we be illin'

sometimes when it rains it pours, thankfully though most times it just trickles. this week though i needed a very large umbrella and even then the rain leaked through.

on friday cohen still had the fever and i hadn't heard back from my doctor with the lab results so i phoned and sure enough the indication was a urinary tract infection. i naively thought this would mean a course of antibiotics orally and perhaps a follow up. if he was a year older i would have been right but given his age it meant a trip to the emergency at children's hospital. to be fair it isn't quite as dramatic as that, it wasn't an "oh my god" emergency. you see, there is a pediatric call group that works out of the hospital and it was one of them that we needed to see. i thought, again wrongly, that having someone expecting us and only using the er as a vessel to communicate with that party would mean that i wouldn't have to wait for hours. yesterday i got to the hospital at 12:30. we finally went home at 7:30. it wasn't such a great day.

the bottom line is that we don't know for sure yet if he does or doesn't have the infection. we drew blood for testing and inserted a catheter (not so much fun for cohen) to get a clean sample (as the previously tested sample could have been contaminated) and then we began a course of antibiotics intravenously (just in case, as it is important to start aggressive treatment as soon as possible). it took five attempts, two nurses and nearly fifteen minutes of screaming from cohen to get the iv in. i had to leave the room after about three. you may think you are tough but that, well that was a true test of strength and i just didn't have it in me.

then we were told to come back today and that it would be quicker, that there would be test results and we would know the further course of action and that likely he would have more antibiotics. so we went and again we waited, nearly four hours, in the waiting room before being taken in to a room and told that the lab wasn't back, his iv had fallen out (they send us home with it at night so that it could be reused) but that he could take some medicine orally that would produce the same results (ummm what!?!? he suffered through all that for NO REASON?) and that we have to come back and do it all tomorrow. when i asked why it took so long again today the nurse sheepishly replied that there was a "mixup" with our chart but that tomorrow would be better. i wish i could get that in writing. in the end todays total time tally was five hours.

so how has cohen been through all of this? so much better than i would have ever imagined possible. the nurses were all calling him a flirt, which is a tall order when they are poking and prodding him non-stop. and despite having to sit and do almost nothing for hours at a time he hasn't complained or thrown a fit once. he doesn't seem sick and if i didn't know he had been having a fever i would swear there was a mistake. i know it sounds like i am complaining a lot but i don't mean to. i wish we didn't have to endure the frustration but i never forget how lucky we are to have him, all of him, even his sickness.

so tomorrow we will find out more and if it is a uti then we will give a third course of medicine and then we will schedule an ultrasound to make sure everything is in good working order with cohen's insides. we will also need to follow up with the pediatrician (thankfully in his office) a few times over the next month to make sure it isn't coming back. hopefully, like galena, this was a one time thing and next week it will be a piece of our past.

this hasn't been such a great start to the year. i hope that means the rest of it is going to be perfect, although as long as i have my family then how could it be anything but?