Loooong Weekend ~ The beginning

As I said in the update below this weekend's story is long and needs it's own entry.

I already mentioned that all the kids had been sick and on antibiotics. Val was put on zithromax that she finished up on the 10th. Sean was on amoxicillin which he finished on Mon, the 14th. On Mon (the 14th) Val had body aches and a really bad headache. By Thurs she still had the headache and her glands were swollen. Sean started a fever on Thurs which ran pretty high at night (as fevers usually do). Fri morning I decided to get Val back into the dr's. I figured since I was already going in it wouldn't hurt to make Sean an appt to have his ears and throat looked at. They were scheduled to be seen at 4:15 that afternoon.

Having to pick up Michelle from work at 3:45 we headed to the city a bit early. I stopped by Walmart, picked up some photos I had developed and ordered a 50pc box of chicken to be picked up at 5:30. My thinking was that we'd go to the dr's, go back to Walmart, pick up a few things that we needed (BIL asked me to pick him up some things, we were out of toilet paper, milk and bread). We'd grab our box of chicken and have dinner taken care of, allowing us a relaxed night. WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the time we got to the dr's office Sean was miserable! He was obviously feverish, moaning and crying. While doing his vitals they took his temp which was 102.9. They were surprised when I told them he'd had ibuprofen 3hrs ago. His heartrate was 203 and his O2 rate was 92%. They were all a bit on edge about how inconsolable he was.

The dr walked into the room while reading Sean's chart. He took one look at him and asked him how he'd like to spend some time at the hospital. OH NO! He did a quick exam and throat culture on Val and then turned his attention back to Sean. He did a throat culture on Sean too and then told me he thought it was best to admit Sean. That babies as young as him don't show typical symptoms to many serious diseases like meningitis. He wasn't too comfortable with how agitated Sean was and he wanted to run tests to make sure he wasn't dealing with something really serious. It also would help him from becoming dehydrated which he was heading toward.

So now I'm stuck with a few dilemmas....what do I do about the preordered box of chicken? What about the serious need for toilet paper (down to a few tissues in the house lol)? And of course...what am I going to do with Danielle, Val and Michelle? I make a few calls and we figure out how and who will be picking up the girls from the hospital later. Wonderful mother that I am, I decide to do a Walmart run on the way to the hospital. We literally ran through the store, practically knocking people over as we did. I felt so rude. I felt very deserving of the mother of the year award in the checkout line. It was quite obvious that Sean was pretty sick. He was wimpering in his carseat, his cheeks blazing red from the fever. The cashier kept sneaking looks at him as she scanned my groceries. I kept thinking she's going to stop scanning and call social services any second now. I wanted to blurt out my sob story and defend myself but refrained.

When we arrived in the ER they tell my our dr had called to see if we'd arrived yet making me feel even more deserving of that MOTY award. They have someone come get us and bring us to Sean's room. Everyone scurries to get him admitted. His temp is now 104.5. His diaper change involved a urine collection bag being stuck on.

Tom gets there and Seans calms a tiny bit when Daddy takes him (he LOVES his daddy). The dr arrives, Tom and the girls leave and the fun begins. During the spinal tap we started getting worried because they couldn't get any samples. The poor thing needed to be poked 3 times. According to my untrained eyes (although I have seen samples from spinal taps before) it looked pretty clear to me so I was hopeful for good results. After getting Sean cleaned up they then had to put in his IV and draw blood for tests. I have NO idea how the dr managed to get an IV in those teeny tiny veins but he did. They got their blood, hooked up the tubes and dosed him up on tylenol. The dr explained that we'd probably be staying until at least Monday. If tests showed anything we could looking at a one or two week stay. If it was serious then we'd be transfered to the hospital in Syracuse. So we waited for test results.

Late into the night the dr reported that his bloodwork was what was to be expected for someone fighting an illness and there were no cancer worries. He found the spinal fluid to be clear and free of white blood cells...YEAH! Quite a few of the other tests would take a day to produce results. In the meantime the dr prescribed an IV antibiotic started. Respiratory therapy came in to do a nasal wash. They needed a sample to test for croup, rsv and influenza A. The tylenol had taken the fever down. Sean relaxed a bit and dozed. I decided it was too close to midnight to risk falling asleep. I didn't want to fall into a deep sleep only to be woken by the nurses taking Sean's vitals. So I stayed awake. They finally got to his vitals at 1:30 (fever was still down). I feel asleep at 2 and slept (if that's what you want to call it) until the nurses came in at 4 for vitals again. (fever still down)

Sean woke up Saturday morning with a temp of 99.6. Unfortunately it didn't stay down there for very long and before we knew it he was over 104 again. Tylenol knocked it down into the 102 range. He got another dose of IV antibiotics and they added eye drops after he woke up with gunky eyes. As the day went on we learned that tests for the scary things came back negative. They sent us to radiology for a chest xray. We came back to find out he tested positive for Group A strep again. The dr added zithromax to his meds. Xray showed that he had pneumonia which totally shocked me.

He had the greatest set of nurse/patient care assistant (PCA) there could be. They both were in love with Sean and came in to talk and play with him whenever they got a chance. Just before their sift was due to end Sean got inconsolable again. He was crying really hard and I had NO idea what was wrong. His nurse came in and said...something's wrong for him to be acting like this suddenly. She unwrapped his IV (was covered with gauze so he wouldn't chew on it) and I gasped. His hand was HUGE. His IV had blown and all the fluid was going into the hand instead of his vein. I felt bad since I figured it probably blew when I was holding his hands up and and away from his chest during his chest xray.

The nurse called the dr and reported it. Since his fever wasn't out of control he opted to let him go for the night and reevaluate him in the morning. (dr or someone from the ER has to start anyone under 2yo's IV). Thankfully his body cooperated and his temp stayed down all night.

Not to make things too easy though he decided Sun morning with the potential to be discharged on the horizon would be the perfect time to break out in a fine full body rash. After the dr examined him and said it wasn't a reaction to the zithromax, the diagnosis of roseola was added to the list of things he had. We were prescribed liquid zithromax and discharged. By 1pm on Sun we were in the van and heading home. It was a frigid but beautiful sunny day. The kids were standing in the doorway, jumping up and down cheering as we got out of the van. Tom acted jealous that no one cheered that Dad was home, only Mom and Sean. I told him too bad, so sad he gets to hear it almost every night when he walks in the door.

Sorry this was so long. I actually fell asleep mid post last night. I have more to talk about but will do it in part 2. Of course I couldn't talk about Sean and not share a picture of the cutie. This was taken early last week just before he got sick.