Day +321: An eventful week
Between, the MRI, Grandma and Grandpa coming, and the night we spent in the emergency room last night, this has been some week! Mina Brigitta was totally exhausted tonight and fell asleep on Grandma's lap while reading "Curious George Flies a Kite", which is her latest favorite.
First things first: everything is fine. Mina and Isaac have both had runny noses this week, and Mina had developed a slight cough. Last night when I checked on her around 11:30, she seemed pretty warm to me. Then she got up out of bed, which is totally out of character, and was talking up a storm and practically running around the apartment. So I checked her temperature and it was 38.6, or 101.5, which is above the official 38.0 threshold, even though it's not a particularly high temperature for a small child. I paged the on-call physician, and he hemmed and hawed a little bit but finally said she should probably be seen in the ER since her immune system is not yet fully functioning. So I bundled her up and walked her up the hill in the stroller. They checked her in, examined her, placed an IV, drew blood and urine cultures, took a chest X-ray, and gave her an IV infusion of an antibiotic. Mina was really feeling quite fine, and thought the whole thing was a big adventure. The most traumatic moment was the IV placement, of course, but what really upset her was that she didn't get a "Pooh" (bandaid) immediately after they were finished (because they needed to keep the IV in place for the antibiotics). Unfortunately, the visit took four hours, so we got back home at 4:30 AM.
The other medical event that happened this week was Mina Brigitta's MRI for her subclavian vein blockage. The appointment was for late Tuesday afternoon, so Mina wasn't allowed to eat anything after breakfast. Of course no one was available to read it when they were finished, and we waited anxiously all day Wednesday to hear the results. I finally called up to UCSF around 5:00, and Dr. Horn rushed down to radiology and called me back a few minutes later to tell me that the preliminary reading is stenosis, or narrowing, of a 1.5 cm section of the right subclavian vein, and not a clot. The image also doesn't show any areas without blood flow. This is the news we'd been hoping for, so it was worth the wait. Dr. Loh is planning to consult with the vascular surgeons on Friday to see if they recommend any treatment. Her face seems less swollen this week, so I'm hoping that they continue to let nature take its course and allow new vein growth to make up for any permanent loss of blood flow.
Then today, Grandma and Grandpa arrived from Wenatchee! Mina was so excited about their coming that she didn't nap despite being up for four hours during the night. She kept talking about them all day, and Keri said she talked nonstop on the way to the airport. A major topic was my mother's broken ankle (which happened last week while skiing in BC). She kept saying "Grandma Judy hurt her ankle!" She remembers when she hurt her ankle: "I fall down the stairs!" Another thing she kept saying was "Grandma and Grandpa my friend!" I think she remembers them pretty clearly from the last time they were here in October. They're here until Tuesday, which is a nice length of time. We're heading to Monterey for the weekend to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where we have a membership (thanks Kari!). I'm really looking forward to getting away for a weekend and spending some quality time with the extended family. Keri decided to make her own getaway, and is headed to Chicago for the weekend to visit friends from the academic world. We'll miss her, but it will be good for her to reconnect and the break will probably be good for her.
First things first: everything is fine. Mina and Isaac have both had runny noses this week, and Mina had developed a slight cough. Last night when I checked on her around 11:30, she seemed pretty warm to me. Then she got up out of bed, which is totally out of character, and was talking up a storm and practically running around the apartment. So I checked her temperature and it was 38.6, or 101.5, which is above the official 38.0 threshold, even though it's not a particularly high temperature for a small child. I paged the on-call physician, and he hemmed and hawed a little bit but finally said she should probably be seen in the ER since her immune system is not yet fully functioning. So I bundled her up and walked her up the hill in the stroller. They checked her in, examined her, placed an IV, drew blood and urine cultures, took a chest X-ray, and gave her an IV infusion of an antibiotic. Mina was really feeling quite fine, and thought the whole thing was a big adventure. The most traumatic moment was the IV placement, of course, but what really upset her was that she didn't get a "Pooh" (bandaid) immediately after they were finished (because they needed to keep the IV in place for the antibiotics). Unfortunately, the visit took four hours, so we got back home at 4:30 AM.
The other medical event that happened this week was Mina Brigitta's MRI for her subclavian vein blockage. The appointment was for late Tuesday afternoon, so Mina wasn't allowed to eat anything after breakfast. Of course no one was available to read it when they were finished, and we waited anxiously all day Wednesday to hear the results. I finally called up to UCSF around 5:00, and Dr. Horn rushed down to radiology and called me back a few minutes later to tell me that the preliminary reading is stenosis, or narrowing, of a 1.5 cm section of the right subclavian vein, and not a clot. The image also doesn't show any areas without blood flow. This is the news we'd been hoping for, so it was worth the wait. Dr. Loh is planning to consult with the vascular surgeons on Friday to see if they recommend any treatment. Her face seems less swollen this week, so I'm hoping that they continue to let nature take its course and allow new vein growth to make up for any permanent loss of blood flow.
Then today, Grandma and Grandpa arrived from Wenatchee! Mina was so excited about their coming that she didn't nap despite being up for four hours during the night. She kept talking about them all day, and Keri said she talked nonstop on the way to the airport. A major topic was my mother's broken ankle (which happened last week while skiing in BC). She kept saying "Grandma Judy hurt her ankle!" She remembers when she hurt her ankle: "I fall down the stairs!" Another thing she kept saying was "Grandma and Grandpa my friend!" I think she remembers them pretty clearly from the last time they were here in October. They're here until Tuesday, which is a nice length of time. We're heading to Monterey for the weekend to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where we have a membership (thanks Kari!). I'm really looking forward to getting away for a weekend and spending some quality time with the extended family. Keri decided to make her own getaway, and is headed to Chicago for the weekend to visit friends from the academic world. We'll miss her, but it will be good for her to reconnect and the break will probably be good for her.
posted by Arne Olson @ 12:30 AM
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