Pyelonephritis....again!

I thought the flu was hitting our house.  Kaitlyn started throwing up on Monday, and running high fevers (up to about 105*f).   We treated it with the usual regimen.... alternating Ibuprofen and Tylenol, activated charcoal, probiotics, Zofran, and tried to push the gatorade and fluids.  While doing all of this, I was not feeling so great, so I was convinced it was the flu.  I started feeling better really soon, but she didn't.  

(She slept on the well-protected couch downstairs, to be close to our room and the bathroom.)

By day 4, I was starting to get de ja vu of last February.  I made a doctor appointment for her and asked them to check her urine.  Poor girl, when the fevers hit, she is just miserable.  She just gets so pale and lethargic, and cannot quit vomiting.

 

 My suspicions were confirmed.... pyelonephritis again.  They gave her an IM antibiotic and sent her home on oral antibiotics.  She started feeling a little better that night.  Thank you, Jesus!  They had us come back the next day, but felt like she was doing well enough to not do another IM antibiotic, and just wait for the urine cultures to come back.  She still ran low-grade fevers and threw up a couple more times, but was slowly getting better.  

After the 5th day of the oral antibiotics, the culture and sensitivities grew back on her urine, and showed that the antibiotic she was on was not effective on the type of bacteria that was growing.  We started a new antibiotic, and she hasn't ran any more fevers or thrown up.

It felt like we had our own little pharmacy on our kitchen counter.  I finally had to start making a list of what she had taken, and when.  I couldn't keep up with it all anymore.

Since this was her 2nd bout of raging pyelonephritis, the doctors feel it is important to get the pediatric urologist involved, and do some testing.  She goes in next week for an ultrasound of her kidneys and a VCUG (a test performed using a catheter, contrast [dye], and imaging, to see if she is having urine reflux back into her kidneys).  We are praying, of course, that everything is normal with her anatomy, and that there is no reflux.  This is one of those tests that I have prepped parents and patients for many of times, yet never imagined that my own child would be having one.