Wednesday, December 16, 2009

A First


Well, as we've learned with Abby there is always a first for everything.  Just when you think you've got it all figured out you get smacked in the head by something new.

Abby has her first G-tube site infection.  

This past week has been very difficult with Abby's behavior.  Several days she did nothing but bite her fingers, moan and thrash about.  Nothing seemed to sooth her, and many days she would simply exhaust herself from it all.  

We couldn't figure out what was wrong with her.  Finally Thursday night we noticed her G-tube site didn't look good.  It was red, swollen and had a big knot.  We took her into the doctor the next day to have it checked out.  

(I have to confess that my pride was hit hard... Abby's site has never had any problems that I couldn't fix.)

It was definitely infected!  He had to drain it (yuk) which was very painful, and collect samples for culture.  We found out yesterday that it grew H. Influenza A, and a few other things.  We originally thought it was a staph infection.

Apparently, after talking with our doc, this is pretty unusual.  She is on oral and topical antibiotics and after 6 days it is looking MUCH better.  She is a different kid.  Monday was still tough, but by Tuesday she was back to her pleasant self.

One thing we've come away with from this week is that her 'finger biting behavior' is telling us "Something Hurts"!  Figuring out what hurts is our constant challenge.

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