A Beautiful Day…in the Hospital
Today was another gorgeous “taste of spring” day. Sunny and 72. Absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, I spent my day in the Children’s Hospital with Jesse. It all started Sunday night after his baptism. The water had been freezing, he had gotten really cold and by the time we got home, he didn’t feel well. Monday morning he was complaining of not feeling well and he had a cough, so we kept him home from school. By Monday afternoon, Jesse was running a 104 fever and by bedtime he was vomiting. He threw up throughout the night as he would try to sip on water or take medicine for his fever. When Jesse gets fevers, they are always high and he gets terrible headaches with them.
This morning, he looked like he’d been hit by a truck, so I took him to the doctor. The doctor tested him for strep and the flu; both came back negative. His urinalysis “lit up like a Christmas tree”, according to the doctor, and his tummy was very tender to touch, so the doctors decided to send him to the children’s hospital for IV fluids and further testing.
When we arrived, my phone died. Lovely. All day at the hospital and no way for Josh (or ANYONE) to contact me. Jesse’s fever was still around 104 when they admitted him. His heart rate was in the 150’s and his blood pressure at one point was 85/24! He slept off and on for the first few hours. They had him hooked up to a monitor, with leads on his chest, an O2 sat. on his thumb, and an IV in his hand. When his fever finally broke, he sweat so profusely that the leads on his chest fell off. They had to clean him up and put new ones on. He perked up for a bit after his fever broke. His heart rate went down slightly and they talked of discharging him around 1:30. Unfortunately, by 2:00pm, his fever was back with a vengeance, heart rate was back up, and his blood pressure had plummeted. We were there for another two hours as they pumped him full of fluids, monitored his stats, and waited for him to stabilize.
Now it is 8:00pm. Jesse fell asleep on the couch when we got home, but he woke up with a 103 fever and terrible headache. When Josh gave him tylenol, he threw it up five minutes later…along with the little bit of lunch he was able to eat. Thirty minutes after throwing up the tylenol, we got permission from the doctor to let him SIP a dose of motrin. So far, so good. It has stayed down and his fever is down to 101. I’m praying we make it through the night without having to return to the ER.
Jesse’s blood work at the hospital revealed that his immune deficiencies from two years ago have gotten slightly worse; the labs show one more deficiency than his past labs. They’re referring us back to an immunologist who can follow Jesse more closely and run further tests.
Jesse was healthy all last year when we home schooled. Since he’s been back in school this year, he’s had this high fever with vomiting, five or six times since October. I was really hoping that year off was what he needed to strengthen his immune system and get well. I guess I was wrong and now we’re back at square one. I do feel even better now about our firm decision to home school all of the boys in the fall. This was definitely confirmation that Jesse’s body needs it more now than ever.
Please pray for wisdom as we go back to specialists and procedures and blood work for answers. I trust that God will send us where we need to go. I have peace; after all, we did this for a full year and a half, just under two years ago. We’ll get through it again. Hopefully with more concise results this time…and treatment! Until then, we’ll continue to pray, trust the Lord, and double up on Jesse’s Juice Plus+.
~audrey