We got back from Texas Tuesday morning. Soon after, Charity was complaining of her tummy hurting. She didn't seem too upset and so I wasn't really concerned. I figured she was coming down with a tummy bug.
But on Thursday morning when she awoke still crying about her tummy hurting, with more vigor, I figured this was no bug and I better get her in to a doctor. So I took her to the Instacare. The doctor at the Instacare thought she had appendicitis and told me to go directly to Riverton Hospital.
At Riverton, the doctor agreed that it looked like a classic case of appendicitis and ordered some blood tests, a urine test, and an ultrasound.
The blood tests came back with some numbers that didn't look good. Her wbc was at 24. (Normal is about 15.) Her blood pressure was elevated, heart rate not the best, and her LDH was also elevated. (Not the cholesterol LDH, it's a different chemical in her body. Sorry, I am not a doctor, so I may be explaining things inaccurately.) Her urine also had blood and crystals in it. And finally, to their surprise, her appendix looked just fine in the ultrasound. So they determined she likely had kidney stones and ordered another ultrasound.
That ultrasound came back with what appeared to be a couple of kidney stones in her right kidney and some blood and debris buildup in her bladder. They also said it looked like there might be a nodule in her bladder and that was very concerning. So they had her get her bladder flushed out and have another ultrsound of her bladder. I was freaking out at this point. Bladder cancer was on the radar.
Fortunately, her third ultrasound came back good! Her bladder flushed out well and it was not a nodule. We were extremely relieved. So their next diagnosis was that she probably had already passed some stones and that had been the cause of an infection in her bladder. And because of her blood numbers and continued pain, she had more stones yet to pass. This wasn't a fun thing for her to have for sure. But we were extremely relieved!
So they told me I could take her home for the night and as long as things don't seem to get worse, she would be ok. We would just need to wait it out for her remaining stones to pass, manage her infection and her pain. But they said to come back to the ER the next day for a re-evaluation. Also, to get in with a pediatric urologist in a week.
So the next morning I called the pediatric urologist who had reviewed her case. We got our appointment, but in the meantime, he ordered me to get this test called a KUB to get a more accurate diagnosis of kidney stones.
So I took Charity back to the hospital and we got the KUB test and checked back into the ER. She was feeling pretty cruddy.
And here is where things started to get even stickier. The KUB test came back totally clear. Her repeated blood tests came back very concerning. The two most concerning numbers were again, her wbc and her ldh. Her wbc which was up to 24 the prior day, was now 40! Her ldh was now well over 400. A normal number would be 40. The doctor was alarmed by these numbers. There was still blood in her urine and her blood pressure and heart rates were still a little abnormal. At this point he thought that maybe she did have appendicitis, but that it had already ruptured and that would be an emergency situation. So he immediately ordered a catscan. At this point Charity was beyond miserable. They gave her some morphine and about a half hour later she looked much better. Like this even:
They gave her a cute doll to color.
I wanted to include these cute notes the kids made for Charity. Her siblings have been concerned.
The one above is from Eden, below I am unsure. Probably Hana or Becca.
These are from Celeste, Andy and Jonah.
So unfortunately, the catscan did not have any answers. It came back pretty clear. Which is good, but also more disconcerting. The doctors were stumped and felt that she was very sick, but were not sure what it was. So they decided we better get her up to Primary Children's Hospital where they have access to a lot of pediatric specialists and more specialized tests.
They wanted her to go by ambulance, but they let me ride with her in the back. She was very scared. So to calm her down, I pulled out the camera and kept saying how cool it was that she got to ride in an ambulance and that I would take photos to send to the kids because they would be so jealous. That seemed to do the trick.
And she finally got some sleep after a very long, difficult day.
So that is where we are at today. We have seen 6 doctors so far. They seem to be working in teams of three to collaborate. They are very caring and seem to be quite competent. She had a long night. They poked and prodded her until midnight and she was so tired that she was crying and begging and pleading for them to leave her alone. Then when she got to sleep, she was doing a lot of moaning and groaning and saying "ouch" in her sleep. It was tough for me. I was really worried. So I laid with her and held her most of the night. Steve is here too. He managed to sleep.
They have all kinds of movies, games, toys, crafts and great resources here that she likes. It cheers her up.
They have ordered some more tests this morning, but want to get her a little sedated first. So we are waiting on that.
We hope for answers soon.
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