Hi, Cyn, Michael, Dawn, and all!
We're doing okay here. I know I've been remiss in not checking in before.
March and April were horrific for us, and what follows may not be for the easily disturbed: Natalie, who'd just turned 6 months, developed swollen nodes on the right side of her neck...for no apparent reason. They got bigger and bigger and redder. Oral antibiotics didn't work, so they put her in the hospital (and us along with her, of course). They tried IV antibiotics...that didn't work, either. They tried "draining" the area -- while she was awake -- horrible and ineffective. Finally they had to do surgery, and found that her cervical lymph nodes had completely liquified. Nothing left. She recovered from the surgery and we were sent home a few days later.
About a week later, the exact same thing happened on the LEFT side of her neck. Again, they tried oral antibiotics to no effect. Put her and us right back in the hospital, tried IV antibiotics, no help, at least this time they skipped the waking draining procedures and took her to surgery. This time, they acted soon enough that they were able to save most of the lymph nodes on that side of her neck.
They wanted to send us home with a PICC line -- a catheter that goes through a vein from either the arm or the neck to the heart, so that we could continue to administer IV antibiotics at home for 3 weeks. Unfortunately, the neck wasn't an option (because both surgical sites were there). And their efforts to put in a PICC line through the arms were disastrous: they stuck her 5 times (over the course of two days) trying to feed in the line. Finally, they got through on the sixth try (they couldn't get it all the way to the heart, but close enough, they felt) but an hour later, when giving her antibiotics through it, it burst through the vein in her chest, sending saline and antibiotic directly into her chest tissues instead of into her circulatory system. That's when we said, "No more."
They tried putting her on a strong regimen of oral antibiotics. She seemed to tolerate it okay, so once the drain was removed from her neck a couple of days after the surgery, we took her home. That was about a week and a half ago. She's finally off the oral antibiotics, and her immune system will be rather weak for the next 6 weeks or so.
But man, she's a trooper...she smiled ALL THE TIME and charmed the pants off of much of the hospital staff. Mom and I were wrecks, and got no sleep (living at the hospital for most of April), but so far, Natalie seems to be doing just fine. No recurrence of the Cervical Adenitis (the infections tested positive for staph), no problems with her overall immune system. And no explanation for what caused the problem in the first place, but we've been told we'll probably never know.
Hence my slovenliness in answering emails lately!
So...what's new with YOU?
Josh
We're doing okay here. I know I've been remiss in not checking in before.
March and April were horrific for us, and what follows may not be for the easily disturbed: Natalie, who'd just turned 6 months, developed swollen nodes on the right side of her neck...for no apparent reason. They got bigger and bigger and redder. Oral antibiotics didn't work, so they put her in the hospital (and us along with her, of course). They tried IV antibiotics...that didn't work, either. They tried "draining" the area -- while she was awake -- horrible and ineffective. Finally they had to do surgery, and found that her cervical lymph nodes had completely liquified. Nothing left. She recovered from the surgery and we were sent home a few days later.
About a week later, the exact same thing happened on the LEFT side of her neck. Again, they tried oral antibiotics to no effect. Put her and us right back in the hospital, tried IV antibiotics, no help, at least this time they skipped the waking draining procedures and took her to surgery. This time, they acted soon enough that they were able to save most of the lymph nodes on that side of her neck.
They wanted to send us home with a PICC line -- a catheter that goes through a vein from either the arm or the neck to the heart, so that we could continue to administer IV antibiotics at home for 3 weeks. Unfortunately, the neck wasn't an option (because both surgical sites were there). And their efforts to put in a PICC line through the arms were disastrous: they stuck her 5 times (over the course of two days) trying to feed in the line. Finally, they got through on the sixth try (they couldn't get it all the way to the heart, but close enough, they felt) but an hour later, when giving her antibiotics through it, it burst through the vein in her chest, sending saline and antibiotic directly into her chest tissues instead of into her circulatory system. That's when we said, "No more."
They tried putting her on a strong regimen of oral antibiotics. She seemed to tolerate it okay, so once the drain was removed from her neck a couple of days after the surgery, we took her home. That was about a week and a half ago. She's finally off the oral antibiotics, and her immune system will be rather weak for the next 6 weeks or so.
But man, she's a trooper...she smiled ALL THE TIME and charmed the pants off of much of the hospital staff. Mom and I were wrecks, and got no sleep (living at the hospital for most of April), but so far, Natalie seems to be doing just fine. No recurrence of the Cervical Adenitis (the infections tested positive for staph), no problems with her overall immune system. And no explanation for what caused the problem in the first place, but we've been told we'll probably never know.
Hence my slovenliness in answering emails lately!
So...what's new with YOU?
Josh
