Month: October 2008

That’s my wheel…..and yes by being so squeeky, we did get a little greese. I burned my Polyanna pants yesterday and decided no more nice Mom. I am pleased to say it got some results!

As a compromise between staying a med course that wasn’t working and doing evasive ear surgery, we decided to culture her ear once again and see what else grew. Staph grew immediately, which we knew about but we’re waiting to see what other nasties are in there and then probably add another antibiotic.

Infectious Disease is now leading treatment direction which I feel very good about. Our head doc, Dr. Todd discovered the relationship between tampons and toxic shock syndrome back in the day. He’s responsible for that little warning on the side of every box (I apologize to my male audience for bringing up the ‘T’ word). So, I feel like we have the smarties on the team.

Other good news, Samantha’s triglyceride count was 10,000 yesterday….yes 10,000. People were lining up to pull her off the ketogenic diet. I asked to have it re-run and it’s 1,600. Yes, I know, screamin’ artery-hardening high but actually acceptable for such a high-fat diet.

That’s all the news. No word on when were going home. I raised such a stink about being discharged with a sick child that I’m afraid to ask when we can leave. HA!

Love to you all-
Heather and the gang

Day eight in the hospital hasn’t brought us any closer to a resolution….we thought it did but the last 24 hours have been a little trying, to say the least.

We were scheduled to go home today. I was a little aprehensive. IV meds have not decreased the infection, we switched to an oral antibiotic and Samantha was still having seizures. I am such a Nervous Nellie! (sarcasm intended). But, they thought we could handle it.

Samantha, in her wonderful way of telling us what she needs, continued to have seizures and a bad night last night. She is now running a slight fever and was clearly in pain until we gave her a dose of Ativan. Yep, we’re here for the night. Apparently Samantha didn’t feel comfortable going home either.

We are also dealing with the fact that 8 days of Vancomyacin (sp) has not cleared up her ear. The doctors are now considering surgery; going in and scraping the infection out of her canal. This is a 2-2 1/2 hour procedure that everyone is a little nervous about considering Samantha’s condition.

Our nerves are a little frayed. We just want this nasty infection gone….gone, gone, gone. I’ll continue to keep you updated.

Please keep little Sammers in your thoughts and prayers.

Love,
Heather, Bart and Samantha

What does Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and Samantha Schichtel of Loveland, Colorado have in common?

They both have MRSA. And we think they both contracted it from a hospital procedure. Tom from his knee, Samantha from her ear tubes. It’s pretty serious stuff. I guess now in the US, more people die from MRSA than from AIDS and if uber-athlete Tom Brady can get it….

So we’re treating a super-infection with super antibiotics. She has been on IV meds for a week and we will switch to oral meds tonight. The biggest issue is that the drainage in her ear isn’t going away so we’re still fighting something in there. We will continue to follow up with the Ear, Nose and Throat docs.

The big news is that we are scheduled to GO HOME TOMORROW!!!! Keep your fingers crossed. I’ll let you all know how the next 24 hours go.

Thank you for all of the well-wishes and good thoughts.

Love,
Heather, Bart and Samantha