You give me FEVER!

**UPDATE BELOW**
**Oct 12 2009 9:00pm:  The blood culture came back and there is no infection in Audrey's blood! Praise the Lord!  The fever is gone, and she's starting to get better, more like her cheerful self.  AJ is still a little whimpery and not really interested in eating much yet.  We need to get her at least drinking the proper amount of liquid and hopefully get the renal ultrasound tomorrow.  Thank you for the continued prayers and support!  God is good.** 

It has not been an easy week around these parts.  In particular it has not been an easy week for our Audrey Bell.  As many of you Facebook followers already know Audrey is one sick little girlie and is one heck of a little trooper. 

We came home Sunday after church and it seemed to me that Audrey had a little bit of a fever cooking.  I took her temperature and sure enough she had a low, low grade fever, which we chalked up to the fact that she is currently working on cutting 4 teeth on the top all at once.  And that I had dressed her in many layers because I wanted her to wear this adorable new fall/winter dress I had just bought and didn't want her to be cold.  Subsequently I figured I'd turned her into a little furnace.  So, I did what I always do when the temp is low and I figure the  culpret is nothing major, I dressed her in much cooler  clothes, gave her some extra water and waited a bit.  It seemed to do the trick and by bedtime she was fine.

Tuesday went ok, with her being a little less interested in food than usual but again teething can do that.  I kept an eye on her and carried on.  As much as I understand teething hurts I don't give our kids medicine too quickly, there are often other alternatives to teething relief.  That and by allowing them small (nothing major of course) amounts  of discomfort you teach your kids pain tollerance.  If she'd have been miserable I would have given her something but she wasn't.

Tuesday night, in the middle of the night however, was a different story.  She woke up wimpering and when I went in to give her, her soother back she was burning up.  I got her up, grab the thermometer, Tylenol and water and settled in for a long night.  Wednesday wasn't much better, I continued to give her the Tylenol which would bring her fever down but not get rid of it and carried on our day, watching my little girly very carefully.

By Wednesday evening things were looking much too much like when Bethany had a bladder infection when she was 6 months old and I decided to head for the clinic.  So on went the urine collection bag and off we went.  I learned with Bethany to keep those little bags handy at home for these situations, then when you get in to see the doctor you have a clean sample to give rather than wait around for your munchkin to pee once there.  So they tested her urine and sure enough, bladder infection.  He gave us some antibiotics and home we went.

Thursday went ok, the fever was still there but I was managing to keep it down with Tylenol and Advil and was fully expecting by Friday for it to be gone.  Well, Friday rolled arouund and Audrey still had a fever.  I tried everything, even phoning the pharmacist and asking how long antibiotics usually took to work.  Her advice, if the fever wasn't gone by the evening head back to the clinic.

I was in the process of changing Audrey's diaper and making that decision when she had a really strange breathing spell, started to shiver and her skin went all mottley.  I knew her fever was on the rise.  So, back to the clinic we went, were I expected a new prescription and to be sent home.  Rather he took her temp, which was 39 or 102 and sent us directly to the ER.

Back in the car we went and settled in for a long wait.  It took about 1.5 hours to even get past the waiting room and a total of 2.5 hours to be seen.  By that point her fever was up, she looked aweful and the resident decided to bring in help.  She and the other on duty doctor agreed with me that somethhing wasn't right and they called the pediatrician.

In the meantime, while they waited for him, we went for a chest x-ray (which if you've ever had to put your little one through that it's aweful!  Big contraption that pins their little arms in the air), had blood taken a little bit of Tylenol which she proceeded to spit all over my face....it was awesome :).

The pediatrician came in and took a good look at my girl and determined that while yes she had a bladder infection, it had spread back into her kidneys and possibly into her blood stream.  She was going to need IV fluids, antibiotics and some more tests.  It was about 11:30 at night by then, Corey was at home trying to hold down the fort with Bethany, while getting sleep for his 10 hour shift early on Saturday morning and worrying about us.

After that things went in a blur, IV was started and Audrey cried for only the second time that night.  I called Corey, and my Mom and started making arrangements for Bethany and to get what Audrey and I would need for an over night in the hospital.  Then Dave, our nurse came back and announced "We don't do pediatrics  here, you're going to have to go to Abbotsford to the new hospital.  And with as bad as she' s doing and the IV you have to go by ambulance."  Great.

More arrangements, now for my car too, panic, frustration, and worry all set in.  My Mom arrived, gear in tow for what I thought would only be an overnighter and we were loaded into "The Bus".  Poor Audrey wailed then, she didn't like being strapped down and that Mommy could only see her not hold her.  Our Ambulance attended Phil (who told me the real scoop on the strike, I'll share that later) was awesome, pulled out his iPhone full of kid tunes for his little ones and had her settled in short order.

2am we arrived at the hospital and spent another 45 minutes getting settled into our room.  Where the nurse informed me that we'd probably be here at minimum 48 hours.  The night held high fever and little sleep, and while I held onto my Audrey I also held onto the hope that yesterday, which was then tomorrow would be a better day.

I met with the doctor yesterday and she said that as it turned out the first course of antibiotics didn't work for Audrey.  Her body and the infection were resisting it and that was why the infection spread.  She changed the drugs and said hopefully by today, Sunday we'd start to see some change.  She also informed me that we are going to need a renal ultrasound on Audrey because the infection is so severe they want to make sure it doesn't have something to do with her waterworks.  She also mentioned yesterday that they want to make sure that this infection hasn't caused any damage.  Her best guess, with the long weekend, it would probably be Tuesday before we went home.

My Mom, grandparents and Bethany came to visit and left.  Audrey and I hung out, I walked with her, I held her and I loved her.  I also hooked up both the TV and internet this hospital offers in EVERY ROOM!  That's right, I have a TV/computer that I'm writing from as we speak.  That's awesome.  We also have a private room because she's a baby and there are no such thing as visiting hours on our floor.  Corey came and went and Audrey and I started on our second night.

It was worse than the first.  Audrey's fever hit 40.1 or 104 and then after some meds dropped a little and then went back up.  It's been down for a few hours now and we are hoping and praying that it will stay down.

The pediatrician was back in this morning and announced that while Audrey's white cell count is going down and that's FABULOUS we need to get her fever really under wraps.  She has to be eating better and fever free for 24 - 48 hours before they'll even entertain the idea of removing the IV and then we have to stay after that, plus we still need the ultrasound.  So it's Wednesday at the earliest that we go home.  Possibly later.  Until the culture comes back tonight or tomorrow morning on whether or not the infection is in her blood we are on hold.

So that's the scoop folks.  We are stationed here in good ol' room 4121 in Abbotsford for a few more days.  I do have the internet so I can get and send e-mails.  I have my cell phone, which I am answering when I hear it and Corey is on his last shift for a day or two so he'll be around.

Thank you for your prayers, we appreciate them.  For those of you who were expecting phone calls, I'm not calling out long distance on my cell and Corey has had very little time.  We will call but it may take a bit, I hope this will sufice and know if you need to contact us, you can try the above mentioned ways.

Thanks again!  Here's hoping for a cooler night.  Ps.  Keep checking back on this post as I will add updates as we know what's happening.  An update will have the date and **in front.

**UPDATE: OCT 12 200 4:30am: Audrey is finally sleeping on her own (up until now mostly in with me) and while her temp looks like it could be on the rise, she has been
fever free for 12 hours.  She has had a more sleep tonight than the past 3 nights and would have more if we didn't have to keep checking her.  She had a bit of a rough go around 9:30pm, I was cuddling her because she was wimpering and she sat up, pulled out her soother and threw up.  Probably just the meds, making her tummy yucky.  Thanks for the prayers, and keep checking back.  Love, Corey, Ashley, Bethany and Brave little Audrey.**