Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Admitted to Children's


Last week I called our Neurologist's nurse because Taylor has been peeing like crazy and it has a very strong smell to it. I wasn't sure if it was something I needed to be concerned about, because it started shortly after she went on the prednisolone. She talked to Dr. Sarnat and had us go for labwork that night. They took bloodwork but we were unsuccessful getting a urine sample from Taylor. The bloodwork came back fine, Dr. Sarnat was concerned about blood sugar levels and they were normal. The nurse said we should follow up with our pediatrician.

We went to see him this morning to address a list of concerns, the peeing being one of them. He did a thorough examination of her and asked us to go straight to Emergency at Children's because he was suspecting a kidney infection. He was suggesting that Taylor should be admitted to hospital for at least a few days and at the same time have them investigate his concerns about her failure to thrive, she hasn't gained any weight in four months.

So we headed straight to Emerg from his office and didn't have to wait long before they took us back. Once we got in to Emerg we had to wait for quite a while in our room before the doctor got to us. Finally they took a urine sample via catheter and sent it for testing. Results came back very quickly confirming a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). Apparently they are very common, and one of the top 10 things that little ones are admitted for. How she got it was likely three-fold. First, because she's a girl and the urethra is very short, secondly she's in the age group where they are most common due to being in diapers, and lastly because she's on prednisolone (which suppresses the immune system) so her body wasn't able to fight off the infection on its own.

The doctor admitted her as soon as the UTI was confirmed and said that it would require IV antibiotics and we'd likely be here for a few days. I came home once she was down for the night so that I could pack some clothes, and then headed back to the hospital to stay.

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