Gavin Walks In Evie's Shoes

Gavin got a taste of what it's like for Evie to get poked and prodded because I rushed him to the ER Thursday night around 9PM because he had a fever of 102.4F. Turns out he has a urinary tract infection ("UTI"). He was given some liquid Tylenol and that reduced his fever to 98F degrees by 1:30AM, and he was much calmer, and sleeping.

The nurses had a heck of a time trying to get an I-V into him (he's only 2 months old!). Three different nurses tried until they had success. Poor little guy was stuck 4 times until one worked. It was hard hearing him cry that much, but at leastI'm somewhat used to it having gone through all of this with Evie already. He was admitted to the Pediatric (PICU) unit and they're going to keep him for 24 hours, as they have to administer 3 doses of the antibiotic via an I-V every 8 hours.

Sharon had noticed that he was unusually fussy throughout the day, but the unexplained fever didn't hit until the evening (which is one of the symptoms), and his crying was different. It wasn't his usual "I'm hungry" cry, but it was more of a painful wail. It was very upsetting becuse we could tell that something was wrong, but we just didn't know what; but he was clearly in uncomfortable, and Sharon could tell that "something wasn't right" with him. We took him and Evie to Evie's appointment with her cardiologist (more on that below), and he slept during the whole visit, but the fever really cranked up when we got home.

We took his temperature and called the on-call pediatrician when we saw that it was so high. The doctor told me to take him to the ER so I zipped on over there. Unfortunately, it had begun to snow heavily around 8PM and the roads were terrible, so I had to do 20-30MPH in 2nd gear the whole way, but luckily there were no incidents getting to the hospital.

One of the ER nurses said that he probably got the UTI from having a bubble bath. I'd never heard of that or read about that, and the nurse in the pediatric unit had never heard of it either. However, several of the websites that I just searched for info about the infection state that bubble baths can irritate the urethra. The only rule we knew was "no submersion until the umbilical cord is healed."

So, Gavin should be fine, but this was quite an ordeal for parents and babies. The ER and PICU staff at Edwards was great and made the experience better. On the plus side, we got to weigh him, and he was a whopping 9 lbs. 14 oz.! He's gained almost 3 lbs in a month, and he also grew 3" longer.


Evie & Gavin

Quick update on Evie. She is seeing her cardiologist weekly now to monitor her oxygen saturation levels. She is still doing good, and--barring some unforeseen complication--the surgeon wants to put off the surgery until mid January so that she gets bigger. He is going to be cutting and reattaching her arteries that send blood to her lungs, and attaching a gortex-like shunt to the pulmonary artery, and the more mature her arteries are, the better it is for the surgeon to make good, secure stitches.

Unfortunately, they doctors do not recommend that Evie (or Gavin) go to day care because of exposure to germs, and also, because Evie will be much more fragile after her first surgery, and up until the second surgery is performed. We have to try and not let her cry at all (sounds impossible, I know), but there is a risk that prolonged crying (even for 5-10 minutes) can jar the shunt loose. We were specifically told to spoil her and do our best to prevent her from crying after her first surgery.

So, now we're frantically starting a search for a full time nanny. So if anyone knows of someone, please let us know!