When my daughter handed me the urine sample cup and it was pure black, I panicked.
There was nothing in my brain, it all emptied. We were in the pediatrician’s office for the second time after she’d had some kind of illness that involved minor vomiting and a two-day fever but 2 weeks later, could not get back to herself. She was four years old and started spending entire days on the couch, claiming her legs hurt, her back hurt and she was just tired. We let it go for a bit, thinking she needed to recover a little longer than her siblings.
Until I noticed that when I threw her pull-up away one morning, the urine was very brown. I began pushing water and got her an appointment just to make sure things were okay. We arrived, and they immediately wanted to test for a UTI. That’s when we saw the color of her urine. It looked like we poured Pepsi into the cup. I turned my back to her to allow her some privacy as she dressed, still in shock at the color in that cup, when I heard a moan. When I faced her again, she was pale, eyes rolling to the back of her head. I grabbed her before she hit the floor. Scared out of my mind, I raced down the hall with her in my arms to find a nurse. We came back to our room as the nurse was taking her blood pressure and she started to wake back up. The doctor handed me her urine sample and instructed me to take her to the emergency room right now.
When we arrived at the emergency room, I was frantic. I didn’t know what to say because I didn’t know what was wrong. I help up the urine sample at anyone who asked and said, “My pediatrician told me to come straight here.” Each person who saw it widened their eyes and understood. Our local emergency room put her in a room quickly and took her blood. One doctor came to talk to me about a disease that forces the body eat its own muscles. Another told me to prepare for a muscle biopsy. But no one would focus on the urine or could tell me why it was that way. After a call to my husband, we agreed to move to a well-known children’s hospital an hour away for a second opinion.
When we arrived there, we did the same routine: holding up that horribly dark sample and praying they can help her quickly. After some preliminary testing, they found her kidney function at 10% and falling. They admitted her to the children’s hospital, and we were told to expect about a week’s stay. Every test they performed was out of range by hundreds. Some were ten times what they should be. She had to be on potassium, fluids, blood pressure medicines, an antibiotic, a steroid and more. Hourly blood draws from the IV they inserted and constant monitoring. They finally started to narrow down the problems, did a kidney biopsy to see the extent of the damage, and an ultrasound. Luckily there was no permanent damage to her kidneys but her blood was strep positive. It was high, and an active infection, but she showed no symptoms of strep.
It took seven days in the hospital to get her blood markers to safe levels. Her kidney function slowly rose, and she slowly gained more life and color. Her final diagnosis was post-infectious glomerulonephritis. She had checkups on kidney function ever couple of months for a year and then every year. She was released last year.
Strep is no joke, it is a terrible beast for some bodies. Always trust your gut when it comes to the people you love and keep pushing!
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