Sick Charlotte

Poor little Charlotte. I noticed she felt warm on Friday morning so I took her temp. 101 degrees. Great. So I called the pediatrician who couldn't get her in for several hours...again, great. So we took Tylenol and waited it out as she got fussier and fussier. By the time we made it into the doctor, her temp was up to 102.8 and I had a sneaking suspicion I knew the problem...another bladder infection. The doctor agreed that I might be right, so she ordered a urine culture, which meant my poor girl had to get a catheter again. But her day got even worse when they messed up the catheter the first time and had to do it twice. She was just beside herself and in so much pain from the infection, fever and catheter. She wouldn't stop screaming and I felt so horrible that I just started sobbing. I had made it through her x-rays and VCU test with no tears but enough was enough and it just made me so sad that she was being put through all this again. Anyways, long story short, it's another bladder infection.

We are really at a loss (and so is our doctor) as to why she has another one after just a month. The doctor said all she really knows to do to prevent them are the obvious things, like wipe front to back and don't reuse wipes (um, really? People do this?). We have thought of some things we might try, like not using wipes at all and just using warm water and a washcloth. Also, we heard that just giving her sponge baths instead of real baths might help since then she won't be sitting in soapy water (but it seems kinda gross to me to never give her a "real" bath). Hopefully something will work, because if Charlotte gets another one we will have to go see a pediatric urologist to find out what's going on since all of her tests came back normal...really hoping to avoid that!