Health Department

Throughout our hospital stay I've been in contact with the Health Department.  While the hospital was quick to diagnose E. coli 0157:H7 the health department requires a little more time.

There are two tests they run when looking for E. coli.
Test 1
This test looks for the presence of a shiga-toxin associated with E. coli.  It's not actually testing for E. coli.  This test takes about a day.
Test 2
With this test they can confirm E. coli and the which strain of E. coli.  It takes 5-7 days for results.

I just received word today the Health Department officially declared Boo positive for E. coli 0157:H7.  We've know this for some time but he now officially becomes a statistic.

As for Carmen we won't know definitively for a few more days.  Although, there were some interesting initial results.  Carmen gave samples on two different days.  One last Friday, the day we came to the hospital with Boo.  The second on the following Monday.  According to the Health Department she tested positive for the presence of the shiga-toxin in the first sample but negative in the second sample.

So what does that mean?  She was probably on the tail end of the symptoms and her body flushed out all the toxins between the two samples.  And that would be great news.  But it takes time to get the final results.  As always we're waiting.  Not that it matters at this point.  She's fine.