I thought we were just here for surgery??

Well, in True Cornish Fashion, Wesley couldn't be outdone by James, who caught Staff during his hospital stay for Salmonella.  Or Emma, who had an allergic reaction to an antibiotic after her tonsil surgery.  Or Micah, who contracted hospital-borne pneumoniaa in his already-aspirated lungs after Emma's heart cath.  Or Brianna, who caught a bacterial infection after her open heart surgery.  No, he couldn't be outdone by his other special needs siblings, and here we are, still sitting in the hospital when we *thought* we were just here for surgery...

Wesley's 102.7 temp earlier in the day was the turning point for him, and I only hoped we could go home today.  We were pretty close, actually!  We got the car harness, learned how to use it, signed off on all of that...  We already have his wheelchair.  He's off of the IV and has been pretty comfortable during the day with the oral meds.  His temp even went down to 99 something after Tylenol and Motrin.  Then, the ortho asked if we felt comfortable going home.

Let's see... we're taking home pain meds including Tylenol, and we have Motrin at the house.  No issue with fever regulation as long as those are cutting it.  He's not in super-pain from the surgery, for the most part, with the meds that he's on and we can, again, supplement Motrin as needed as well.  He's 'junky' sounding, but that's not the end of the world.  Lungs sound clear and Respiratory Therapy doesn't feel a breathing treatment will help at this time.  IF he does need one, as determined later on by our pediatrician, we happen to have two nebulizers at our house.  We even have Albuterol, Xoponex, and Pulmacort on hand and don't have to go to the pharmacy if he needs something 'immediately'.  So as long as it's manageable, we're good.

We were given the go-ahead to go home!

Then, he came back in a few minutes later and said "on second thought, that was a high fever today.  Better hang here and let's consult with the Hospitalists (general practice physicians) tonight.  At least one more night and let's go from there.

Darn.  So close...

So instead of worrying about hips and pain, we instead did a chest x-ray, a Strep swab, flu and RSV swabs, a blood culture, and he was cath'd but... with no urine result.

Fun stuff, right?  After all... I thought we were just here for surgery??


A few results are in-- lungs show bilateral (something) effusion.  Explained to me as liquid in the sac around the lungs.  Needs to be watched and monitored to be sure it doesn't turn in to pneumonia.  Nothing that can be helped by breathing treatments (still LOL).   Strep is negative (WHEW).  Just did the rest of the tests, and of course need to redo the urine attempt bc she either didn't get it into the bladder or he had no pee...

So, the search continues.  The great hunt for the cause of the high fever.  Next up, a second attempt at a urine cath for a culture and hopefully a few results.  Of course not any time soon since this is a hospital.

Oh, and we have the same nurse as last night and we are hoping for the best :)  She DID get his blood draw on the first try, and decided on her own to have someone else do the cath since she didn't get it the first time.  Off to a better start... Let's go for optimism that we'll all have a good night!