As some of you already know, Finn was very sick a couple of weeks ago. He was running a high fever of 103-104, not eating much, and was pretty cranky especially at night. He had times when he would be crying inconsolably and there would be nothing we could do that would make him feel better.
We thought he might have another ear infection, since he has had a few of those, but he had an appointment with the ENT that checked his ears and they were fine. So Bridget took him to the pediatrician, but they weren’t concerned since his temperature was under control at the time because of some infant Tylenol. Since Bridget knew something was wrong and insisted that he did really have a very high fever, they send him for a chest x-ray and some blood work.
That night his temp shot way back up again and we both knew something just wasn’t right. So we took him to Chester County ER, where he threw up all over me as we were walking through the door. At least we didn’t have to wait for them to take him back! His temp was so high that the triage nurse had another nurse take it again and verify… it was 106.5.
They put an IV on him to give him some fluids, although it took a while for the nurse to be able to get one in because he was so small and already a bit dehydrated. The on call doctor from CHOP examined him, and reviewed the chest x-ray and blood work he had done a few hours earlier. She was just as confused as the pediatrician was, and also questioned if he really had a temperature that high.
He also had a bag put on in order to capture a urine sample. We noticed that he hadn’t gone in a while. Then after a crying fit we noticed he had gone, so that was the first time we suspected a UTI or something similar. A quick read did show the doctor some numbers which indicated a possible UTI, so a culture was ordered and Finn was admitted and put on some IV antibiotics.
He starting responding after a day or so, with his temperature slowing going down a bit each day, and he was more himself. After 3 days the diagnosis was officially made as bladder infection from the culture results. He was discharged and given a 10 day course of antibiotics to continue at home, which he completed over the weekend.
On Friday, he had a voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) test in order to see if urine was passing back into the kidneys, which could be a cause for the infection. It was immediately shown that this did happen on the right side, so he was diagnosed with vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) grade 2.
Last night he had a very rough night again, sleeping for only 4 hours total and crying as if he was in pain. Bridget and I took him back to the pediatrician again this morning. The pediatrician did a urine test in the office and said the initial results appeared negative to her, but they are going to send out a culture to confirm if he has another infection again.
They did start him on a course of prophylaxis antibiotics, which he will be on until he is 5 years old, when he should naturally outgrow this condition. We are going to take him to a urologist with this new information so they can do more testing & examinations and determine what the best course of treatment is going to be for him.
Finn is just such a happy, wonderful easy going baby, so it is very difficult to see him going through this. Hopefully we’ll be able to find a treatment that works quickly so he won’t have to go through this anymore.
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