I'll try to be brief.
So. September through Thanksgiving happened. See? Brief. Bahaaahahhahhhaaaaa!
Then the sickness began.
Natalia started us all off with a good bout of Scarlet Fever the first week of December. Then, from there we had a litany of common cold things going on throughout the month. I rounded out the month with a weekend-before-New-Years with the flu + a sinus infection. Of worthy note, Augmentin is NOT nice to my digestive system and made things considerably worse. Yay. That was the WORST, MOST AWFUL case of diarrhea I've EVER encountered. Sorry, TMI.
From there the normal sniffles and coughs continued until January 9th. That day was normal by our standards, but Jameson woke at 11 pm with screams of "My Head Hurts!". I gave him ibuprofen and sent him back to sleep. About 2 hours later he woke again with "My Head and Neck HURTS!". I gave him Tylenol and watched him toss and turn for another hour and a half. At about 2:30am, I'd decided he'd had enough and went to the ER. At 5am on Wednesday, after x-rays we were released with a diagnosis of 'muscle spasms' from the cough he'd had for the past two weeks. No meds other than over-the-counter pain meds because of his age.
I took a nap til 7am and went to work. Jameson stayed home from school on Wednesday because his neck was basically immobile at this point.
Jim gave Jameson ibuprofen at 2pm (and earlier too) on Wednesday. I arrived home at 4:15pm. His fever was 102.1. PLUS the neck/head pain. **alarms!** I called his pediatrician who said they had no more openings that evening...hello, peak flu season. :( They told us to go to Urgent Care. We arrived at Urgent Care around 5pm and stayed for about 12 minutes (and $141). The Urgent Care doc says, "I think it's meningitis, go back to the ER." We arrive back at ER about 12.5 hours after we left. (5:30PM)
At this ER trip, they do rapid and extended flu tests plus x-rays, first. We wait for them while THREE people code AT. THE. SAME. TIME. in the rooms around us. Thank goodness my mother is the ER manager at this hospital or I might be mental by the time they decide to do the spinal tap. (They wanted to rule out flu before putting Jameson through the invasive/painful spinal tap. Thank you!) Around Midnight, they start the spinal...it's gruesome. The poor ER doc can't get the fluid to run. :( Thanks again to my mom, Jameson's had "sleepy meds" so he won't remember a thing, but my heart BREAKS as he groggily asks, "Mommy are they poking needles in my back?!" I lie to him and say, "No, they're just pushing." :'( He conks out shortly after that, thankfully, and snores through the rest of the procedure.
The first couple of drips of his spinal fluid are cloudy...signaling meningitis. Immediately, IV antibiotics are ordered along with a medical transport to Children's Hospital in Milwaukee. And, morphine...for his neck/head pain. In the time it takes for medical transport to arrive, a lump has developed on his neck. And, his labs have come back...NOT meningitis.
Arriving around 3am, the medical transport team is like a group of angels. No lie. I love them instantly. Their names are Chris, Kris, and Christina. :) We arrive at Children's ER (which is where it will be faster to do a CT scan for the strange lump that has appeared on the side of his neck in the last 2 hours...note: THIRD trip to the ER in less than 24 hours. Yay.) at 4am on THURSDAY. I am nearly dead from being awake at this point from 6:30am on Tuesday. (Remember, I got a nap from 5:30am to 7am on Wednesday morning.)
The CT scan happens around 5am. The results arrive around 6am. Amazing. "Oh, it looks like he had a sinus infection that moved to the tissue below. Infection of that tissue and the lymph nodes below his sinuses (behind his esophagus and in front of his spine). No abcesses at this point but if they develop we'll have to surgically remove them through an incision in the back of his throat." Ah. Ok. I'm nearly dead with tired and worry...but I kinda get it. (The official diagnosis is retropharyngeal abcess... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retropharyngeal_abscess )
We are admitted at noonish. Jameson is on two heavy duty IV antibiotics and fluids. Plus morphine for head/neck pain. This is Thursday, midday. Finally, he and I both get a nap from about 2pm to 4pm. Ah!
On Friday, he's feeling better by afternoon. Still not much mobility in his neck...which is something they're monitoring to gauge whether infection is going away. We go to the playroom in the afternoon. He can tolerate only about 15 minutes and says he has a headache. He takes a four hour nap when we get back to his room.
On Saturday, mobility in his neck is MUCH better. We go to the playroom again...same thing. Tolerates about 15 minutes and we go back to his room. Headache subsides after a four hour nap. Of important note, his nurses were alerted to these headaches both times.
Sunday, we're set to be discharged because his neck mobility is great! Yay! Around noon, he gets oral meds. Augmentin...oh. no. (See above!!!! WAY above.) He takes both meds fine. I start to get us ready to leave, wheelchair arrives. I put him in the chair to put his coat and boots on. He PUKES. :( Since this is within 20 minutes of dosage, we have to re-dose. Awesome. Around 2pm, his new doses arrive along with a probiotic and an anti nausea med - Zofran. They think (and so do I, at this point) that this is from a reaction to augmentin. We redose and let him sit for at least a 1/2 hour. (Less than 20 minutes and they have to redose.) No puking, so we get ready again. I wheel him down to the 1st floor. The parking is a story all its own...I'll spare you. Just know he sat in the wheelchair for about 15 minutes. That SAT part is important later.
I get him to the car, go back out to scrape more ice. I get in the car to hear, "Mommy, I don't feel good". He's got a puke bucket, so I say, "it'll be ok, I have to get gas and then we'll be on the way home.". Well, I don't even get off the Children's campus before he's wailing that his head hurts. I beg him to let me get gas so that we can be on the way home. I finally find a gas station that doesn't seem to be in the nastiest of hoods and find the highway. He's bawling.
The ride home was HORRIFIC. The most awful thing ever. He was crying, "Mommy, take me back to the hospital, call a paramedic, call 911, I'm dying.". He passed out twice, he puked twice. I stopped and called the hospital twice to be told, "just get him home and give him Tylenol". WHAT?!?!? This was NOT a Tylenol headache!!!!!
Finally, we arrive home. He goes STRAIGHT to his bed without prompting and falls fast asleep immediately. I'm fried, but have to get to Walgreens to get his litany of meds. By the time I get back from that it's now 5:30 pm on Sunday. I wake him when I get home just to be sure I can. :(
He sleeps til 7:30p and then moves to a reclined position on the couch. My mom stops over and says, "You know the headaches are a side effect of the spinal?" AH! WHAT?!?!??!?!?!? Yah, they're positional...if he sits or stands, he gets a headache. O. M. G!!! Are you freaking kidding me?!? So, I could have saved him all of that torture by letting him LAY DOWN on the way home?! ARGH. OH, and hello? The puking he did at discharge? Yeah...because of sitting too long!!!!!
I let him lay down in the car on the way to his pediatrician appointment the next morning (Monday). He does great, aside from the spinal headache thing. On Tuesday morning he's still milking this headache thing and Jim and I are wondering if it's so that he won't have to go to school. So, we test him with "game time" sitting at the computer.
Jim calls me around 11 am to say that he lasted only 10 minutes at the computer before he had to lay on the couch. It should be noted that Jameson LOVES computer time...if he were faking...he'd have lasted MUCH longer. So I text my best friend (who works at his ped's office), "are these headaches normal for this long after the spinal?" The answer is NO, not normal...head back to Children's ER for a blood patch. ARGH. We arrive at Children's ER at about 2pm (Tuesday) ... my mom in tow again, thankfully. She knows one of the docs on at the ER so we get "special" treatment". This blood patch would be done by an anesthesiologist. He comes in, though, and says that he doesn't want to do one because of his recent infection. Instead we agree on another admission to give heavy duty fluids via IV and caffeine.
On Wednesday morning, he's like a new boy. Much better. But, you know what?...I'm PISSED. We went through another ER and admission, not to mention the TORTUOUS ride home ... HELLO!!!!, because the docs discharged him without treating the spinal headaches. NOT. COOL. Don't get me wrong, our Children's Hospital is awesome...they're obviously trained to deal with kids. BUT. Treat ALL of my kid please...NOT just the part YOU diagnosed/administered!!!!!
LOOOOOOOOOONG story...He's much better. I got sicker than a dog the week after all of this (who couldn't after spending 5.5 days in that petri dish?) but as of February 17 when I write this...we are all healthy!!!! Wah Hooo!
I know there are other things to highlight. And I will...soon. Sorry for the long story!
I have loads of cute Natalia stories to share...much happier stuff!
No comments:
Post a Comment