On The Road to Recovery

Samantha mentioned in her last post that I would be writing with more info about last week's hospital stay. Well, I had every intention of doing that over the weekend, however, it looks like our crazy week at Good Sam finally caught up with me! I managed to come down with the nastiest bug over the weekend and though I picked it up from Al, (who subsequently picked it up from the hospital) I got it much worse than he did. Fortunately, I was able to see the Dr. and get a prescription and though Samantha has a stuffy/runny nose, I think our family is on the mend!

Anyway, back to last week.

We spent Saturday through late on Tuesday night in the pediatric ward at Good Sam. Though it was definitely NOT a place that Allen or I wanted to be, we both had to admit that they really did a good job making it as comfortable as possible not only for Sam, but for the two of us as well. Much like when Samantha was born, we had our own room (this time with a window!) complete with hospital bed, fold out chair/bed and crib for Sammy. We had access to a pantry with snacks and drinks, and we were so lucky to have friends and family drop by with all kinds of wonderful stuff. (Thanks everyone!)

Samantha's initial diagnosis was a urinary tract infection, but it turns out that she did have a kidney infection. The doctor told us to expect a minimum of 3 days in the hospital with IV antibiotics and while we were there, Samantha had a kidney ultrasound. The ultrasound detected that one of her ureters was enlarged, and as a result, the doctors are all fairly confident that she has kidney/ureter reflux. Simply stated, after the urine leaves the kidneys and goes into the bladder, if a person has reflux, the urine will travel back up the ureter and into the kidney. Sam will be having a test in a few weeks up at Stanford to determine whether or not she has reflux, and if so--to which degree.

Despite a rough first day in the ER, Sam was such a trooper throughout her hospital stay. She started to feel a lot better once the antibiotics kicked in and she made friends with all the doctors and nurses who came to check on her. Samantha had a ton of visitors in her short little hospital stay and it really meant a lot to Allen and I to have our friends and family around. Al and I spent every night (and almost all of our days) at the hospital with Sammy, and our time at the hospital reminded me of the weeks after Sam's birth when we were all home together. One of the nights, we had a new nurse and she kept telling Al that he looked familiar. After talking awhile, we figured it out--she was one of the nurses who "caught" Samantha right after she was born. From what she could remember, Dr. Reimnitz did the "hand off" directly to her! It was really neat to reconnect with her, especially since she usually works in the NICU.

We had such good care at the hospital and feel lucky that we were able to escape with such a short stay. The first hours in the ER were some of the hardest and scariest of my life and I am just so thankful to have left with our happy, healthy little girl. As mentioned in Samantha's update, Allen was hunting in the Central Valley and I know that it was so difficult for him to be away during the whole ER ordeal.

Since I came down with the plague on Friday, Allen took Sammy to the pediatrician for a follow up visit and they were satisfied. She will continue on antibiotics until we determine the cause of her kidney infection, and with the exception of a stuffy nose and some lingering sniffles, I doubt that Sam even remembers the happenings of last week! :)

Since we were cooped up in a tiny hospital room for so long, Al took a video of our surroundings. Though I hated having Sam in the hospital, I have to admit that she looks so cute in the tiny, yellow hospital gown...I know that the gowns belong to the hospital, but I couldn't help it--I actually brought her gown home to save with her special baby stuff!