Infection control

What a whirlwind this last two weeks had been. It all started on Monday 8/19 during Preston's albumin infusion.  Prior to his infusion he was his normal super happy, wild kid wandering throughout the house, playing in the bathtub and having a good time.

During his infusion he spiked a fever while sleeping and was nearly 102 degrees.  He seemed really uncomfortable and shaking and chilling and a complete 180 from his behavior in the morning.  We suspected an allergic reaction to the albumin or infection, so off to the emergency room we went in a flurry.  

On the horn to Preston's nephrologist at Lucille  Packard children's hospital, they were not surprised of the symptoms and said, we'll see you in a few hours.  At the emergency room thing escalated fast.  The fever rose to 104.8 and our amazing nurse got Tylenol in him quick, drew labs and collected a urine sample for culturing and sent them off speedy and skillfully.  Preston did experience febrile seizures but it wasn't after too long that the meds kicked in and the seizures stopped and fever was reduced to normal.  Off we went in an ambulance to the airport in Red Bluff.  I was able to fly with Preston to Palo Alto so I was thankful thathe didn't   have to fly this time by himself with the flight team.  Although it was scary, I will say it was kind of a fun experience, while I hate to admit it.

We did discover that Preston did have an infection of some kind and had symptoms of sepsis as it was in his blood.  They cultured his csf and did a lumbar puncture and thankfully that was negative, although he had already had antibiotics.  All further labs were all negative so it was evident that he was responding well to the antibiotics.  After several days the lab was still attempting to grow the bug to find out what type.  It was apparently a very difficult bug to identify because it ha to be sent to several labs, was slow growing and something that was typically only found in tropical regions and in South Asia. The team of doctors questioned if we had an iguana at home or any exotic plants, if Preston had been gardening or had any plant puncture wounds.  The answer to all of those was no so everyone was and is still scratching out heads.  The bacteria could have been transferred from his gut by means of something he ate that sat in his bowel, so of course I wonder, was it an avocado, a mango or the coconut milk that he are/drank? Or was it just a weird bug that was introduced into his IV line causing the infection? Who knows.

It only took Preston about 3 days to make a full recover, but try held onto us at the hospital for 8 days to monitor and try to identify the susceptibility of the infection and make sure they were treating him with the right antibiotics.

Preston is showing his skills with the stethoscope and his IV pump. We're practically pros!

So, I know I had many cranky Facebook posts while we were in jail, I mean at the hospital, but I am very thankful now in retrospect for the care that we received by all.  This trip also helped to prepare us for the next two steps in this journey.  We're probably going to be scheduling the nephrectomy soon, but we would like to know that we have a for sure donor candidate before we take that step.