Welcome Back!

Well, my one month planned break from the blog turned out to be a little longer. Sickness has not stopped visiting us. We spent every month since March with someone being sick. Unfortunately, June and July it was Irene and she was very sick indeed.

 

After school finished we had Irene's 6th birthday which was an absolute blast. She is all about Build-A-Bear so she got a lot of gift certificates to the place. We enjoyed a couple of weeks of summer just relaxing. Then Irene got a pain in her side. Then a high fever. Then a very high fever. We ended up taking her to one of the urgent care places in the city. I gave them all the info about her fever and pain. The doctor decided that because of the area that Irene was experiencing pain and the very high fever we needed to take her to the Children's Hospital. The doctor called them to let them know we were on our way. At the time it was suspected that Irene had appendicitis.  

 

 

We were taken back to a room as soon as we got there. An ultrasound was scheduled. After the ultrasound, blood work and urinalysis the news came back that Irene had a very bad urinary tract infection that was well on its way to involving her kidney. The emergency doctor decided that Irene needed to stay in hospital so that she could be given massive doses of antibiotics. Plus, she was still experiencing the high fevers.

 

We were moved to their observation unit which is just a hallway away from the emergency area. This unit had crafts for the kids to do and Irene made two beaded bracelets and painted. All the rooms in the hospital have tvs that have access to a ton of movies. We watched a lot of movies during our stay.

 

Irene spent about two days in hospital. When the discharge doctor was doing her final assessment she asked if Irene had a heart murmur. Uh...no. Never has any of her doctors said that they've heard one. Well, this doctor said she could definitely hear it and that illness with make a murmur much more noticeable. We left the hospital with several prescriptions for Irene and a new report to take to her doctor for a follow up visit.

 

We went to Irene's doctor for the follow-up. At the time she was feeling better and her office urinalysis came back clean. The doctor had an EKG done in the office after listening to her heart and hearing the murmur himself. The doctor felt that this murmur is showing all the signs of being an 'innocent murmur' which means that it isn't too serious. However, because it is a new murmur and discovered during an illness she has to see a pediatric cardiologist. They will do an echo cardiogram and ultrasound to see how the blood is flowing to and from her heart and how the valves are working.

 

We went home with this new info and set about waiting for the appointment with the cardiologist and trying to get our summer back on track. Then about a week after finishing the antibiotics Irene starting complaining that her side hurt. Then she started with a fever. Then the high fever. As soon as the fever started climbing we were back into the doctor's office. Another urinalysis was done and another, longer and stronger, antibiotic was given. She was put on restricted activity and told to drink a lot of fluids to flush out her kidneys. Another follow-up appointment was made.

 

I am happy to say that this last dose of antibiotics seem to have done the trick. August has been spent illness free for Irene. We do have the cardiologist appointment set up for the first week of September. Unfortunately, that means she'll miss a day of school that first week of school, but I've already spoken to her teacher about it.

 

So, we have fully gotten into 'getting ready for school to start' mode. Henry will be in second grade this year and starting at a new school. Irene will be in first grade and has the same teacher that Henry had last year. Gavin will be starting preschool. He even got a scholarship through Great Start that covers the cost of the entire year. He'll be in the same preschool program that Irene was in when we first moved here. I think they did a great job with her and I'm looking forward to what Gavin will do in the program.

 

We finish August with school meetings and getting ready for September. Let's hope for good things to come!!