For the doctors on this weekend this was good news. They were just coming on service, meeting Audra first time and inheriting her difficult, challenging and mysterious case. And, oh man, were they thrilled to be the ones to give us "a diagnosis". Score for them! Or so they thought.
Today the doctors who have known Audra from day one were back on. And they are not convinced. This is how I have felt all weekend...but I didn't want to be the party pooper. Now I have company.
Basically, the thought is that these renal abscesses are not what started this illness 4 weeks ago...but rather something she developed while we have been here trying to figure out what this illness is. We know for sure that she had negative urine cultures during weeks 1 and 2 of her fevers. We also know that these abscesses were not present on her 3 abdominal ultrasounds and the MRI during weeks 2 and 3 of her fevers. Regardless, they are there now and need to be treated. The concern is that once her antibiotic course has finished...and we have evidence by ultrasound or CT scan that the abscesses are gone...the mysterious illness will still be present. However, we won't know this for sure for at least another 2 weeks. So in the mean time she will get antibiotics and hopefully start to feel better. And that is good news! She is way overdue for feeling better :)
Today she had another ultrasound to see if the abscesses could be visualized. They also wanted to see if she has a blood clot near her kidney that could explain how she got these abscesses despite not having evidence of a prior UTI.
And the results are: no blood clot (good news!) and YES the abscesses could be visualized.
This is good because now the doctors will be able to follow her abscesses and know when they are resolved by periodically doing ultrasounds (which is sooo much easier than doing CT scans!)
This is not so good because it confirms that NO...these abscesses were not present when she had ultrasounds during weeks 2 and 3 of her fevers. So, they are not the primary cause of her still mysterious illness that started one month ago today.
This mama's gut was right.
But more importantly...Audra hasn't had a fever for 30 hours and definitely feels a bit better. Thank you antibiotics!!
Hang on ......this is quite the roller coaster ride!! I am glad she is feeling better!!!
ReplyDeleteGood news--not so good news. I hope the abscesses on her kidneys shrink and heal rapidly. Good to hear the fevers are under control. Hope you can take time to take care of yourselves too.
ReplyDeleteHugs all around from Minnesota.