So we're now one week post-op. You would think things would be getting back to normal, more or less. I would have thought that by now, she'd be eating and drinking better, having less pain, and be well on her way to recovery.
Instead, last night, I took her to Urgent Care with a 102 degree fever, still not eating or drinking well, still in a lot of pain. They checked her blood - white count normal, so they don't think she has a big infection brewing. She's still on antibiotics, too. She's drooling a lot, so even though her urine output is decreased, they don't think she's dangerously dehydrated. They did a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia, and her lungs look great. The doc thinks her fever may just be a viral thing.
While we were there, I pointed out to the doc that the spot on her back - the one that we discovered the day after surgery - is still very swollen and tender to the touch, although the redness has faded now to brown. The doc was mystified, though agreed that it did NOT look like a skin wound or cellulitis. I AGAIN expressed concern about the amount of swelling and questioned the possibility of a fracture (they must get tired of me sounding like a broken record). She said the only way to see a posterior rib fracture would be to do a CT scan, which she didn't want to put Mackenzie through after everything else she'd been through at this point, but said we'd see if anything showed up on the chest x-ray.
So when we got back to our room, she pulled the chest x-ray up on the screen and showed it to me. She started out by saying, "Now, I admit that I don't look at ribs ALL that often, which is why I'm gonna have the radiologist take a look at this tomorrow..." and then said, "But this right here looks like it COULD be fractures..." In the ANTERIOR ribs, right near the sternum!!! What the heck????? She asked if she's had any tenderness or swelling there, and I said not to my knowledge, and when she felt her there, Mackenzie didn't seem to flinch. I could see exactly what she was talking about on the x-rays, too.
Anyway...the radiologist was already gone for the day, so the plan is for him to look at the x-rays today and decide if she needs further x-rays and/or CT scan. All I know is that our baby girl was fine when she went INTO the hospital and when I handed her off to the OR nurse to go to surgery. What in the world happened to her between then and the next morning?
And then, of course, my mind goes to...what if her unexplained anemia and these unexplained possible fractures are somehow related. Yeah - don't google anemia plus fractures - the possibilities aren't really that great. Google can be bad for your health!
So we'll just take it one step at a time and wait to hear from the doc. Or at least wait a little while and then call the doc to remind her that we're waiting to hear from her. ;)
In the meantime, Mack had a rough night, waking up about every 3 hours screaming out in pain. And it makes you wonder - is it her mouth hurting, or her back/ribs?
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