Thursday, March 11, 2010

Katelyn's Kidney Scare

So from my previous post you may understand I was a bit consumed in preparing for the open house. Poor Katelyn has been doing great with the potty but recently strongly resisted going potty unless I went with her (she could do the potty dance for a couple hours if necessary). I knew this is sort of common and tried not to force her to go. I would simply ask her every 5 minutes if she needed to go and offer to help until she made the decision to use the bathroom. On Thursday she told me it hurt while she was going and I thought maybe she was a little constipated. It wasn't until she woke me up in the middle of the night asking if I would help her that I realized she was saying urinating was painful. There is nothing worse in the world than listening to your child shriek in pain and feeling powerless to stop it. Katelyn and I spent most of the night soaking her in the tub and then cuddling on the couch looking at her baby book and telling her every tiny detail about her birth and first days. So Friday morning (the day before the Open House) we scheduled an appointment with her pediatrician and spent a good amount of time trying to collect a sterile home sample. Here goes, place child in tub and wash body to sanitize her. Next sanitize potty with antibacterial soap and dry. Coherce child to use the potty as gently as possible (I will have nightmares for quite some time of her face of relief for the first 3 seconds of urinating and then awful pain and screaming as her nerves kicked in). Dump urine into pre-sanitized canning jar and label. Next drive to pediatrician's office ASAP so that they can test for bacterial growth. Not a fun adventure. Her pediatrician is awesome though and let us be seen during her lunch break so we wouldn't have to come back that evening. She put Katelyn on a sulfa drug due to her allergy to amoxacillin just in case it was a urinary tract infection but sent us and the sample to the hospital lab to test calcium levels indicating a kidney stone. This may seem a tad OCD but my neice McKell had kidney stone at age 2, my brother at age 5, me during pregnancies, and Nate's mom as well. We are still waiting on the lab results but nearly immediately she has been feeling better with the sulfa drugs and cortaid on the tender skin. We have implemented "Super Juice" in Katelyn's diet, Light Cranberry Juice, and focusing on keeping her highly hydrated. She's been a trooper to say the least. Today we celebrated a bit of family time with a trip to the Layton Surf-N-Swim for some swimming fun.

4 comments:

April said...

Oh Stace I am so sorry. There is nothing worse than seeing your child in pain. I didn't know you had kidney stones as well? And during pregnancy? How awful. I hope she's ok. Let me know if you need anything. oh and yes we STILL need to get together and have a play date. I've been sick with a horrible head cold so if I'm better next week I'll call. Love ya! getting excited to see your #3 girly so fun!!!

Tiffany said...

Poor girl! Hope she feels better soon.

HeatherB said...

I hope Katelyn fills better very soon, poor sweet girl. Give her kisses for us!

Katie said...

Oh boo - that is so sad! Poor little Katelyn. And sounds like you've been a trooper as well. I bet it was fun carting a jar of pee to the doc. I hope she feels better!