Wednesday? She's totally fine. Took her to meet some people at the office and joked that she was faking sick to play hookie.
Thursday? She's still good - goes to school, no fever, great! Toward the end of the day, she started not walking as much, but thought maybe it was just a phase that would be over by morning.
Friday? She crawled to her breakfast chair, which was odd; but, didn't really think anything awful of it. Still no fever. Take her to school and I get a call that afternoon that she wouldn't walk or stand and just cried/screamed in pain if they tried to stand her up and she seemed to be favoring her left leg. I took her to the doctor and they said it is likely "Transient Synovitis." Basically some joint inflammation that occurs after having a virus. They weren't worried too much because she didn't have a fever; but wanted check points over the weekend to make sure it didn't become something much more serious - specifically "Septic arthritis." We were told to treat the inflammation with Motrin for several days. Easy!
Saturday? A little sluggish in the morning, still no fever and by afternoon she was all over the place - walking, climbing, you name it! Hooray- she's getting better!)
Sunday? She woke up miserable and didn't want to be put down. We could tell she was in pain again but though maybe it was just some morning-related stiffness. By afternoon, she wouldn't stop fussing. We'd been on the phone with the doctor a couple times and they decided they wanted to see her Monday for some blood work and x-rays just in case. Still no fever, but better safe to check her out than sorry later. That evening, I noticed Piper feeling warm so I waited for the current dose of Motrin to wear off and took her temp-- 101.3. Called the doctor and we were off to the ER.
I honestly thought we'd come in, get some x-rays, get an antibiotic and head home. WOW. I was totally wrong.
After waiting just over 2 hours at Vandy Children's ER, we were seen and they immediately did an IV and drew blood to culture. Next, we were off for X-rays and then they decided to give her some morphine for pain. Still thinking it is septic arthritis at this point- and her pain and fever were pretty intense. The morphine helped, but it was very sad to see her all doped up.
After x-ray, the next step in the plan was to draw fluid out of the hip joint - (a "tap"). This requires full sedation and anesthesia-- Needless to say, I was pretty torn up over this. Normally they do an ultrasound of the area to see where the fluid is and guide the "tap" to the right place. Turns out ER doesn't get use of ultrasound equipment on nights or weekends (yeah, weird) so they decided to do it "blind" (it's 3am at this point). They didn't get much out and what they did get wasn't suspect though it was sent off for culture anyway since they might have simply not gotten the right spot going in blind.
I will add here that when poor little Piper was coming out of anesthesia for this procedure, she looked at me so sad and did the sign and said "all done. all done." It broke my heart.
Next up....MRI. This wouldn't be a fast one. At 4am they decided we should get her in for an MRI to REALLY see what was going on in there. They didn't know when we could get in for that so she stayed doped up on morphine. I've been told that the guy who runs the MRI department, Brad, spent his entire morning (Monday) re-arranging the schedule to get Piper in fast. They knew time was important - after all, she hasn't been treated for anything yet. The MRI wouldn't happen until 11:30am on Monday and I was super torn up. She would be anesthetised and the whole procedure would take 4 hours. Fortunately, I had a slew of visitors during this time and was able to "breeze" through the 4 hours (sort of).
The MRI results told us that it was NOT septic arthritis but rather a massive staph infection in her thigh and pelvis, with an absess in her pelvis that caused some temporary nerve damage so she was having no bladder response. Her bladder was huge and no doubt contributing to the pain.
So a catheder, more pain meds (morphine and toredol (sp?)), and a stat order (literally) of two big gun antibiotics got her started. Monday night was a little rough but I managed to get a small amount of sleep.
Tuesday was filled with frustration after frustration as we had numerous catheter glitches ALL day. Toward the end of the day, she really started rallying and has been babbling and even playing with toys. HALLELUJAH!
Just a few minutes ago, she got her catheter REMOVED!!!!!! Much earlier than they anticipated, but it seems she's a fighter and had started pushing urine out around the cath anyway. GO PIPER! They've also called off the MRI for tomorrow - not sure if that's just a postponement or a change of plans; but I don't care right now --- As I wrap up this entry, she's just playing with a book and some of the many toys she now has to play with!!! Love the happy sounds and smiling face coming back. It's been missed.
Here's to hoping for a good night's sleep...the 4 hours I've gotten since Saturday night don't seem to be enough.
Thanks again for all the love we're feeling. I'll post some more tomorrow - I have lots of stories and thanking to do!!
Good Night Blog World!
KB
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