On Thursday, December 9th, at about 11pm when Jake and I were getting ready to go to bed, I felt Dantley's head and asked Jake if he felt hot to him. Jake reassured me that it was probably just me (and since I tend to worry too much sometimes) I agreed and we all went to sleep.
At 2 a.m. on Friday when Dantley woke up to eat he was burning up. His hands and feet were hot, so I took his temperature and it was 102. I knew that if a baby is under 2 months the Pediatrician recommends for you to call immediately if they get a fever. So Jake called the hotline and talked to the nurse. The doctor called back a few minutes later and told us to take him to the ER. We were a bit surprised that we needed to go to the ER, but when Jake asked if the urgent care would be alright, the Dr. said "No, take him to the ER." So I got dressed and headed out at about 4 am and Jake stayed home with the kids and later called into work saying he would need to stay home that entire day.
We got right in at the ER, and they ran all sorts of tests. They took urine, and blood first. His blood ended up clotting and was unusable so a grumbling tech came in to take more. It seemed she blamed the nurses for not doing their job right. She tried to take more blood out of his arm, but after trying for a torturous while, and then not being able to find a vein in his other arm, she took blood out of his heel.
After that we went to the x-ray room and they took some x-rays of his chest. The next test made me a little nervous and I wanted to know if it was really necessary, because it was a spinal tap to check for Meningitis. The Dr. ended up calling the Pediatrician and told me that they both felt it was a good idea to check to make sure they could rule that out, as infants sometimes only have a fever as a sole symptom.
I was a mess with all the poking and prodding, so I went out of the room for that one. I texted Jake bc I knew I would cry if I tried to talk. The Dr. said depending on the test results he might need to check into the hospital to be observed for 24 hours. Luckily all of the fluids looked good and he sent us home around 7am after a shot of antibiotics in both legs, on the provision that we would go and see the pediatrician that same afternoon.
I took these pictures when we got home before I took all of the bandages off.
That afternoon he looked good at the pediatricians office, but still had a low grade fever. The Dr. gave him another shot of antibiotics, and scheduled us for a follow up the next day. Our home teacher came over that night and he and Jake gave him a blessing. The blessing was sweet and calming: Dantley would be stronger through the trials he faced, that his young body would fight this off, that he would grow up to adulthood and that he has a special mission here on earth.
Saturday morning when we went in, he had broken out in a rash all over his entire body, but other than that he was doing well. Because of the rash, the Dr. opted to not give him anymore antibiotics, but had me schedule an additional follow up the next day and told me to continue to keep a close eye on his temperature and watch for any other symptoms.
Saturday night at 5 pm. His fever went back up to 101, so we called and talked to the Dr. again. She said to go ahead and give him some tylenol and keep watching him.
On Sunday his fever was back to normal and the rash appeared to be fading. Today is monday and he is smiling and cooing and though he still has a rash, seems to be much better.
It wasn't the way I had planned on spending the day he turned 6 weeks old... and these weren't the photos I had in mind to show his growth and development... but we are grateful for his beautiful little spirit and are happy that he is feeling better now.
No comments:
Post a Comment