Ugh...

So the last week has been awful, to say the least. My poor little Samuel Paul was hospitalized. He had a urinary tract infection. We noticed that he was fussy a day or so before he started getting the fever. We thought it was thrush. He's had that for about a week now, so we just assumed it was the diaper rash and sores in his mouth.

About 3:00 on Wednesday, Sam was REALLY crying. We tried everything to get him to stop. I noticed he was warm, so I had Greg take his temperature. It was 101.9, which in a baby is dangerous. So, off to the hospital we went. On the way there, I took his temp again, and it was 103.5, which terrified me.

So, we got to the emergency room. They ran a series of tests on him to try to find out what the problem was. One of the tests they had to do was a lumbar puncture to test for Spinal Meningitis. A lumbar puncture is also known as a spinal tap. Poor Sam was stabbed in the back with a long thick needle about 12 or 13 times. The first doctor had a really hard time getting the fluid, so that's why he had to be re-punctured so many times. The second got it on the second try. It was awful!
So then they did an IV and blood tests and the poor little guy was just crying like you wouldn't believe. I had to feed him countless times that night to settle him down. He was then transferred to another hospital where he would stay for two more days. The next hospital was a lot nicer, but we still felt very traumatized. We had not been expecting what happened, and it was really hard to accept anything anybody told us. By the time we were released on Saturday, we felt like we were ready to crack up.

So Sam is doing okay. But unfortunately, it's looking like he's in for surgery. He has what is known as Vesicoureteral Reflux.Basically, it's that one of his uriters (the tubes that connect the kidneys to the bladder) is not functioning right. It looks like it is twisted and longer than it should be. This causes a problem with urination where pee actually backs up into the kidneys again, causing infections. The only way to correct this particular type of problem is through surgery. There are lesser degrees of the same condition, but Sam's kind of the worst case senario. So please pray for him. He's on antibiotics and stuff, so he won't be getting an infection again (we hope). He's really doing better and his thrush is MUCH better than it was. But we are so sad that he has to have an operation. Talk about trauma for the little man. We are hoping that they can get it done as soon as possible so we don't have to think about it any more. But the doctor on the phone said that the specialist that will be doing the surgery is very busy and it could be a couple of months before he's available to even do a consultation.

I'm scared. Being a mom is hard enough. Dealing with all this is something that I never believed would happen. It is going to be a tough few weeks ahead.