MaKenzie Could Use Your Prayers...

Harold left around 5:15 am to take MaKenzie to the hospital in Lexington (unless he decides to go on to Cincinnati). She woke up yesterday just fine, chattering on about anything and everything as usual. But around 1:30, she started getting really whiny and pouty, complaining of a headache (which sometimes you can buy, but sometimes she can be quite a "drama queen") and by 2:30, she was throwing up. She threw up twice, continually complaining of her head hurting and eventually developed a fever. For the rest of the afternoon and evening, she slept fitfully on the couch, waking up to cry every little while, then falling back asleep.

Vomitting, headaches and fever are symptoms of shunt problems, but they are also symptoms that she has with her recurrent UTI's. And, of course, they are also frequently symptoms of just a plain old virus. So we never know, and unfortunately, the only way to find out is to go to the ER and have blood and urine tests/cultures.

Because I had been somewhat "off my feeds" the day before with similar symptoms and it only lasted a few hours, we had planned to wait until later this afternoon to make a decision. We were hoping maybe she and I had both just had a virus and she would be feeling better. Around 3:30 am, we decided that we needed to take her on in because she was so miserable. We had her in our bed so we could keep close tabs on her, and she was waking every few minutes crying and hurting. We were worried that since she wasn't keeping anything down and couldn't drink, she'd end up dehydrated and she wasn't able to take any of her regular medicines or any Motrin for her fever, which was getting pretty high.

So, if you think of her today, just pray that the docs would find the problem quickly and that they wouldn't have to be too invasive. Everytime we take her in, they want to do shunt taps, and spinal taps and all these very painful, invasive procedures. It's very hard on her and makes her very scared of all doctors' visits which isn't good since she has SO many on a regular basis. Of course it's also very emotionally hard on Daddy and Mommy, especially whichever one is there with her at the time. We are thankful that medical care is available for our kiddos, but it sure is hard to see them poked and prodded, especially when it's so hard for them to understand why it has to be done.