In just a few days it will be a year since our whole ordeal with Wilhelmina began and six months since it ended. If you are new to reading my blog, here is a bit of the summary. In June of last year we went camping in New Brunswick and PEI and in our last few days in PEI, Wilhelmina started a fever and was vomiting. She then got better, then got worse, then better and worse. She stopped eating, she stopped drinking everything but from the breast, she was lethargic, she lost more than 3lbs and trips to the ER, and pediatrician were not finding anything. For more than three weeks I had a feverish and very sick little girl and she was only getting worse. Finally, the pediatrician demanded that she be hospitalized and the ER finally did different tests and finally found the problem.

She had a Kidney infection. But not just a kidney infection, her kidney was blocked and was filled with puss and was basically mimicking an abscess. She had pyonephrosis and hydroureter/hydronephrosis due to a congenital malformation of her right ureter. After a week of IV antibiotics, she was not getting better, the kidney was blocked off. She had surgery and had a nephrostomy tube inserted through her back, into her kidney and all that came out was puss. Within hours of surgery she started eating again, after a month of being able to eat a bite. You can read the whole ordeal in detail here. We stayed for another week in the hospital and then went home with the tube for three months while we waited for tests to make sure that her kidney was still functioning.

Then on October 4th, we headed to the hospital early in the morning for surgery. She was taken away from my arms at 7:55am and was wheeled into recovery at 4:30pm. The obstructed (malformed) segment was a lot longer than her Urologist would have thought (5 cm long)and he had to cut out much more than he thought he would have to. That made the remaining ureter too short, so he had to lift the bladder up and attach it to the muscle higher up so that so that it would fit. He also had to taper the ureter which was still 5cm in diameter, so that it could be reimplanted into the bladder and to make things harder, if all of that was not enough, the infection left scar tissue and damage all over. It was the longest day of our lives. .

Two very intense weeks in the hospital (you can read all about the surgery and stay here) and then we were home again. A few more tests and then finally in January a last test confirmed that everything was working well and we had a healthy little girl. It was over, but not forgotten.

A few days ago, Simon remarked that it being the same time of year and almost a year to the day, that it was bringing back bad memories and she better not get sick anytime soon because it would make him sick with worry. I was feeling the same way. Then during the night from Saturday to Sunday I felt she was hot. I got flashbacks of the feverish nights of last year. Her fever was on and off all day yesterday and then she started vomiting also, more flashbacks, more worry. I am not scared of fever, if it was one of the boys I would not even bat an eyelash, but I am scared of her having a fever that mimics her fever of last year, especially since she has not had a fever since her hospital stay in October. Yesterday I was panicking inside, knowing full well that even if it is an infection, it will not result in what happened last year…But, the head and the heart do not always meet.

During the night, she was feverish, vomiting and kept on going to the bathroom but nothing would come out and then this morning her urine was darker and a bit smelly. I called her urologist this morning and got a prescription for a urinalysis faxed over to the local hospital. Even if I had a horrible experience in the past, the results will go straight to her urologist, so I am less worried of using the local services with that knowledge. If something needs to be done, I have complete trust in him for this.

I hate feeling so afraid of such a simple and harmless thing such as a fever and hopefully we will be through it soon.

What a coincidence for it to happen now though…

Willa