Our little sick man...

I really try to keep my posts short, but this is a long story. Here we go:

Last Saturday night Sawyer came down with a fever. Sunday he threw up a few times, then was eating normally. By Tuesday, the fevers were still in full force and pretty high (104+) so we took him to the pediatrician's office where he was given a diagnosis, not by his normal doctor, of "...viral illness going around like crazy, 4-5 days of fevers, followed by a rash..." He had no respiratory symptoms, ears and throat also looked perfect, so it made sense.

The next morning, Wednesday, I was starting to feel nervous again because he just seemed so sick. Whenever our kids have fevers, they act sick when the fevers are high and then when the meds kick in, they play with their toys, act better etc. Sawyer was extremely fussy even when the fevers would go down. He reminded me of the sick-bed scenes in period movies where the sick child lays there in a daze while the family mops their brow with a cloth. He was that sick. Plus, super clingy and totally lethargic. He kept grabbing his neck over and over, which made me nervous about meningitis or something else horrible. And I kept expecting Hudson to come down with it but he was 100% healthy.

By Wednesday night his fevers spiked at 105+. I called his normal doctor who said to bring him in that night, even though the office was closed, for an immediate urine test (by catheter- that has to feel great) to see if he had a UTI or kidney infection. They also drew blood and did flu swabs. Everything came back normal except the blood showed a possible inflammation somewhere in his body but was generally inconclusive.

By Friday, the fevers should have been gone if he had the "fever virus" but then they spiked to 106.5. Our doctor sent us to the ER where they took us fairly seriously until his fever once again spiked to 106+. That freaked them out more than our word that his temperature had really gotten that high. They drew blood, more urine by catheter, flu swabs, chest and abdominal x-rays, and a spinal tap. All the immediate tests came back negative but we had to wait for the results of the cultures, which take 24-48 hours. They admitted Sawyer and we finally got into a room in the pediatric unit about 3 am.

They gave him tons of fluids by IV, as well as antibiotics as a precautionary measure until the test results came back. His fevers steadily improved through Saturday and Sunday. By Sunday night the results where looking like we might end up with the general "fever of unknown origin" diagnosis. Sunday night they told us they found an organism in his urine (basically a UTI) causing his fevers and pain. They started him on a more specific antibiotic and told us they would need to do more tests to make sure there were no other problems.

Which brings us to this morning, Monday. After an abdominal ultrasound, they discovered that his left kidney is swollen. Two things could be causing this. 1- a partial blockage between his kidney and bladder, or 2- "reflux" between his bladder and kidney, meaning things could be traveling back up into the kidney from the bladder. Apparently that's fairly common in little kids.

So now we have to do a separate test for each of those possibilities and are looking at a going home date of Wednesday or Thursday, as long as his fevers keep a bay. Even though the source of the problem hasn't been treated, the antibiotics for his infection have made a big difference. Today was the first day in over a week that he has smiled, eaten well or played with toys. We were starting to feel like we were never going to see "Sawyer" again.

He has been a trooper through the whole thing but needless to say, he's scarred. He cries whenever nurses or doctors come close to him or touch him :( I'm just glad he's young enough (sixteen months) that he won't remember anything.

Here's what the first few days in the hospital were like:


Sleeping a ton or crying/fussing but we didn't take pictures of that :)Teddy has been Sawyer's faithful companion through it all.


Here's how he was doing today. Don't judge my hair. I'd been in a hospital room for 3+ days straight...



And just for bonus... here are some videos from lunch and of the boys playing. You also get to hear one of Hudson's favorite things to say: "I am a robot. De-dum-de-dum-de-dum..." :)



This one is pretty much for the Grandma's :) It's just the boys playing with the new toy we picked up for Sawyer today.



I've been too nervous to leave the hospital up to this point, but since he is starting to do better, Cameron sent me home for the night. Needless to say, we're looking forward to all sleeping under the same roof again. We'll keep you posted...