Our Little Prince At The Castle

On Wednesday Max woke up from his nap around 1:30 with a 102.4 temp and had very labored breathing. He also had a rash on his face that had started at the beginning of the week. He is getting teeth, eating new foods and has sensitive skin so it was hard with no real baseline for him to know what was going on. I thought I should check with our pediatrician just to make sure they didn't want to see him. The transferred me to the nurse and as he heard about his breathing they told me to take him to the ER. I called Eric to run it by him and he consulted with a Dr he works with and called back and said yes we better get him in. Eric said he would meet me there. So we bundled up and headed out the door. On the way Max threw up twice so we turned around to get cleaned up and new clothes on and then made our way back in the van to the emergency room.

I had given him ibuprofen so by the time he was in the ER and they were monitoring him his fever came down and his breathing had stabilized. They thought the rash was a viral infection. They did blood work and found out quite a few of his levels were off and it indicated that he had some type of bacterial infection.

The rash was spreading and so they called in the pediatrician. The pediatrician said it wasn't really rash but was Petechiae which are flat red dots on the skin that don't fade when pressure is applied. The dots represent bleeding from the capillaries, leaving small, temporary blood blisters in the skin. This is a symptom of a pretty serious infection so they admitted him to the hospital and started treating him pretty aggressively with antibiotics.

So were admitted to the Children's Hospital, the castle on Wednesday. Not the castle we wanted our little prince to visit but we are thankful for amazing doctors and an amazing Children's Hospital in our own town.

Eric had stayed with Max at the ER while I got the other 3 kids settled for the evening. It was hard for me to leave our little man but it was better Eric was there through the procedures and beginning possible diagnosis because I would have been a train wreck. They had done a couple blood draws and tried to get an IV in 3 times in the ER but failed so finally gave him 3 shots of antibiotic to get it in his system. When I got to the hospital Max was pretty traumatized and the night was just beginning. He reached out his little arms to me and as I held him he just kept kissing me. It was the sweetest moment ever amidst the storm. It felt so good to know he knows his mommy.

The poor little guy had a rough night. Eric told me to stay in his room while he took Max to the procedure room for an IV. He knew what the ER had been like and knew I would be a wreck watching them try to get an IV started. He was right, I was a wreck down the hall in his room as I heard him wailing down the hall. Finally an hour and half later, 5 nurses and 10 attempts they had an IV in. The poor thing was a wreck. His hair was drenched with sweat and there was blood all over. Eric said the hardest things was when he would look at him with those big brown eyes like "daddy, why are you letting them do this to me, just hold me!" We have worked so hard on attachment and wanting Max to feel safe and know we will love and protect him and meet his needs. Eric said he never felt so helpless as he kept looking into his eyes like "daddy just help me!"

Max's little spots spread to his arms, his legs, some on his back and chest. We knew if it was the serious infection they were worried about that he would more than likely take a turn for the worse in the next hours and something would grow on his culture.

Max was so traumatized by Wednesday night that when any one with a gown and mask would walk in he would freak out. Forget trying to get his vitals ... if they touched him he would get so upset. They never got a blood pressure the rest of his stay because he would get so worked up when they tried. The Dr should be fun from here on out!

This sweet nurse was trying to make friends with him before giving him a bath. He wasn't quite sure about her.

As you can see his attitude towards his nurses was pretty much "Don't Touch Me!"

He was so cute when he realized he had an ID bracelet on his leg. He though he had to hold his foot in the air. He held it there for about 10 minutes before he finally got over it and put it back on the bed.

We waited for the next 36 hours to pass to see if anything grew on his blood culture. In the meantime Max started perking up. Mr Curious wasn't so curious but loved his Curious George monkey he got from some of our friends.

My parents came to see Max and pick our other 3 up from school and bring them to visit Max. He was very excited when the kids came to visit!

I think the kids were pretty excited to visit the castle too! Shane thought all the new toys were pretty cool!

Max loved all the attention from his sisters and brother.

Max's bed quickly turned into a "toy store!" They were wonderful about rotating toys in and out for him to keep him occupied.

Even with all the fun toys it just isn't fun being sick!

He came up with new ways to keep himself occupied like playing the piano with his feet.

The first day Max didn't realize he could move with the splint on his arm to keep his arm straight for his IV. By day two the little man was on the move. We spent most of the day getting tangled and untangled in his IV line.

On Friday late afternoon we got word that nothing had grown on his culture and the new blood work they had done showed that his levels were coming down so the antibiotics were doing the trick. They sent us home with oral antibiotics.

We are so thankful for the prayers and God's healing hand on our little man. We are thankful nothing grew on the culture but it is a little unsettling not knowing what was going on in his body and why it manifested itself with the Petechiae spots. We are thankful his spots are beginning to fade and he is on the mend! We will follow up with our Pediatrician in a week!

There is no place like home!