liesl, my 13 year-old, stayed home from school friday with a fever. by saturday evening she was complaining of pain in a private, girly zone. jeannie took her to urgent care saturday night, and they sent her on to children’s hospital, where they admitted her.

it’s some kind of bacterial infection, and they’re seeing if and how it resonds to antibiotics. a surgeon was in this morning, and is returning tomorrow morning to determine if they need to do minor surgery.

i’ve cancelled a trip to grand rapids tomorrow.

it doesn’t seem overly serious, but there are lots of unknowns still (which makes it feel more serious, or at least potentially so. they say she could be here (in the hospital) for anywhere from one more day to multiple days or even most of the week.

i’ll post an update when i have one.

MONDAY MORNING UPDATE:

liesl is having surgery at 8am, pacific time (in 45 minutes), this morning. they’ve determined that she does have an infected cyst, and they need to lance it (ew). they’re not removing it. surgery should take about 45 minutes, and she’ll be put under general anesthesia (which makes me a little nervous).

more later.

POST-SURGERY UPDATE:

it wasn’t a cyst. so they took samples of the infection and are sending it to both pathology and infectious disease. the good news is the procedure went fine. the bad news is they still don’t know what it is, which means they don’t know how to treat it, which means liesl will still be in lots of pain.

MONDAY NIGHT UPDATE:

no real news. the docs from pathology and the docs from infectious disease were having a big of a confab outside liesl’s room this evening right before i left to bring max home. but they didn’t have any conclusions for us. they’re still not sure if it’s viral or bacterial. liesl’s fever came back strong late this afternoon, but they’ve been great today about pain management (combo of morphine and vicodine, baby). she’s actually in pretty good spirits. hopefully we’ll find out something tomorrow. jeannie’s staying at the hospital again tonite (night three), and i’m home with max again. thanks SO MUCH for all your prayers — it’s very encouraging to me.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE:

no news, which is usually good news; but not in this case. they still don’t know if the infection is viral or bacterial. there’s debate (between the docs) as to whether the area of infection looks better or worse, and whether there’s a presence of dead cells or not (waiting for a definitive answer from pathology on that one). no fever today, not too much pain, but a bad stomach ache. a kid in the hospital, with no definitive sense of whether this is a little deal or a big deal, is a very tiring holding pattern. i’m off to pick of max from school and take him to the hospital. we also have a family (good friends of ours) moving into our house today for a month or so, as they’re in-between homes.

WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE:

still nothing, really. they are likely doing another series of tests with lab work this morning. yesterday was both progress and set-backs, as i wrote above. stomach ache came and went all day (likely a result of the antibiotics and pain meds). they put liesl back on an IV for mild pain meds, as well as an anti-nausea med, as she threw up a couple times yesterday. on the up side, there seems to be a growing unanimity that the infection is bacterial, since it’s getting better, and nothing they’ve done would have had an impact on a virus. so it’s a deductive guessing game, really, unless one of the labs comes back with something more definitive. i asked if there was a chance she would get better and they would send her home, even if they never figure out what the infection is; the answer is yes, that’s possible (which, while i really want liesl to come home, would be highly annoying). jeannie came home with max yesterday late afternoon and evening to spend some time with him, and i stayed with liesl ’til about bedtime (when jeannie returned). liesl and i watched the “america’s next top model” marathon together. ah, father/daughter bonding.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE — HOPEFULLY, THE FINAL UPDATE!

woo-hoo — liesl (my daughter) just called me (i’m at work for a bit) to tell me the docs decided to release her from the hospital this afternoon! after five days, they finally determined that it was definitely a bacterial infection, “an abscess”. she’ll be on antibiotics for a bit longer, and have some pain meds, but no other worries.

thanks so much for all your prayers!