Hospital News

This is Kelli-- The hospital gave me a laptop to use and Ruby is sleeping so I have time to quick post an update.

Here is the story:
Sunday Ruby screamed for around 7 hours; we couldn't console her and she seemed like she was in horrible pain. So, we brought her to prime care. There they did some tests and it seemed like a few things in Ruby's urine were off, so they sent us to the ER at Zeeland Hospitalso we could get X-rays and ultrasound of Ruby's kidneys. At Zeeland Hospital, they thought one of Ruby's kidneys was swollen and they found out her white blood cell count was high. Because some things were off and Ruby was still in obvious pain, they transferred us by ambulance to DeVos. We only went by ambulance because Ruby was hooked up to an IV.

Since being at the hospital Sunday night, the doctors have run many tests, but they can't seem to figure out what is wrong. They treated her as if she was passing a kidney stone even though they aren't sure that is what was going. (One of the meds Ruby was on and the diet can cause kidney stones). Yesterday and last night she still seemed to be in pain, so they had been giving her morphine every 2-3 hours to keep her comfortable. She wouldn't eat much and her blood sugar dropped, so they gave her different IV fluids to combat that. Now, she hasn't had morphine for about 6 hours and she seems fairly comfortable, so we are hoping the worst pain is over.

We don't know what is causing all of this discomfort, but Mark and I have a feeling that the ketogenic diet she is on is part of the problem. Ruby has felt fairly miserable for the past month because of this diet. We were hesitant to wean her off of it because we were told that 3 months is a good trial period and we have only been on it for a month and a half. But, we haven't seen any decrease in her seizures (in fact they have increased) and she feels sick a lot so she doesn't want to do any of her therapy. At this point, we want her to be comfortable and happy; we are sick of dealing with puke and runny diapers all the time when it doesn't seem to be making any difference so we have decided to wean her off of it and put her on normal formula. We hope this at least allows her to be alert and active, even if she has seizures.

I am tired; it is very exhausting seeing Ruby screaming in pain. I did get a little more sleep last night and she is much more content today, so we are hoping she is getting better and even if we don't figure out what was wrong that we will be able to leave soon.

Thanks again for your prayers. It is times like these, when we don't always feel like praying, that we are so thankful to have a community of people that are praying for us. Thank you to all the people who have helped us with meals, taking care of Charlie or Ruby (thanks so much Mom and Dad!!) taking Tiger, cleaning our house...the list goes on. We appreciate all of you!!