New challenges

So I didn't get my wish for Quinn to spend the next few months relaxing at home. What he got over the weekend was indeed the opposite.


His temperature reached over 103 on the morning after his first night back in the hospital. The first spinal cord culture came back with traces of bacteria, indicating numerous possible infections including meningitis. Antibiotics were given immediately and more tests were performed. It is suspected that his first spinal cord culture may have been contaminated with blood or stool from Quinn's forceful pooping during the needle insertions ( -10 on a scale of fun things to watch). Over the course of the weekend, six spinal tap attempts to yield two usable samples. I've never had a spinal tap myself, but when they don't get the needle into the spine, and instead hit a nerve, it looks and sounds unbearably painful to me.


I lost count of how many IV attempts occurred each day to yield only one usable line in his ankle.


Two swabs up the nose into his sinuses, and a catheter for a urine sample.


By Sunday night we are unable to lay him on his back or burp him without cries from the needle punctures in his spine. The doctors have had conflicting and inconclusive results from these tests, and have been unable to diagnose what the infection is, or if he even has one. Nor have they been able to rule out meningitis. He is generating a lot of discussion among the different specialists at the hospital. Currently, with no diagnosis, the discussions are for Quinn to undergo a hospitalized two week antibiotic treatment to err on the side of caution.


His temperature has gone down, but is fluctuating between 98 and 101 every few hours. He is looking a little paler than normal and sleeps more often with longer durations, probably from exhaustion. He has been crying more and is tougher to calm. His desire to breast feed has gone down significantly, so we bottle feed him.
When awake he is still interactive and alert. Steph and I are very glad for that. He still has a high white bloodcell count, and it's troubling that no one knows what is wrong. If he undergoes a treatment that eliminates the symptoms, we may never know. With so many scary possibilities, we are back in the waiting game and hoping for a positive outcome.
I am postponing Quinn's welcome home celebration until I am certain he has no illness. I would like those of you who have been pulling and praying for him to have a chance to meet him, but there will be no undue risk involved. None of this has happened due to lack of prayer for the little guy, but as it turns out I was a little ahead of myself wanting to celebrate.

I saw tonight's game. I'm not horribly upset that the patriots won't be going to another Superbowl. It doesn't seem so important at the moment. They'll live to fight another day just like the mighty Quinn.