Just wanted to give an update on Rachel. Honestly, we don't know much more today than we did yesterday, but we did have an "eventful" day. This morning I talked to the pediatrician's office to find out that we were going to have to repeat all of the labs we had done last night at the hospital because they didn't get enough blood. The bloodwork they did do showed Rachel's CBC to be abnormal, but they're not putting much stock in that since the blood draw was done from her heel instead of her arm.
So, we went back to the doctor's office to have the nurse there do the blood draw from her arm since the hospital wasn't doing it right. Well, after about 20 minutes and sticks in both arms, we still did not have any blood - what we did have was a screaming baby. We were able to get a urine sample and they went ahead and ran the labs on that in the office. It showed something was elevated, but apparently since it wasn't urine from a catheter, whatever showed up is probably nothing. (does that even make any sense?)
Then there's the issue of the arterial blood gas. This is the test that will help the pediatrician determine a lot of different things, so we really need to have this done. However, typically hospitals only do this test on babies when they're admitted - not as an outpatient procedure. Apparently you have to have some special training to find the arteries in babies and draw the blood. But, one hospital in Arlington said they could do it as an outpatient procedure Thursday afternoon. This is going to be interesting because we're supposed to be catching a flight to Raleigh Thursday morning.
Basically everything is still up in the air and we don't have any answers. We'll be talking with our doctor again tomorrow about all of the tests and when and where we'll be getting these done. In the meantime, Rachel has been a champ. She has been running a little fever today due to her vaccinations yesterday, and she's obviously been fussier than normal, but overall she's doing great. We just keep praying that she'll surprise us and put on some pounds in the next couple of weeks.
Thank you, everyone, for your prayers. We'll keep you posted.
Bless Rachel's heart. We will continue to keep you all in our prayers.
ReplyDeleteWe are praying for you and I'd call you right now to tell you except I don't want to take the chance on waking you :)
ReplyDeleteI've been there with taking blood and cathetars on my baby and it stinks. When Addi was less than a month, they stuck her (now my memory fails me, either 5 or 7 times) and got nothing. They also catherterized (is that a word?) her. All of it was awful. We were supposed to be leaving that afternoon for Thanksgiving and they kept threatening to put her in the hospital.
We understand your decision and we will miss you, but agree that your first priority is that little girl. Give her a kiss from the NC Parkers.
Lisa, We'll keep Rachel in our prayers, as well as the family.
ReplyDeleteBless her little heart. She is in all of our prayers.
ReplyDeleteWe're praying for your sweet girl, and for you and Clay as you watch her get poked and prodded.
ReplyDeleteLisa,
ReplyDeleteYou are one of the strongest women I know. You were born wearing armor and you have put it to use over the past few years. We are praying for your whole family and your armor to hold up in this battle. We love you all! Jessica
Keeping all of you in our prayers and hope that little Rachel feels better soon and that all of the tests come back okay - wish more people were trained better at drawing blood from babies - we've had our share of losers in that dept. and were so relieved when we found a winner (allergy testing)....still, it was nothing like what they are trying to get from Rachel, poor thing - Love y'all!!
ReplyDelete