Today, I woke up at 6am to get ready for a long day ahead. I nursed Baby C, then checked my email, blogged hop a bit, went for 1/2 hour jog, came home and exercised on my fit ball, fixed milk for Aly and Sher, got them ready for school, had an ultra quick breakfast, nursed Baby C again and off we went to SJMC.
I thought we were quite early but there were other patients who were earlier than us and we were no. 8. After seeing her first patient, Dr Indon came out from her office and we went to the Procedures Room. Though it was Baby C’s second time going through this procedure, I was still nervous and very worried that the procedure would hurt my baby and I prayed fervently to God to remove all the pain from my baby.
I had brought along Baby C’s favorite frozen water-filled teething ring and took it out for her to suck. The sight of the long catheter made my legs weak. I can still remember the pain down there when the nurse removed the catheter from my urethra after my 3 c-sections.
Dr Indon first cleaned Baby C’s private part. Baby C wasn’t really crying but was fussing coz a stranger cleaned that part of hers with some cold liquid. When Dr Indon inserted the catheter into her urethra, I placed my face next to my baby and kissed her. Then I sang “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands“, her favorite song and clapped her hands. She smiled a little but was still fussing a tad but not crying. I was glad when I saw her pee flowed out from the opening of the catheter into a sterile bottle. I was really surprised that so much pee could come out instantaneously after the catheter was inserted. It was quite a good amount of pee, an amount which would have taken me 3-4 hours to collect, if I were to collect it by myself. Dr Indon also massaged Baby C’s tummy (the part where the bladder is I suppose) to induce more pee to flow out. Dr Indon commented that Baby C’s pee looked clear and I thought so too. I was really glad when the procedure was over and thank God that it wasn’t traumatic and painful for Baby C. I think it helps a GREAT deal that I could be with Baby C throughout the procedure. That’s the main reason why she didn’t cry. When it was done at HUKM, I wasn’t allowed to go into the Procedures Room and Baby C cried big time.
I then brought the urine sample to the lab located a floor below. I just had a good feeling this time that the WBC (white blood cells) in Baby C’s pee had gone down. True enough and my prayers answered, an hour later when we went in to see Dr Indon, she informed us that the WBC is only 1 (down from 10-15 WBC 3 days ago), which is normal. That’s good news since Baby C wasn’t on any antibiotics for 3 days (Tues, Wed and Thurs). That was Dr Indon’s instruction as she wanted to see what new bacteria is proliferating in the urine, without the use of antibiotics. I still have to wait for the urine culture results, which would only be out in 3 days’ time and Dr Indon is quite confident that there won’t be any infection in the urine, looking at the WBC.
Dr Indon asked hubby and me if we would like to continue Baby C to be on antibiotics. We have a choice of not giving the antibiotics but we would have to be extra vigilant and diligent in that we would have to bring Baby C’s urine to be tested every week for at least 3 more years, change baby’s diaper after just 1 pee and not after a few pees, feed her with lots of water and cranberry juice, etc. However, the risk of having UTIs are higher without the use of antibiotics. Hubby and I decided that we shouldn’t take any chances and will continue feeding Baby C with antibiotics until she’s at least 3.5 years old. When Baby C’s older, we will have to teach her a technique to wee wee, called Double Micturition or double pee to reduce the risk of UTI. Dr Indon is also not pro-surgery and prefers to treat patients with antibiotics, which is music to my ears. I really want to keep Baby C away from surgery and other invasive medical treatments.
To be continued……
I love it when Baby C gives me this cheeky look on her face. Oh yeah, she also has a dimple on her left cheek, though not as deep as her 2 cheh chehs.
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