The Day Brooke Got A Catheter (or 3) for Her Birthday

So I am going to have to rename this blog... it just doesn't seem like my posts are about anything funny. Just yucky stuff, most of which seems to happen to Brooke. So today, my sweet baby girl turned one. Just like most parents I know, I really wanted to make this a special day for her. I've been thinking about it and planning what we could do for weeks. I know she won't "remember" the day, but there will be scrapbook pages and photos and I want her to see those things and know that we were excited to celebrate her first year of life. Katelyn's first birthday was so special. My mom and dad, Kyle's mom and dad and Aunt Megan and Uncle Derrick (aka Uncle Hat) were all there to celebrate with us and it was wonderful! So for Brooke's big day I wanted to do something that would be equally as memorable. Today was definitely memorable, but for all the wrong reasons...

On Saturday, Brooke woke up from her afternoon nap with a fever. It was high, but ibuprofen lowered it right away. She acted fine and was still eating like a champ so we didn't worry too much about it. She has been working on cutting several teeth, so I was hoping that was all it could be. She slept well that night, but woke up on Sunday with another high fever. Ibuprofen lowered it again but it came back as soon as the medicine wore off. She still acted fine but this cycle continued through Monday night, but by then she quit acting fine and started acting really sick. So on the morning of her 1st birthday, she woke up with a temperature of 104 degrees. She looked horrible and for the first time in her life, didn't want to eat. That's when I knew she was sick. While we waiting for her appointment with the doctor, this photo shows what she did. If she moved at all, she would crawl about 12 inches and then just lay down on the floor. Katelyn was so distraught that she was so sick on her birthday. That girl loves a good party and the thought of her sister's first birthday party being canceled seriously rocked her five year old world.

So we went to the appointment at 10:30 and the good news was that her ears and throat looked good. The bad news was that a fever that high could be the sign of something else and not just a virus. Brooke also winced in pain during her abdominal exam, so the doctor said we need to get a clean urine sample. That meant a catheter... I knew it wouldn't be pleasant, but she'd had one done before. So I reassured Katelyn that it would be quick and help them figure out what was wrong with the birthday girl. That's where I was really really wrong.

After 45 minutes of failed attempts, the nurses told me that they couldn't get the catheter in and that they suspected adhesion's were blocking things. They kept giving each other furtive glances and when ever I would ask them a question to clarify what all this meant they would say "Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves, let just concentrate on getting a clean urine sample." OK, I have seen way too many episodes of ER... I know that deflecting questions like that isn't a good sign. But since Katelyn was with me and freaking out a little bit, I had to be the grown-up and reassure her. At that point, the doctor sent us to their other office in the Valley so that another nurse could give it a try. As we were leaving, Katelyn said "Mom, this is seriously the worst birthday party EVER!"

Thank goodness the nurse at the other office knew what he was doing. He got the sample quickly and said that everything looked fine. What a relief. So we went home and Brooke continued on with her fun birthday as seen in this photo.

Just after she fell asleep I realized that we (meaning me) left "blankie" at the doctor's office. The snow was really starting to come in, so just as I had decided to let blankie spend the night at the office, the doctor called and said that the urine sample wasn't completely clear, so because of that, the high fever and the abdominal pain, they wanted to give her a super antibiotic shot. That meant we could rescue blankie too, so we went and picked Katelyn up from school and then went back to the doctor's office. She got her antibiotic shots (one in each leg) and then they had us wait for 20 minutes to make sure she didn't have a reaction to it. Thank goodness blankie was there. She didn't react to the shot, but by the time they were ready to let us leave her fever was 104.5. They let us go, but told me that if it didn't go down after taking ibuprofen, to call and to call them during the night if it got that high again. It is nice to have them be so available, but it always makes me nervous that things are more serious than I realize. She was grumpy the rest of the night, but slept quite well (only got up once and her fever was only 102.5). By the next morning her fever was gone but she still had a serious case of the grumpies and gas. We are just so relieved that she is getting better and look forward to "officially" celebrating her birthday now.