Our Easter ended in a way we never expected . . . at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital.
We knew Luke was sick, but we had no idea how bad it was.
On March 21st, Luke began running high fevers and was fussy and tired.
By Saturday, March 23rd, it was getting bad enough that we took him to the doc,
thinking he must have an ear infection. Of course the ears looked fine.
Doc said it was like Roseola (baby measles) and the fever should break by the next evening,
with a rash to follow in a day or two but to come back if he still had a fever later in the week.
Well, fever didn't break and no rash.
He was fussy and clingy, never wanting to be put down, not eating or drinking much.
We figured it was still just a virus but on Friday, his fever jumped to 105.3
so we immediately took him back to his doc, who said it was just a virus and keep medicating.
I was NOT impressed with this response and was becoming VERY worried.
G and I debated taking him to the hospital but kept giving meds.
By Sunday (Easter), he was not eating or drinking much at all and looked awful.
The fever was not coming down despite the meds.
I decided to call the on-call doc. I was so impressed.
The on-call doc called within 30 seconds of me hanging up with the answering service.
She asked if we had taken him to the doctor and I said twice, last time on Friday.
She said this was going on way too long and we needed to take him to Mary Bridge immediately.
We called Adele to come stay with the bigs and headed out the door, still not realizing how sick he was.
When we got to Mary Bridge at 7pm, his fever was still at 103.5 despite the meds.
The ER doc was wonderful and incredibly thorough.
She wanted an x-ray of his chest and abdomen, blood work and IV fluids.
He looked pretty cute in his little hospital gown.
The x-ray results led to her wanting an ultrasound of his abdomen ~ he was NOT impressed.
It obviously hurt when they pushed on his tummy.
The ultrasound showed swollen lymph nodes, free standing fluid and
Intussusception
(bowel telescoping into itself). The doc explained that this would likely need a type of surgery to correct and she ordered a CT of the abdomen as well. They gave Luke morphine to help with pain.
By 2 a.m., the original ER doc was heading out (having stayed an extra 3 hours to figure out Luke)
passing us on to another ER doc and letting us know that they were going to admit Luke.
The new doc said another radiologist read the CT and disagreed with Intussusception but was concerned about Luke's appendix, which could not be seen but there was the free standing fluid.
This ER doc didn't feel Luke was having an acute presentation but still needed to be admitted.
We were admitted to the medical-surgical floor a little after 6 a.m.
We met yet another amazing doctor, who after examining Luke disagreed with the ER doc and
felt Luke needed to be seen by the surgeon ASAP. He called in a Pediatric Radiologist to read all of the scans. The Peds Radiologist did not see Intussusception, but could see the appendix and
the many swollen lymph nodes and agreed that the surgeon needed to see Luke immediately.
The surgeon came by shortly after that and after examining Luke, let us know that it was acute,
saying it "this child is very ill and needs surgery right away."
Luke after being admitted and before surgery.
She was concerned that the appendix may have ruptured and they began treating with IV antibiotics.
The surgeon, having been working for multiple days, called in another surgeon to make sure Luke
had the best care (we really appreciated that!)
Right before surgery, they let us know they would remove the appendix, examine and fix the bowel if necessary, and biopsy the lymph nodes (
mesenteric lymphadentitis) to rule out lymphoma (what?!?!?)
We handed our baby off a little after 9 a.m. for surgery.
Everything happened so quickly that we didn't have too much time to freak out.
Many, many prayers were said as we waited for the update.
The surgery took just over an hour and was a success.
The appendix had not ruptured but was inflamed and removed.
The bowel was inflamed and thickened in one portion, suggesting that he had Intussusception but it had corrected itself. The lymph nodes were "chunky and juicy" and had been pushing on the bowel and appendix. They were all removed for biopsy. The quick pathology showed them to be benign.
So we finally had our baby back in our arms.
He spent most of Monday sleeping in the crib, receiving IV fluids, antibiotics and morphine.
G left around 6 p.m. to go relieve Adele and take care of the bigs.
Luke and I had a rough night, with him needing morphine almost every hour :(
Tuesday morning was still pretty rough but he started to sit up when G got there.
Lots of time was spent sleeping on Mommy in the rocking chair.
He was such a trooper on Tuesday and attempted to play with some toys.
Pretty soon, we even convinced him to eat a cracker and smile!
We were overjoyed to see that sweet smile on his face!!!
I left the hospital for a bit to have lunch with Alli at her school and pick up Eli from his,
before hightailing it back to the hospital to switch with G. Eli was so bummed he couldn't visit Luke :(
Later in the day, Luke and I decided to check out the playroom on our floor.
He was pretty clingy but did enjoy the toys and cars.
It didn't last too long and pretty soon, we were back to snuggling in the rocking chair.
Uncle Danny came for a visit Tuesday night and Luke enjoyed playing with him.
He even saved his first poop (disgusting and dripping on the floor!) for Uncle Danny, who left before I could change him, gee I wonder why? :-)
Tuesday night was a bit better but still not great.
By Wednesday, Luke was walking around more and drinking enough that they removed his IV
(which was causing a ton of swelling in his hand). He did well with the oral meds but was still uncomfy.
So there was still lots of snuggling in the rocking chair.
He tried to play but was still fussy.
Ducky Gramma and Papa came for a visit Wednesday morning and he enjoyed that.
He also was entertained after his little sponge bath where Mommy tried to wash his hair.
Wednesday consisted of taking tons of laps around the hospital floor in the Cozy Coup.
Luke slept pretty well Wednesday night, at least until the nurse decided we had to change his diaper at 4:15 a.m., needless to say, he wasn't going back to sleep after that ~ GRRRRR!
Thankfully, we got the great discharge news Thursday morning!!!
We spent the morning snuggling the rocking chair where the little man snoozed.
And doing more laps around the floor in the the Cozy Coup.
As the nurse was going over our discharge instructions, Luke was smiling and pointing to something in the hall, I had no idea what was going on until I stood up and saw a golden retriever who had come to visit with the children. Harli (the dog) came to Luke's room and Lukey was beyond excited, smiling as he pet Harli and Harli gave him smooches. I hadn't seen Lukey that happy in two weeks! Perfect send off.
We finally got home a little before 2 p.m. and we were both so excited!
Lukey was smiling so big and was happy to have a snack in his high chair
The bigs returned to find Lukey enjoying his snack. All three were excited to see each other!!!
I was worried that Lukey wouldn't want to sleep in his crib after sharing a room with Mommy for 5 days but I could not have been more wrong. He was so excited when he saw his crib that he threw his Ducky in and pointed to it. I laid him down and he went right to sleep for a couple of hours ~ yeah!
During that time, Alli and Eli enjoyed some Mommy time and Alli gave me a make over
Can't believe I'm posting this picture but you may as well see how I looked after 5 days in the hospital,
Eli pointed out that I have polka dots on my face ~ yep, nice way to say stress wreaked havoc on my skin!
It was a scary, wild ride and we are so thankful for the support and prayers we have received.
Lukey is still pretty clingy and doesn't want Mommy out of his sight, BUT . . .
Life is starting to return to normal now and we continue to thank God for His many blessings.
