Another Long Night…

Lucy had sustained fevers of 105 most of the day and night.  Temperatures that high make for one very hot and irritable baby and one worried mama.  Rectal Tylenol did nothing to bring down the fevers.   IV Toradol seems to be helping a little, but is causing irritation in her stomach lining which is causing some gastric bleeding.  We are going to increase her IV Protonix, a med we use to treat her reflux, and switch her to morphine to help with the irritation.   

Her GI system is a mess as she is draining a fairly good amount of  brown sludge and blood out of both her g and her j tubes.  She is uncomfortable, hypersensitive, and does not like it when you have to move her.  She is nauseous, retching and gaging, and trying to throw up, but really she can’t because she does not have the muscle tone to do so.  We are having to suction her to help clear her airway. 

Her diaper area is raw from the acidity of her urine and stool and the constant yeast infections,  it has been like this for months, but has now been taken to new heights.  We are going to try a new barrier cream on the skin around her diaper area called Ilex.  Only problem, I can’t apply the cream just yet because I have to be able to clean her bottom very well so as not to trap any of the acid under the barrier cream.  This is just not something she is willing to have done to her at the present time…I don’t blame her!

Cultures have not grown anything…yet.  The suspicion is that she is growing a fungus because of the way she is presenting.  Fungal infections are notorious for very high fevers.  We have been treating Lucy for fungus off and on for the last few months, her last treatment ended about ten days ago, just enough time for it to grow back.  Dr. R told us that it can take days for fungus to grow on a culture, so fungal blood cultures are being drawn today in hopes of getting something back sooner, as well as viral nasal swabs  just to make sure we are covering all of our bases.  We are going to go ahead and start Lucy on IV antifungals because we are so suspicious and she is so sick.

Drew and the kids are going to head over here sometime this afternoon.  Megan and Jack are doing better, Jack is back to his usual but Megan is still so tired.  Our kids are on spring break this week, go figure.  We are working on plans for next week as far as who is going to be coming and taking care of the kids.