RC Daniels: What a weekend

I'm still recovering from our stressful, sick child weekend. Willa had a UTI. It was horrible. And if you don't want to read too many details, I suggest you stop here. I noticed symptoms several days earlier, but they could all be explained away by a persistent diaper rash that she has had. Both last Sunday and Thursday she has had a screaming fit while going to the bathroom and several times when I change her diaper the urine smell is just so strong and a little off. However, both of these things could occur with a yeasty diaper rash, which is really common in this humid climate. Since I often rush to the doctor when nothing is really the matter, I decided to wait a few days - if it was just the rash it would clear up, if it was a UTI she would get sicker. Well, sicker she did get.

Saturday morning she woke up with a raging fever. I mean RAGING. I got home from running and she was sitting on the couch with Ryan. She was so hot and shaky and could hardly form her words. She did manage to say, "Mommy, I no feel no good. Mommy I feel bad." It was pretty sad. I gave her a big dose of ibuprofen and called the nurse.

She wanted us to come right in and made an appointment within an hour. Here's the tricky part. Willa is not potty trained yet. She has gotten to the point where she is excellent at holding, but can't quite relax the right muscles to go on command when she's not wearing a diaper. They had to tape a little bag to her to try to catch the urine. Of course she screamed through it all. Then, she wouldn't go. I don't know if it was the feel of the bag or that she had just gotten so sick that it hurt too bad, but she would not urinate. We waited at the doctor's office for over an hour and finally they decided to use a catheter.

Oy, so the catheter was very sad but very quick. That nurse was good! They got the sample but they told me that they didn't empty her bladder completely and that it was still full. I thought she'd be able to go once her diaper was back on and the bag was gone, but no. Anyway, basically 7-8 hours later and still a bone-dry diaper, we called the nurse who thought we should probably take her to the ER. The nurse checked with the doctor and the doctor said we could wait a few more hours.

Willa was so hot, crying, and just miserable. We didn't know if it was the fever, the infection, or the need to go to the bathroom that was bothering her. Some more ibuprofen finally got the fever down and we tried to get lots of water in her with little games. We dyed the water colors, put it in her little tea cups, and fed it to her with a spoon. We just had to push the liquid because otherwise she wouldn't take anything. Finally, with enough distraction and ibuprofen, Ryan talked her into going swimming (we really wanted her to do something fun that would relax her and get her mind off it). She sat at the edge of the pool for about 30 minutes and then suddenly ran full-tilt into the water and played hard for quite a while. We think the water was distracting enough that she was able to relax and finally empty her bladder. Sorry other swimmers and thank you chlorine! She went to sleep that night and I checked her several times. In the morning she had a nice wet diaper again, so I felt like we were out of the danger zone.

Yesterday she was still pretty hot and cranky, but today it is less and she is doing much better. I hope I never have to go through that again, but with two girls I'm pretty sure it's inevitable. Next time, as soon as I see even one slight symptom I am going to take her in. If we would have treated it at the beginning of the week, we wouldn't have had all the drama with her not being able to go potty or the fever. We could have just started antibiotics and been done: wham, bam thank you m'am. It was harrowing for me and I feel like I'm still coming off the stress of it all.

We're leaving for Utah in two days and I'm sooo glad this didn't all go down when we are flying out.

I'm not going to subject anyone to pictures of a sick child, but here are some fun days pre-sickness. Playing at Jayden's house: