I want to thank everyone for their good thoughts and prayers as we dealt with Callie's hip problems this week. Thank you so much. Here's a recap, because I know many of you heard bits and pieces of the story and many want updates on our girl. What an ordeal this has been.
It's the worst feeling in the world to know that your baby is in pain, needs help and you can't do anything to stop the pain or help her :(
On Monday morning, Callie woke up at about 3AM, which isn't all that unusual. She complained her leg hurt, but was sleepy. I carried her into our bed and she slept for a few hours. At around 5:30 she woke up again, complained (she always complains in the morning about something or other though) again about her leg and saying that she wanted to get up and eat. I thought she was just doing her regular old complaining and told her to go back to sleep b/c it was too early to wake up and get cereal. At 6AM she started complaining more, said she couldn't walk (which, again, isn't unusual for Callie :). When she wouldn't get up to eat her cereal, I realized something must be wrong. I called the oncall pediatrician and she said to wait until 8 to make a same day sick appointment. At 8 we called and made an appointment and luckily got our regular doctor who is wonderful. We saw her at 9:15 and she said that we needed to go to the ER because she suspected it was something in her hip. Until this time, we had thought it was her knee or a sprain maybe, but weren't sure.
Callie's right leg was bent and she would not move it at all. She cried in pain when we moved her at all- even to put her sock on her right foot was excruciating. She had a bit of a fever (99 degrees) at the docs office, but she was quite bundled up, so they weren't sure if it was really a fever or just b/c of being too warm. We headed over to the ER and waited for 4 hrs in the waiting room. This was a feat b/c one of us had to hold her and we had to be still and hold her a certain way so her right leg could stay bent and turned outward or else she'd cry out in pain. We had to take Callie to the bathroom a few times (and we couldn't get her out of that certain position, so it was a struggle, even with our great teamwork, in an icky bathroom to manage it all. Finally we got a room in the ER. The first doctor came in and said, "Oh we'll give her some motrin and check on her in a half hour to get her to walk on it." Callie was funny about this- they'd ask her to move her leg and she'd move her good leg, haha. She pulled that on just about everyone that came to examine her. So anyway, half hour later (and still no motrin) the attending came in and examined her and said that it wasn't a simple problem that could be fixed with motrin, and that he suspected either hip inflammation or a bacterial infection in the hip. He ordered blood work, xrays and an ultrasound. He explained that if it was a bacterial infection, it would be a medical emergency and Callie would be sent up to the OR immediately and the orthopedic doctors would take over and open her up, take out all the bacteria (basically taking the hip joint apart to do it and possibly going into the bone if the bacteria had gone that far), flushing it out, putting antibiotics on it and that would be it. If it was the hip inflammation, we'd just have to be patient until she felt better.
The xrays were scary for me. I saw the films and there were a lot of bumps on the right side. I thought it was fluid and silently freaked out for the half hour until the doctor saw us- he let me know that was just gas :) So the xrays were actually reassuring since there were no signs of fluid in the hip. The blood tests were no fun for Callie- they had to do the IV twice as she wouldn't drip blood out of the first IV. The nurse came in and Callie was very calm, like sleepy almost, and she tried to give the IV w/o any help. I warned her that Callie could be a "F-I-G-H-T-E-R" and she proceeded to insert the needle and Callie flipped out while the needle was half in her vein. Good thing for the nurse that Callie's leg was hurt, I guess, b/c she was limited in her reaction as she really couldn't move her trunk or lower body. IVs are horrible, IMO. I really felt for her. She cried and cried and was just so sad to have to go through all this. She cried that she just wanted to go home and to Grandma's house to build her gingerbread house. After the IV was in, she refused to use either arm the whole night since she was poked in both and they were both sore. Here's Callie eating frenchfries w/o arms :) She felt pretty bad at this point, but was trying to stay a trooper. She thought it was funny when I told her she reminded me of a giraffe eating leaves.
We waited an hour or more for the ultrasound. The doctors told us that if there was an "effusion" on the ultrasound, they'd have to biopsy the fluid. I watched the ultrasound and was able to easily see there was a large amount of fluid visible on her right side. When we got back to the ER we were immediately told Callie couldn't have any more fluids or food to prepare for surgery :( The orthopedic doctors, radiologists and the general doctors all came to meet with us and explained their respective roles in all of this. One thought that it was an infection b/c her right side seemed "warm" compared to the left and that was indicative of an infection, another thought since her pain was so bad and she refused to move or bear weight it was an infection.... Her blood work came back in the meantime and the white blood count, and whatever else they checked all came back good, but they thought maybe we caught the infection early and it didn't show up in the blood yet.
She was wheeled up for the procedure at 10 o'clock or so. She was very thirsty, but excited to go on another ride in her bed. She was tired at this point, but still smiling at us. They let us stay with her in the room for a while as they were giving her some of the medications. They didn't put her completely under, just used conscious sedation. It took them quite a while and a lot of different meds, they said, to get her to be consciously sedated enough. They used a needle guided by ultrasound. When outside, we did hear her cry out once, but that was it, and I suspect that was before they had even started- probably from moving her. When they shut the door to the room, that was the hardest part. Our fear was hidden while we were with her. We were both being strong for her. She had no idea what was going on, what she had to go through, or what the possibilities were of what was wrong with her. She just said she wanted to be fixed. As Karla put it, she was a "brave little toaster." I fell apart when she was in there. Shad was great, reassured me that she would be fine, but he was so scared too. The procedure only took about fifteen minutes or so, but God knows those were about the longest fifteen minutes of my life. Shad and I did so much during those fifteen minutes- washed our hands over and over, went to the bathroom a few times, cried, hugged, prayed, begged, and prayed some more.
Finally the attending came out and said they drained 2 1/2 ccs of fluid from her hip and that the fluid was clear and bloody, which was fantastic news since it meant it wasn't obvious that it was an infection. They had warned us prior that they could know right when they drew the fluid whether it was an infection b/c it'd be puss. So we were praying that the fluid would be clear. The doctor explained she'd be in pain. He said they had to numb it several times to the bone, then they stuck the needle to the hip, moved it around to get it in the joint, then removed the fluid. He then showed me the fluid they took out and it looked scary all bloody and what not, but he assured me it was good looking stuff..... We went in w/ Callie and she briefly awoke with a smile :) She stayed asleep and when the sedation nurse lady was trying to arouse her about a half hour after the procedure she kicked with both legs, which seemed like a good sign b/c at least she was using her right leg.
I went home to the other two babies at around 1:30 in the morning and Shad called twice to tell me that Callie was up walking in the middle of the night, standing on her leg, which was great news. I got back to the hospital around 6 or so and Callie was favoring her leg and acting like it hurt. The preliminary tests on the fluid were good, so we were hopeful. The doctor came in and made Callie get up and she did and walked for her. It was wonderful to see!
Within a half hour, here was Callie running around the hospital. What an amazing recovery. The day before she couldn't even walk, then she has a needle shoved in between her hip joint, and she's up and running. I was fearing the worse and am so happy. The preliminary result of the fluid is good, but we have to wait two days for the full culture, so we'd appreciate all the prayers and good thoughts you can send us.
We were home by 1:30 today. As we were leaving Callie said, "I'm so happy they fixed me". Callie slept several hours at Grandma's house. When she woke up, Emmy said "oh no, Callie, I heard you had an owie." Callie said yeah, and pointed to her bandage from the IV :)
So what caused this? They think it was caused by an upper respiratory infection (cold). The doctors explained that when we're sick our bodies put out antibodies to fight the cold. Sometimes those antibodies get confused and go fight something else. In Callie's case they started fighting something in her hip which caused the fluid to collect and inflame the hip joint. Weird, huh? I guess this is fairly common, occurring in 1 out of every 3,000 kids. It's most common in 3-5 yr olds and more common in boys than girls.
Want to know more about it? http://orthopedics.about.com/od/pediatrichipinjuries/a/synovitis.htm
Want to know more about the scary one?
http://orthopedics.about.com/od/pediatrichipinjuries/a/infection.htm
On Monday morning, Callie woke up at about 3AM, which isn't all that unusual. She complained her leg hurt, but was sleepy. I carried her into our bed and she slept for a few hours. At around 5:30 she woke up again, complained (she always complains in the morning about something or other though) again about her leg and saying that she wanted to get up and eat. I thought she was just doing her regular old complaining and told her to go back to sleep b/c it was too early to wake up and get cereal. At 6AM she started complaining more, said she couldn't walk (which, again, isn't unusual for Callie :). When she wouldn't get up to eat her cereal, I realized something must be wrong. I called the oncall pediatrician and she said to wait until 8 to make a same day sick appointment. At 8 we called and made an appointment and luckily got our regular doctor who is wonderful. We saw her at 9:15 and she said that we needed to go to the ER because she suspected it was something in her hip. Until this time, we had thought it was her knee or a sprain maybe, but weren't sure.
Callie's right leg was bent and she would not move it at all. She cried in pain when we moved her at all- even to put her sock on her right foot was excruciating. She had a bit of a fever (99 degrees) at the docs office, but she was quite bundled up, so they weren't sure if it was really a fever or just b/c of being too warm. We headed over to the ER and waited for 4 hrs in the waiting room. This was a feat b/c one of us had to hold her and we had to be still and hold her a certain way so her right leg could stay bent and turned outward or else she'd cry out in pain. We had to take Callie to the bathroom a few times (and we couldn't get her out of that certain position, so it was a struggle, even with our great teamwork, in an icky bathroom to manage it all. Finally we got a room in the ER. The first doctor came in and said, "Oh we'll give her some motrin and check on her in a half hour to get her to walk on it." Callie was funny about this- they'd ask her to move her leg and she'd move her good leg, haha. She pulled that on just about everyone that came to examine her. So anyway, half hour later (and still no motrin) the attending came in and examined her and said that it wasn't a simple problem that could be fixed with motrin, and that he suspected either hip inflammation or a bacterial infection in the hip. He ordered blood work, xrays and an ultrasound. He explained that if it was a bacterial infection, it would be a medical emergency and Callie would be sent up to the OR immediately and the orthopedic doctors would take over and open her up, take out all the bacteria (basically taking the hip joint apart to do it and possibly going into the bone if the bacteria had gone that far), flushing it out, putting antibiotics on it and that would be it. If it was the hip inflammation, we'd just have to be patient until she felt better.
The xrays were scary for me. I saw the films and there were a lot of bumps on the right side. I thought it was fluid and silently freaked out for the half hour until the doctor saw us- he let me know that was just gas :) So the xrays were actually reassuring since there were no signs of fluid in the hip. The blood tests were no fun for Callie- they had to do the IV twice as she wouldn't drip blood out of the first IV. The nurse came in and Callie was very calm, like sleepy almost, and she tried to give the IV w/o any help. I warned her that Callie could be a "F-I-G-H-T-E-R" and she proceeded to insert the needle and Callie flipped out while the needle was half in her vein. Good thing for the nurse that Callie's leg was hurt, I guess, b/c she was limited in her reaction as she really couldn't move her trunk or lower body. IVs are horrible, IMO. I really felt for her. She cried and cried and was just so sad to have to go through all this. She cried that she just wanted to go home and to Grandma's house to build her gingerbread house. After the IV was in, she refused to use either arm the whole night since she was poked in both and they were both sore. Here's Callie eating frenchfries w/o arms :) She felt pretty bad at this point, but was trying to stay a trooper. She thought it was funny when I told her she reminded me of a giraffe eating leaves.
We waited an hour or more for the ultrasound. The doctors told us that if there was an "effusion" on the ultrasound, they'd have to biopsy the fluid. I watched the ultrasound and was able to easily see there was a large amount of fluid visible on her right side. When we got back to the ER we were immediately told Callie couldn't have any more fluids or food to prepare for surgery :( The orthopedic doctors, radiologists and the general doctors all came to meet with us and explained their respective roles in all of this. One thought that it was an infection b/c her right side seemed "warm" compared to the left and that was indicative of an infection, another thought since her pain was so bad and she refused to move or bear weight it was an infection.... Her blood work came back in the meantime and the white blood count, and whatever else they checked all came back good, but they thought maybe we caught the infection early and it didn't show up in the blood yet.
She was wheeled up for the procedure at 10 o'clock or so. She was very thirsty, but excited to go on another ride in her bed. She was tired at this point, but still smiling at us. They let us stay with her in the room for a while as they were giving her some of the medications. They didn't put her completely under, just used conscious sedation. It took them quite a while and a lot of different meds, they said, to get her to be consciously sedated enough. They used a needle guided by ultrasound. When outside, we did hear her cry out once, but that was it, and I suspect that was before they had even started- probably from moving her. When they shut the door to the room, that was the hardest part. Our fear was hidden while we were with her. We were both being strong for her. She had no idea what was going on, what she had to go through, or what the possibilities were of what was wrong with her. She just said she wanted to be fixed. As Karla put it, she was a "brave little toaster." I fell apart when she was in there. Shad was great, reassured me that she would be fine, but he was so scared too. The procedure only took about fifteen minutes or so, but God knows those were about the longest fifteen minutes of my life. Shad and I did so much during those fifteen minutes- washed our hands over and over, went to the bathroom a few times, cried, hugged, prayed, begged, and prayed some more.
Finally the attending came out and said they drained 2 1/2 ccs of fluid from her hip and that the fluid was clear and bloody, which was fantastic news since it meant it wasn't obvious that it was an infection. They had warned us prior that they could know right when they drew the fluid whether it was an infection b/c it'd be puss. So we were praying that the fluid would be clear. The doctor explained she'd be in pain. He said they had to numb it several times to the bone, then they stuck the needle to the hip, moved it around to get it in the joint, then removed the fluid. He then showed me the fluid they took out and it looked scary all bloody and what not, but he assured me it was good looking stuff..... We went in w/ Callie and she briefly awoke with a smile :) She stayed asleep and when the sedation nurse lady was trying to arouse her about a half hour after the procedure she kicked with both legs, which seemed like a good sign b/c at least she was using her right leg.
I went home to the other two babies at around 1:30 in the morning and Shad called twice to tell me that Callie was up walking in the middle of the night, standing on her leg, which was great news. I got back to the hospital around 6 or so and Callie was favoring her leg and acting like it hurt. The preliminary tests on the fluid were good, so we were hopeful. The doctor came in and made Callie get up and she did and walked for her. It was wonderful to see!
Within a half hour, here was Callie running around the hospital. What an amazing recovery. The day before she couldn't even walk, then she has a needle shoved in between her hip joint, and she's up and running. I was fearing the worse and am so happy. The preliminary result of the fluid is good, but we have to wait two days for the full culture, so we'd appreciate all the prayers and good thoughts you can send us.
We were home by 1:30 today. As we were leaving Callie said, "I'm so happy they fixed me". Callie slept several hours at Grandma's house. When she woke up, Emmy said "oh no, Callie, I heard you had an owie." Callie said yeah, and pointed to her bandage from the IV :)
So what caused this? They think it was caused by an upper respiratory infection (cold). The doctors explained that when we're sick our bodies put out antibodies to fight the cold. Sometimes those antibodies get confused and go fight something else. In Callie's case they started fighting something in her hip which caused the fluid to collect and inflame the hip joint. Weird, huh? I guess this is fairly common, occurring in 1 out of every 3,000 kids. It's most common in 3-5 yr olds and more common in boys than girls.
Want to know more about it? http://orthopedics.about.com/od/pediatrichipinjuries/a/synovitis.htm
Want to know more about the scary one?
http://orthopedics.about.com/od/pediatrichipinjuries/a/infection.htm
And aside from all this drama, this was Thomas' first night being away from mamma and his first time having formula! He did just fine. Uncle Eric, Marcos and Alice visited Callie in the ER and on their way out they took Thomas some milk that I had pumped. It was awful to be back in that NICU pumping room where I was almost a year ago because Thomas was the one then scaring us.
So again, please keep the good thoughts and prayers coming Callie's way that she continues to recover and that her lab tests all come back ok. It was heartwarming to have so many people show their concern for our Callie. Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment