Back Home ... Again

With the approval of Froggie and Elmo, Karissa was back at home Sunday afternoon - napping after giving up hope on the Rangers and Cowboys.

The final analysis of her illness is this: urinary tract infection, as evident by the sight of Enterococcus Faecalis in her urine - a bacteria/germ that gets into the urinary tract via feces. Much like E. coli, but not E. coli. In the end, we could have had sensors in her diapers telling us exactly the moment she poops, we could change it within seconds, and she could still get it. Poop is going to be near the nether bits in the little greenhouse confines of a diaper one way or another.

One weird twist is that the doctor said there were such low traces of this bacteria, it was as low as many other germs often found and classified as "contaminants", introduced by the catheter. So, in reality, possibly, the germ they found could have come from the catheter - and her fever was just caused by some other virus that Kathy, Kole or I gave her.

That's all water under the bridge. Eventually they did find something and kept her to treat it. She was discharged today (at 10:00am on 10-10-10, oddly enough) and came home and that's that. She will have to go back in and have a test where she will again be catheterized, they will inject a dye into her bladder, then the process is essentially a flouroscopy of the dye - watching the muscles pee the fluid out, making sure that no fluids are going in reverse - back into the bladder. That would help explain some of why bacteria was allowed to get up her uretor - if that's what happened. Again, the germ they found very well could have been a contaminant of the instrument used to catheterize her the first time. Whatever. Prescribe my girl some drugs, tasty little fluids that get injected into her mouth, let her heal at home and leave her alone.

Now - Kole is as sick as a dog. He's been hacking like he just smoked a pack of Benson & Hedges Menthol 100s. He has a snotty nose and is too young and too much of a boy to care so he takes his hands, wrists and elbows and rubs the snot around his face from ear to ear. It's cute but ... he's sick and it shows. His eyes are tired and red and he'll likely see a doctor tomorrow if nothing improves from the over-the-counter medicine we're dousing him with.

It's been an interesting past few days, but again we find ourselves thankful for Joan putting everything she has on hold to help out and stay with Kole, as well as all the friends and family who kept Karissa and our little clan in their prayers. But, nothing can make me as thankful for the scene right now - all four of us under the roof we call home, snotty faces and all. We're a nuclear family once again, a little wobbled and dazed, but I got to have my moment in our comfiest chair with my wife and son on my lap with my baby snoozing inches away. All is right with the world again.