A day of rest

Mac is doing much better. I updated a bit in the comments yesterday but I realized not everyone reads them, whoops...

To give a better update, he's doing dramatically better, nothing like a major round of superantibiotics to kill off whatever bug was in there. He's able to bounce and run and jump, all good signs in my book, since he was wheelchair bound a few days ago. And no we don't know if he had a torsion that reversed itself and left inflammation in it's wake, or a virus that caused inflammation, or a bacterial infection that caused inflammation. (Epididymitis, or the infection theory, is the diagnosis for the moment, I think they are wrong, since every article I read insists that there had to be some sort of underlying infection or UTI or urinary symptoms, and Mac had none, absolutely none.)

And we don't know if there are any lasting effects like sterility, or damage to the blood vessels and we may not know for awhile until all the redness and swelling completely goes and we can do a follow up with a pediatric urologist to examine him and figure out if he has a structural abnormality which caused this meaning it may happen again, or if it was just bad luck and happened out of the blue.

Strange as it may sound, I'm kind of hoping that it was a structural issue because the surgery to fix it is very very easy and we'll never have to worry about it again once he gets it. But hoping it never happens again & having to rely on dumb luck? Ohhhh, that almost never works out for me.

The pediatrician, (our regular one was off for the holidays, so we saw her partner) was pretty shocked at the extent of the infection and the swelling and assured us that we had done the right thing getting him into the ER asap. We're getting a referral to a specialist after they go over the official report from the radiologist and figure out what we need.

Odd little observations from the Sick Kids ER:

-most important piece of equipment in the hospital? TV/VCR/DVD with a large stock of kid's shows. I know, you think the MRI is more important---but remember, you need to get the kid into the machine, quiet and calm first before the MRI can even start. When you are trying to get a little boy to sit still for an hour while you press an ultrasound wand on his tender parts? Seriously, you want a Shrek video on to distract him. And of course, the only show on in the middle of the night? Goldmember---chuckle.

-why do people insist on going to the ER for the sniffles? Really, people, if the kid has the croup (barking cough), or they are running a seriously high fever, or having an acute asthma attack, you should go to a hospital ER, but for sniffles? A 39 degree C fever? A slight cough? Sigh---have any of the parents in my city ever heard of a walk-in clinic?

-they actually faxed the requisition from the ER to the U/S resident upstairs and then faxed the interim report back, both with poor handwriting----god forbid they use the internal secure computer system. Doctors are seriously bizarre the way they rely on pieces of paper and fax machines. Do you know that most businesses don't even own standalone fax machines anymore? If they have one, it's an all-in-one printer/scanner/fax and it is used for sending & receiving documents electronically by virtual fax or email. There are medical privacy issues, security issues, integration & continuity of care issues, storage and environmental issues with paper records, and yet, the entire medical profession insists on using paper! Doctors are so so strange....

-no food kiosks in the hospital open at all, not even Tim Hortons! It's usually open 24 hours for hot coffee and snacks and sandwiches, etc. but with the holidays, they decided to close early. They kept the Timmies open on the Trans Canada Highway and all the rest stops 24/7, and the ones close to cinemas and movies, but I guess critical medical staff, stressed out parents and sick children are supposed to starve all night...hey yo Tim Hortons Canada if you read this, YOU SUCK. Just the humble opinion of a hungry pregnant mom who really really needed something to eat.

So we've been trying to catch up on sleep and relax and putter a bit around here, get some laundry done, maybe tidy up some prezzies.

Speaking of which, I got a Blackberry Curve for Christmas so if anyone of you notice me commenting on your blogs from one, yes, that's me! Well, it will be if I ever figure out how to use it and am able to surf without blowing my budget completely. Right now, I'm just trying to figure out how to turn the darn thing on.