I'm writing to you from the hospital again. Many of you know that I was in the hospital in December for two weeks to figure out my migraines. Well, this time it's not for me...
On Tuesday I took Seth to his 2-week check of his ears. The doctor pronounced him healthy, with only a slightly elevated fever (99.3, nothing the doctor assured me) and slightly red ear (a leftover from the infection). This was at 9:30 in the morning. By noon he was running a higher fever and has continued to run the fever ever since. He has spiked up to 105.1 but mostly stays around the upper 104s. I took him back to the doc today and she sent us off to the Toledo Children's Hospital ER because she could find nothing wrong with him, other than the high fever. Her fear was meningitis. At that point Motrin wasn't working so well to get the fever down - not like it usually does. So we arrived in Toledo about 1:30pm. They tested him for strep throat right away and then proceeded to look at his white blood cell count and electrolytes. They even did a chest x-ray to see if he had non-symptomatic pneumonia. Everything was negative. They decided to admit him about 5 and since then they have done more bloodwork, some urinanalysis, and they still have no idea.
We are now in a room in the Children's Hospital. All around us in quiet except for nurse movement. Seth is sleeping peacefully, although he is so small you could easily mistake him for a pile of blankets except for the blond hair peeking out. He has his trusty Sheep and flashlight by his side. Hopefully tomorrow brings us answers but it could also bring the possibility of a feverless trip home with no answers. The worst case scenario would be that the fever doesn't break and they keep us for endless testing. At day 5 of a fever like this they start looking at things like rheumatoid arthritis and such.
I would love to be able to look into his eyes and give him a reason for all the pokes and prodding. And as his mom, I have all the answers, right? I'd like to think so but I don't know what to tell him at this point other than the doctors are doing their best to make him feel better and that God and his daddy and I are doing all we can for him.
We have many things to be thankful for - the fever could be higher and less controlled, the diagnosis could be meningitis or worse. We are thankful that we have friends who are there to step in when we need a hand. We are thankful that we have three healthy boys who, while they keep us hopping, have the ability to be energetic. They are truly a gift from God. My prayer goes out tonight to all the other families, here in this hospital, and in other hospitals, that don't have such healthy kids. May God watch over all of us.
