Joel slept well last night and woke up his usual talkative self. He has been very patient with all the doctors and nurses. Except for crying during the 3 tries it took to get the iv in (yesterday), he has been in a good mood. He is confined to his room and anyone who has spent even 5 minutes with Joel know how challenging that can be for him...and for us. We have been alternating movies and playtime to pass the time. Luckily, he is only hooked up to the iv when he is receiving the antibiotics (every 6 hours for 30 minutes).
We just visited with the doctor and we have seen improvement already. The swelling and redness in his armpits and neck area have gone down. He still has the redness and swelling around his knee and up to his groin lymphatic system. They will re-evaluate him tomorrow morning and if there is only minimal redness right around the initial scrape, they will release him. Otherwise, it will be another day.
Because the scrape does not have a lot of fluid, they were unable to test it to see what type of infection it is. The took a blood sample to check to see if the infection was in his bloodstream. No news is good news. They will test it for 48 hours, and if it ever comes back positive, then we will have to stay on iv antibiotics for even longer. So basically, if it is not in his bloodstream, then we may never know what exactly he had. They are assuming something in the strep or staph family. Keep praying! We want to go home tomorrow!
The staff here at Children's Mercy is wonderful. They have been so helpful - even bringing us a baby swing to keep Josiah in. My only complaint is that they have been meeting his needs so well that when we get home, I won't be surprised to hear Joel say "Momma, I would like eggs and pancakes for breakfast. Then I want to color and watch a movie...."Thank you all for your prayers and notes of encouragement. We are so thankful for such a strong network of friends and family!
If you are just now hearing about this and want to know what happened, I'll do a rundown of that last day or so below:
I noticed that Joel had an inch wide scrape on his knee on Wednesday. No big deal. Thursday, I checked it again - still didn't look abnormal. I did notice that it looked like he had a pulse around it. Thought it was a little weird but thought I would just show Tim later. Over night on Thursday, Joel woke up several times. He felt a little warm but nothing too suspicious. We were all hot since the air hasn't been turning on with the cooler weather. At one point, he did say his knee hurt, but he has always been a bit of a dramatic child so I just said we would put a band-aid on it in the morning.
When I looked at it on Friday morning, it was ugly. It was definitely infected and his knee looked a little swollen. We decided to take him into the walk-in clinic at the pediatrician office. Luckily, Tim had decided to stay home since he was supposed to work today, so he could watch the younger two. By the time we got to the doctor, I noticed the redness was moving up his leg in a line. By the time the doctor looked at it, it had moved to his entire groin area and his lymph nodes were swollen. She immediately called over and had us admitted at Children's Mercy. So here we are. Not the way we were planning to spend the weekend, but I am so thankful that we have such great care. I was a wreck driving to the hospital. Anyone who has watched their children be sick knows the fear of the unknown. I am so grateful for a God who cares. A God that assures us of life and a future with Him even when nothing else goes as we plan.
No comments:
Post a Comment