like looking at another baby. He didn't look or act like our baby boy. To be honest, I felt like we were going to lose him. It is overwhelming having a baby with such severe health problems, all we want is to see him happy and healthy.

An infection we can deal with, as long as it isn't a kidney infection. I change his diapers even when they aren't wet just to avoid the possibility of a kidney infection. If James kidneys scar even more, he would most likely need a transplant. Transplants don't last long, maybe 10 years if you take meticulous care of them. Another round of doctors came in the speak with us and said that James was going to be admitted into the Pediatric unit. We weren't expecting that and let me tell you, any fears we had before were multiplied by a thousand, make that a million.

Just so I don't make this too long, I will condense the rest. Come to find out, James had a kidney infection. He was released Wednesday afternoon and was back to his old self. Flirting with the nurses, dancing up a storm and eating all he could. James' special nurse from the NICU even came to visit. The doctors think that James still has urine reflux so he will be tested again in May to see if the previous test in March was wrong. Until then he will continue taking antibiotics and I will continue to give him extra kisses.

On a brighter note, James has started solid foods. He loves sweet potatoes but carrots he could live without.

Please feel free to email me if you would like the full story of James' stay in the hospital. And if you don't mind, please say a little prayer for our sweet little guy, he has suffered enough.
Thank you and as always God Bless.