Camden and I were discharged from LDS Hospital on Friday, June 7th. As the nurses were giving me their discharge instructions, they mentioned all the things to watch for and be aware of. I've heard all this before so I was half listening. I caught the gist of it - and one of the things they mentioned was if the baby develops a fever within the next few weeks, we needed to take him to the ER. The nurse told me all the details were on our discharge forms and she sent us on our way.
It was nice to be home. Hard. But nice. The boys adjusted really well but Lauryn was having a hard time. She had been staying at Grandma and Grandpa's and is not used to being away from me. So she was adjusting to being back home and now we had this baby brother we had been talking so much about. And I was not feeling well so I wasn't pleasant to be around. It was a lot to deal with after just having a baby.
Camden was doing well. Early Sunday morning, while I was nursing him, I noticed that he felt a little warm to me. He had been bundled up in a blanket and he was laying against me so I thought maybe he just needed to cool off a little. I fed him and put him back to bed. A couple hours later I was nursing him again and he still felt warm to me. I really thought he just seemed warm, but I wanted to take his temperature just to make sure he didn't have a fever. I got the thermometer out and took his temp and was shocked to see the thermometer read 101.5. Wow that is too warm. I immediately grabbed the stack of discharge papers so I could read more about the specific instructions on the baby developing a fever. The sheet said that if the baby had a fever over 100.5 degrees, to rush him to the ER. I couldn't believe it. I was mortified. I thought about it for a minute, hoping that I was just overreacting and too tired to be making sense of this. But I knew we had to go. I wasn't willing to take the chance of him really being sick, and living with knowing that I had hesitated on getting him treatment.
It was about 6:30AM at this point and I woke Nate up and told him that the baby had a fever and we needed to take him to the hospital. Nate started getting dressed and I called my mom and asked her to come stay with the older kids while we went.
By 6:45 we were on the road and heading to Primary Children's Hospital. I was sobbing in the backseat as I sat next to my tiny newborn hoping and praying that he was going to be okay. But knowing in my heart, that we had a really hard day ahead of us and I was going to be tested as a mother. I knew I would be witnessing my baby being poked and prodded in order to help him get better.
As soon as we reached the ER, we parked and walked in to the hospital. There was a nurse right inside the entrance waiting for us. She took me and Camden back to a triage room and Nate went to the desk to fill out some paperwork.
The nurse took Camden's temp again and it was 101.6. She gave him some Tylenol to bring the fever down and proceeded to explain that when newborns, especially 4 day old newborns, come in with a fever, they have to be very, very cautious. It is not something to take lightly because it isn't normal for a newborn to have a fever and usually means the baby has contracted a serious infection. She sent us back to a room in the ER and the Pediatricians and nurses came in and started the process of running numerous tests to find out what was wrong. They could tell he was jaundiced and dehydrated; but both of those seemed normal to them based on him being 4 days old.
I don't want to go into much detail because it was a very traumatic experience and I don't want to remember any more details than I have to. The doctors took multiple blood, urine, and spinal fluid samples and had them tested. It took about 48 hours to have all the tests run and to wait for results. They said he probably has either a urinary tract infection, or some sort of blood infection. Their biggest concern at that time was that he had spinal meningitis.
Once they got his IV started, they started 3 different antibiotics and gave him lots of fluids. They took us up to the Infant unit on the 4th floor and admitted us. We had a pretty big room with a pull out couch for us to take turns sleeping on. We knew at that time that we would be staying for at least 24 hours.
They put Camden in the biliruben bed to bring down his jaundice level. After several hours of being there, Camden's fever had broken and his temperature stayed down. His blood work came back normal. His urine came back normal and we had to wait on the meningitis test, since they had such a hard time getting a spinal fluid sample.
The first night was rough. Nate and I had no clothes, no contact solution, no toothbrushes. We were exhausted and the nurses/doctors had to come in every few minutes to check on Camden's vitals and take more blood samples. We would hold Camden as much as they would let us. I nursed him as often as I could but he was so sleepy from all the trauma and medication he was on that he really wouldn't eat. My family held a fast for Camden and our family and Nate had given Camden a Priesthood blessing. It was a waiting game at this point.
By the next day, things were looking better. Cam's biliruben had come way down and he wasn't as dehydrated being on all the fluids. Most of the tests had come back normal by this point but we had to wait longer for the meningitis test. Nate and I had both been peed on several times by this point so Nate went and got us each a new set of clothes from a nearby store. The nurses brought us care packages with toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo and other essentials so we could clean up a bit.
Camden was doing well by the end of the second day but now his temperature was reading too cool and he was having a hard time staying warm. The meningitis test FINALLY came back and it was negative for meningitis (huge sigh of relief). They told us we would hopefully be able to go home in the morning. They just wanted to monitor him for one more night until he had been monitored for a full 48 hours.
By morning, Camden was doing better with his temperature and they started discharging us by late morning. By noon, we were on our way home, again.
His bili-bed was so bright, you can barely see him. He was attached to several monitors.
It was one of the worst experiences of my life. There are no words to describe how helpless I felt, watching my tiny baby, who I'd worked so hard to get here, be subjected to what he was subjected to. To not be able to hold him or even comfort him. Not knowing if his illness was life threatening or if he would be staying in the hospital long term or if he would ever come home again. It. was. awful.
We are so grateful that he is okay now. The doctors aren't sure what caused his fever. Their best guess is that he had some type of infection that was just getting started and because we took him in so fast and they were able to start the antibiotics so soon, they kicked the infection before it really got going.
Thanks so much to our family and friends for all the prayers, help, meals, and support on our behalf. We are grateful for Primary Children's Hospital and for the talented doctors there, but it is a love/hate relationship. And I will pray, everyday, that we NEVER have to go back.
