Hospital stay

Boy did that turn out to be a way longer stay than we'd anticipated. Turns out that her U.T.I was caused by an antibiotic resistant bacteria called pseudomonas. They don't really know how she might have picked it up. It's kind of an uncommon cause of UTIs, not unheard of, but not very common. She (and I) had to stay at the hospital for the entire ten days of antibiotic treatment because there isn't an oral medication to treat it, only IV. When children her age get a UTI they check the renal system for problems. So they did a renal ultrasound and a voiding cystourethrogram, where they use contrast dye to look and see if there is urine backing up the ureters. They found that she has grade III vesicoureteral reflux on the left side, which means that she is, in fact, backing pee up into the ureters and the renal pelvis. Hopefully it'll be something she grows out of, but until then she is on prophylactic antibiotics.

We've been very thankful for friends who've made dinners both for me while I was staying at the hospital with Hannah and for Andy and the kids at home. It's also been a blessing that Andy has a job that easily allows him to be off for ten days to be with the kids without a lot of hoop jumping and paper work and taking sick days. And I've been extra thankful for mom's knowledge of all this peds nursing. It helped me keep on top of things at the hospital when I knew something wasn't quite right, but didn't know what was right.

In non hospital related news its snowing, and very lovely. We had to go to a doctor's appointment for Hannah today, and we had to head down just as the snow was starting to collect on the roads. We had quite a scare on the highway when a semi passed us on the left and then decided to come into our lane without regard for the fact that we were there. I'm glad to be home and not out there driving, and that I don't have any place to be the next several days. It's much easier to enjoy the snow when I don't have to drive in it. : )