Hunter's Infection Update

The last two days have been very scary and exciting for Hunter. I don't remember what I wrote about last so some of this might overlap.

Two days ago Nurse found that Hunter had a fever of about 102. This got their attention immediately and they started tests to determine the cause of the fever. To cover all the bases he was started on antibiotics

Yesterday his doctor found an infection. Since the bacteria was found in his urine they first pegged it as a urinary tract infection. Then they thought they may have found something in his lungs so it was then decided that he may have pneumonia also.

A little bit later the blood and urine cultures from the day before started to grow enough that they were able to begin to identify the bacteria. They found that it was from a dangerous type of bacteria (gram negative if that means anything to anyone) and that it was in his blood which means the infection could spread to any part of his body. This set off a new alarm that the infection could spread to his brain and cause Meningitis which can lead to developmental issues, hearing loss, or worse.

To see if the infection had spread that far he was scheduled to have a spinal tap. The spinal tap sounds very scary but Nurse assured us that it is very safe. She also said that in the past it was standard that all preemies had a spinal tap but that is no longer the case.

Today Hunter had his spinal. The fluid they collected was as clear as water. With an infection the fluid would normally be cloudy or yellow. They didn't find anything under the microscope and nothing is growing on the culture yet. It can take 24-48 hours for a culture to grow though.

It's been long enough to determine the bacteria in his urine - e. coli. Now they know exactly what to treat him for.

It seems that Hunter will be able to make it out of this with little more than a urinary tract infection. Mommy and I can finally breathe again.