Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Oh what a ride!
I'm not sure if anyone will even read this since it's been so long since my last post, but I wanted to write down a little bit about the last couple of weeks. Most of you have already heard at least some of our story, but just in case you havn't I'll start at the beginning.
It started almost 2 weeks ago. Justin came home from school on Wednesday and started complaining of his leg hurting. I didn't think much of it since he didn't complain too much, but noticed that he wasn't running around like normal. Later in the afternoon he started running a fever, nothing too high, but enough that I gave him tylenol. He continued spiking fevers throughout the rest of the day and night, but only when the tylenol was wearing off. Again, nothing too serious. The next morning he was still complaining of his leg hurting, and he wouldn't walk very much. I thought it was weird and decided that if I could get in to see his pediatrician I would take him in, otherwise I would wait. I was able to get an appointment later that morning, but he started acting a bit better and I almost cancelled it a couple of times. For reasons that I didn't recognize then, I did end up taking him, but I fully expected them to brush it off as some kind of virus. Well the doctor took some x-rays of his leg, but everything looked good. She said she thought it might be some kind of infection and was going to send us over to the hospital. I remember thinking that she was being way too concerned. Why not do some blood work and see what comes back? But she didn't want to wait for the results to come back she just wanted him to go straight to the hospital.
I took him over, and they were waiting for him. They admitted him right away and a doctor followed us right into the room and started examining him first thing. Looking back this all should have seemed really weird to me since you always have to wait forever before you see an acutal doctor. All they knew was that he was fevering and complaining of his leg. They drew some blood and started an iv (which was horribly hard since he has the tiniest vains ever!) The whole time I really thought everyone was overreacting. Soon after that they came to tell me that they got the test results and while they still didn't really know what was wrong, based on something they found in the blood, they needed to do surgery on his hip right away, just in case. Apparently if there is something wrong with the hip it is automatically super serious and needs to be treated immediately. So we were told that this might all be a viral infection and he would get better on his own, but that there was a small chance that it was bacterial and for that reason we had to do the surgery. It was horrible to know that it was probably uneseassary to put Justin through surgery, but that we couldn't take the chance of not doing it either. They sent us to preop around 10 p.m. that night and we talked and talked and talked with the surgeon trying to figure out the best thing to do. The surgeon could tell we were really hesitant about the surgery, and told us that it probably wouldn't hurt to wait till morning and redo the labs and see if things were getting better. Logically I really wanted to wait. If there was a chance to spare Justin from surgery then of course I wanted to take it, but something in my gut told me that we needed to do the surgery right then. Nazar didn't want to, and I felt like I was twisting his arm to get him to do it. Finally we agreed and sent our poor scared little 5 year old off to surgery for something that might just be a viral infection.
The surgeon came out afterwards to tell us that the surgery went fine and that it looks like it probably was just viral since there wasn't much fluid in his hip. I felt so sick to think that I had put Justin through surgery for nothing. If I would have just waited till morning he probably wouldn't have had to go through that. Let's just say it was a really hard night for me, feeling all of that guilt.
They took blood again in the morning and the levels were still rising showing that it actually was something more serious than a viral infection. I'm sad to admit it, but I was almost glad, because they still would have had to do the surgery that day even if we had waited. I felt so much better knowing that I had made the right choice.
The next couple of days they did endless tests. They knew something was really wrong, but they couldn't figure out exactly what. They had him on iv antibiotics this whole time just in case. Finally about 3 or 4 days into our hospital stay they figured out that he had a staph infection in his blood, and they needed to figure out if it had spread to his bones. It turns out that it had spread into his femure bone, hence all the leg pain he was complaining of. By the time they figured all of this out he was already getting better. Luckily they had been treating him for the worst case senario the whole time. They kept telling us that they never see these infections so early because either the parents don't bring them in for a while, or they do, but get sent home by the doctors a couple of times before they realize that it is serious.
This is already such a long story, so I'll try to wrap it up. We were finally able to bring Justin home on Saturday evening.
Looking back over everything I am amazed at how blessed we were through the whole ordeal. I know that normally I wouldn't have taken Justin to the doctor so soon. I know that normally the doctor would have sent us home with advice to come in again if things got worse. I realize now that the whole time we were trying to figure out what was wrong with Justin I was completly protected and somewhat numb to reality. I didn't realize how serious a staph infection was. Even when they were checking his bones and organs because they were worried that the bacteria had spread it didn't hit me that this could be a life threatening illness. Not until we got him home did it all come crashing down on me that this could have been so much worse. Normally kids with this kind of infection are hospitalized for weeks and weeks, and then sent home on iv antibiotics for another 4-6 weeks. Justin was at the hospital for 10 days and now we're home with only 1 more week of iv antibiotics to go. So while this was such a hard thing to go through I feel so lucky at how things have turned out. Everyone has been so amazing in supporting us through it all. People have swarmed to our aid to help with everything from meals, to childcare, to everything in between. I can't tell you how many hospital visits Justin and I had, and how many gifts he recieved, and I know that hundreds of prayers were offered in our behalf. I want to thank everyone who has and is continuing to help us out. We would have been lost without your love and support.
Justin is getting better by leaps and bounds. He's acting like himself again, and aside from his new intense fear of doctors I think he's bouncing back quite nicely. It's hard to believe that just a couple of days ago he was stuck in a bed and unable to move around. So thank you once again to everyone. It was a terrible ordeal, but it was amazing to know that not only was the Lord supporting us and helping us through, but so were all of our friends and family.
It started almost 2 weeks ago. Justin came home from school on Wednesday and started complaining of his leg hurting. I didn't think much of it since he didn't complain too much, but noticed that he wasn't running around like normal. Later in the afternoon he started running a fever, nothing too high, but enough that I gave him tylenol. He continued spiking fevers throughout the rest of the day and night, but only when the tylenol was wearing off. Again, nothing too serious. The next morning he was still complaining of his leg hurting, and he wouldn't walk very much. I thought it was weird and decided that if I could get in to see his pediatrician I would take him in, otherwise I would wait. I was able to get an appointment later that morning, but he started acting a bit better and I almost cancelled it a couple of times. For reasons that I didn't recognize then, I did end up taking him, but I fully expected them to brush it off as some kind of virus. Well the doctor took some x-rays of his leg, but everything looked good. She said she thought it might be some kind of infection and was going to send us over to the hospital. I remember thinking that she was being way too concerned. Why not do some blood work and see what comes back? But she didn't want to wait for the results to come back she just wanted him to go straight to the hospital.
I took him over, and they were waiting for him. They admitted him right away and a doctor followed us right into the room and started examining him first thing. Looking back this all should have seemed really weird to me since you always have to wait forever before you see an acutal doctor. All they knew was that he was fevering and complaining of his leg. They drew some blood and started an iv (which was horribly hard since he has the tiniest vains ever!) The whole time I really thought everyone was overreacting. Soon after that they came to tell me that they got the test results and while they still didn't really know what was wrong, based on something they found in the blood, they needed to do surgery on his hip right away, just in case. Apparently if there is something wrong with the hip it is automatically super serious and needs to be treated immediately. So we were told that this might all be a viral infection and he would get better on his own, but that there was a small chance that it was bacterial and for that reason we had to do the surgery. It was horrible to know that it was probably uneseassary to put Justin through surgery, but that we couldn't take the chance of not doing it either. They sent us to preop around 10 p.m. that night and we talked and talked and talked with the surgeon trying to figure out the best thing to do. The surgeon could tell we were really hesitant about the surgery, and told us that it probably wouldn't hurt to wait till morning and redo the labs and see if things were getting better. Logically I really wanted to wait. If there was a chance to spare Justin from surgery then of course I wanted to take it, but something in my gut told me that we needed to do the surgery right then. Nazar didn't want to, and I felt like I was twisting his arm to get him to do it. Finally we agreed and sent our poor scared little 5 year old off to surgery for something that might just be a viral infection.
The surgeon came out afterwards to tell us that the surgery went fine and that it looks like it probably was just viral since there wasn't much fluid in his hip. I felt so sick to think that I had put Justin through surgery for nothing. If I would have just waited till morning he probably wouldn't have had to go through that. Let's just say it was a really hard night for me, feeling all of that guilt.
They took blood again in the morning and the levels were still rising showing that it actually was something more serious than a viral infection. I'm sad to admit it, but I was almost glad, because they still would have had to do the surgery that day even if we had waited. I felt so much better knowing that I had made the right choice.
The next couple of days they did endless tests. They knew something was really wrong, but they couldn't figure out exactly what. They had him on iv antibiotics this whole time just in case. Finally about 3 or 4 days into our hospital stay they figured out that he had a staph infection in his blood, and they needed to figure out if it had spread to his bones. It turns out that it had spread into his femure bone, hence all the leg pain he was complaining of. By the time they figured all of this out he was already getting better. Luckily they had been treating him for the worst case senario the whole time. They kept telling us that they never see these infections so early because either the parents don't bring them in for a while, or they do, but get sent home by the doctors a couple of times before they realize that it is serious.
This is already such a long story, so I'll try to wrap it up. We were finally able to bring Justin home on Saturday evening.
Looking back over everything I am amazed at how blessed we were through the whole ordeal. I know that normally I wouldn't have taken Justin to the doctor so soon. I know that normally the doctor would have sent us home with advice to come in again if things got worse. I realize now that the whole time we were trying to figure out what was wrong with Justin I was completly protected and somewhat numb to reality. I didn't realize how serious a staph infection was. Even when they were checking his bones and organs because they were worried that the bacteria had spread it didn't hit me that this could be a life threatening illness. Not until we got him home did it all come crashing down on me that this could have been so much worse. Normally kids with this kind of infection are hospitalized for weeks and weeks, and then sent home on iv antibiotics for another 4-6 weeks. Justin was at the hospital for 10 days and now we're home with only 1 more week of iv antibiotics to go. So while this was such a hard thing to go through I feel so lucky at how things have turned out. Everyone has been so amazing in supporting us through it all. People have swarmed to our aid to help with everything from meals, to childcare, to everything in between. I can't tell you how many hospital visits Justin and I had, and how many gifts he recieved, and I know that hundreds of prayers were offered in our behalf. I want to thank everyone who has and is continuing to help us out. We would have been lost without your love and support.
Justin is getting better by leaps and bounds. He's acting like himself again, and aside from his new intense fear of doctors I think he's bouncing back quite nicely. It's hard to believe that just a couple of days ago he was stuck in a bed and unable to move around. So thank you once again to everyone. It was a terrible ordeal, but it was amazing to know that not only was the Lord supporting us and helping us through, but so were all of our friends and family.
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