On the exact day he turned nine months old, we are back in the hospital with Alex. I'll start this post by saying he is going to be fine, but the last two days have been a bit crazy. Tuesday night we noticed Alex had a sore spot on his hand and Josh was concerned, but we decided to wait until Wednesday and if it was worse to take Alex to the doctor...boy do we regret that! By midnight Alex had a fever and was beyond fussy. After several hours of trying to console him, I realized that the infection had spread up his arm in two distinct red lines. I called Josh (he was on call) and we agreed he needed to go to the ER. You never really plan for these things so I was a bit crazed--I left the house in my
jammies without brushing my teeth or putting on
deodorant. I had no idea I wouldn't be home for hours. And I had to call Scott and Jenn and wake them up to come over and watch Lucas who blissfully slept through the whole ordeal of screaming Alex.
When we got to the ER we were blessed to have a college friend take over Alex's care--she even stayed three hours past the end of her shift to make sure we were taken care of. I really expected to be given some
meds and sent on our way, so I was shocked into tears when she announced the infection had progressed enough to warrant admitting Alex. The picture above shows where the doctor circled all the infection lines (this was really helpful later because you could tell when the infection spread). The worst of it was in his hand, but two lines went all the way up towards his heart. It took several hours to get to our room and get settled and then we had all kinds of tests/procedures that had to be run--blood cultures, X-rays, and the dreaded IV (below). That was the worst for me--Alex screamed the entire time they placed it and I could do nothing but stroke his hair and cry. It takes up his entire arm. He was so mad he actually GROWLED at the nurse holding him down (which made us all laugh when it was over with. She said she had never been growled at by a patient before.) Alex was much happier when he was back in mommies arms!
We spent the day getting rounds of
meds and watching the infection site in hopes that the redness would
abate. It was a
LOOONG day. His cultures came back negative today (no blood infection) which was good, and his X-rays showed no bone infections. Unfortunately, his hand is still fairly red and fluid-filled, so as of this post he is still a patient at the hospital. We are hopeful that it will look better in the morning and we will be able to come home.
Poor little tyke. He doesn't know what to think of all of this. Lucas doesn't really understand what is going on either. Thankfully, Jessie (Josh's sister) came in town with her kids and they are keeping Lucas entertained. Thank you to everyone who has helped out or offered their assistance--it means the world to us! The entire staff at Children's has been awesome, too, I can't say enough positive things about that hospital. My heart goes out to families that have to be there for weeks and months--just watching my child suffer for a few days has been difficult enough.
On the exact day he turned nine months old, we are back in the hospital with Alex. I'll start this post by saying he is going to be fine, but the last two days have been a bit crazy. Tuesday night we noticed Alex had a sore spot on his hand and Josh was concerned, but we decided to wait until Wednesday and if it was worse to take Alex to the doctor...boy do we regret that! By midnight Alex had a fever and was beyond fussy. After several hours of trying to console him, I realized that the infection had spread up his arm in two distinct red lines. I called Josh (he was on call) and we agreed he needed to go to the ER. You never really plan for these things so I was a bit crazed--I left the house in my jammies without brushing my teeth or putting on deodorant. I had no idea I wouldn't be home for hours. And I had to call Scott and Jenn and wake them up to come over and watch Lucas who blissfully slept through the whole ordeal of screaming Alex.
When we got to the ER we were blessed to have a college friend take over Alex's care--she even stayed three hours past the end of her shift to make sure we were taken care of. I really expected to be given some meds and sent on our way, so I was shocked into tears when she announced the infection had progressed enough to warrant admitting Alex. The picture above shows where the doctor circled all the infection lines (this was really helpful later because you could tell when the infection spread). The worst of it was in his hand, but two lines went all the way up towards his heart. It took several hours to get to our room and get settled and then we had all kinds of tests/procedures that had to be run--blood cultures, X-rays, and the dreaded IV (below). That was the worst for me--Alex screamed the entire time they placed it and I could do nothing but stroke his hair and cry. It takes up his entire arm. He was so mad he actually GROWLED at the nurse holding him down (which made us all laugh when it was over with. She said she had never been growled at by a patient before.) Alex was much happier when he was back in mommies arms!
We spent the day getting rounds of meds and watching the infection site in hopes that the redness would abate. It was a LOOONG day. His cultures came back negative today (no blood infection) which was good, and his X-rays showed no bone infections. Unfortunately, his hand is still fairly red and fluid-filled, so as of this post he is still a patient at the hospital. We are hopeful that it will look better in the morning and we will be able to come home.
Poor little tyke. He doesn't know what to think of all of this. Lucas doesn't really understand what is going on either. Thankfully, Jessie (Josh's sister) came in town with her kids and they are keeping Lucas entertained. Thank you to everyone who has helped out or offered their assistance--it means the world to us! The entire staff at Children's has been awesome, too, I can't say enough positive things about that hospital. My heart goes out to families that have to be there for weeks and months--just watching my child suffer for a few days has been difficult enough. 
3 comments:
ugh. That brings tears to my eyes.
my heart goes out to you Christy...hope he is better now.~Carrie
poor little dude...he's too little to remember any of it but i know you sure will. glad he's better now
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