Katelyn's Story

First, I want to say thank you to everyone for such sweet thoughts, prayers and offers for help.  It's been a crazy few days for sure.  We love our baby girl so much and very grateful for all the doctors, nurses, techs and staff who are giving up time during their Easter weekends to care for her.  They have been absolutely great, loving on her as much as we do.

I know many of you have not gotten to hear the full story of what's happening with Katelyn and, instead of telling and re-telling the story, I thought I would type it all out for you here.
It all started Monday morning when she woke up.  As soon as we got her out of bed we knew something was wrong.  She had been increasingly moody and fussy all weekend, but Monday was a whole knew level.  Every time we touched her she would erupt into tears and crying.  But even more frightening to us was her inability / unwillingness to sit up, stand, or walk.  We called her pediatrician immediately and went straight to the office that morning.  She examined her fully and sent us directly to the hospital for blood work and x-rays.  We had blood drawn and x-rays from her hips to her toes.  By that afternoon the results were in - x-rays were totally clean:  no breaks, no malformations.  But her ESR and CRP levels were elevated, indicating that she was having a secondary reaction to an infection.  Basically, she'd had a cold the week before which caused her body to have inflammation in certain joints, specifically the hips.  The inflammation is similar to that of arthritis and causes similar pain, so the condition is often referred to as reactive arthritis.  We were told to keep her still, let her rest, and give her Tylenol and Ibuprofen for pain.  Otherwise, there was nothing to be done and she ought to be better within a week.

At the ER in Nac - her full IV board

Over the next few days, she would seem to improve only to have a relapse shortly after.  She was still immobile, despite a few attempts at standing and crawling.  In addition, she had begun running a fever that hit 102.7+/- when not under constant management.  By Friday, her fever was high again and her pain was at an all-time high.  Derrick put her into a lukewarm bath to try and bring her fever down while we waited for medicine to kick in and I called the pediatrician's office.  Because it was Good Friday, though, the office was closed and I was transferred to the on-call doctor who told me, after a review of the situation, to come immediately to the ER for further testing.  Her fear was that she had a bacterial infection in her hip - at a minimum she would need IV antibiotics, but she warned us that surgery was a possibility.

Big girl going for her second ambulance ride

Once at the ER in Nac, doctors ordered a repeat of the bloodwork from Monday (which showed even higher ESR and CRP levels) plus a few more tests, an RSV test, a strep test, and a CT scan.  Aside from the ESR and CRP levels, all bloodwork was normal.  The CT scan, however, showed definite pockets of fluid in both hips, the larger of the two in her left hip.  There were two possibilities:  either the fluid was just that... fluid from the inflammation of the reactive arthritis and it would resolve on its own in a few days... or the fluid was infected and she would need surgery.  But without the proper staff or equipment for pediatrics, we couldn't continue her care in Nac and were transferred by ambulance in the wee hours Saturday morning.  We arrived at Dallas Children's Hospital around 2am and found she had a room and doctor waiting for her.  Because it was so late, they got her settled in her room, IV's switched over, pain meds started again (Tylenol & Ibuprofen), and we were left to "sleep" until rounds that morning.  My (Ashley's) mom arrived sometime shortly thereafter followed by Derrick's parents around 6am.

Saying "chhheeeeeeeeeessseeee"

Before 8am Katelyn had an ultrasound of both hips to verify the presence of fluid.  It showed a large amount of fluid in her left hip, but none in her right - praise the Lord, the right pocket had been reabsorbed overnight!  By 8-9am Saturday, Katelyn was seen by members of the orthopedic surgery team (the attending and a resident).  Their recommendation was one of quick action - a series of minor surgeries to determine the status of the fluid in her hip.  She would be taken to surgery within about an hour.

In recovery post-op - still sleep

By 1pm she was in the OR.  The first step was to remove a small amount of the fluid with a needle and have it analyzed in the lab.  She was fully asleep under general anesthesia for the whole procedure, so she wasn't in any pain.  Once the fluid was extracted, it was sent to the lab and she remained under anesthesia while we waited on results.  The surgeon came out and told us he was almost certain it was infected, but wanted to wait on the lab results.  Shortly afterward a nurse called to tell us it was in fact infection and they would begin the second part of the surgery.  This step involved making a small incision (about 1-2") in her groin and actually washing out the pocket of infection.  After around 2 hours in the OR, the surgeon came back and told us she was in recovery and had done quite well.  Derrick and I got to join her in recovery just in time for her to be transferred back to the floor.  She was still asleep, though not actually sedated - and given that she had not slept in 2 days, we opted not to have them wake her in recovery.  She slept for several more hours before finally waking up yesterday evening.

Our sweet nurse last night brought her a yummy Popsicle
when she finally decided to 

Last night Derrick stayed in the hospital with her while my mom and I went to a hotel (thanks, Gary!) to finally get some sleep.  Derrick sent me frequent text message updates, and apart from a fever which required medicines and a tornado watch, she had a good and mostly quiet night.  She is now on IV antibiotics, but her food restrictions have been lifted and we are working on restoring her appetite.

Laying with El

She will be here at least through Tuesday while we watch her reactions to the antibiotics.  We want to see her ESR and CRP levels begin to trend downwards, indicating that the antibiotics are working and the infection is gone.  If her fever persists or worsens and her ESR and CRP levels remain high or higher, it could mean another pocket of infection we have yet to identify.  That would require an MRI (under sedation) and more surgery, so we are praying she responds well to the antibiotics and we begin to see levels drop.  They repeated the blood tests in this hospital for the first time this morning and established a baseline for her post-op.  They will not run the tests again until Tuesday, so they've told us we have a boring day today.

They are only hooking up her IV to administer a dose of antibiotics (it takes about 3mins - 1hr) and they've finally removed her vital sign leads/monitor so she is cord-free most of the day.  The rest of the family has taken her down the hall to a set of benches for a change of view.  They say she is eating goldfish and having a good time!  It's so good to see her smile and laugh again!

We are waiting anxiously to begin to see improvement with her left leg, but the ortho surgeon says it could easily take 3-4 days.

Thank you again for your prayers - I hope this explanation helps you know how to pray specifically.  I will try to post updates here as they come to us.