Adventures in Illness

Last Tuesday we were going about our normal daily activities when we realized Devin wasn't feeling all that great. He was lethargic and running a fever that wasn't responding to Tylenol. He was breathing strangely and I couldn't find the baby ibuprofen so we decided to call the doctor. They told us to come in right away and thus began a very long 48 hours.

Our pediatrician is amazing! I love that he never asks me stupid questions at checkups like, "So how many words can baby say?" or "Is he eating three meals a day yet?" He just looks the kids over, asks if I have questions and sends us on our way! I find him to be rather relaxed about child rearing, he supports attachment parenting (even co-sleeping!), and he doesn't get alarmed over every little thing. So when Dr. Hathaway looked troubled and examined Devin EIGHT times, I knew something was wrong.

Devin's temperature was 104.2 when we arrived at the pediatrician's office and had only come down to 102 after the 3 hours there and another dose of ibuprofen. So after 3 hours, blood work, and a chest x-ray, we were sent to South Shore Hospital for additional testing and evaluation. We dropped Aiden at his best friend's house because ER visits are never fast. We owe a big THANK YOU to Boston's mom for taking on a child with a single set of clothes and a few diapers and not knowing when his parents would return to get him!

The team at SSH was great! We only waited in the ER waiting room for about five minutes before they called us back. We spent close to six hours in the ER before they decided to admit Devin for more observation. They took blood, did a lumbar puncture (spinal tap), and gave him IV fluids and started antibiotics while we were in the ER. The doctors suspected meningitis but couldn't determine if it was viral or bacterial without checking all the blood and spinal cord fluid.

After the first round of antibiotics Devin did perk up a bit but was still very hot and just not quite right. It was a long night of watching and waiting. Ian and I took turns going home to sleep for a few hours since there was only one pull-out bed in Devin's room.

This is what Devin looked like for the majority of the time we were in the pediatrician's office and in the ER


Here he is the next morning feeling a little better. See the IV in his arm? His face is super puffy from all the fluids.


And finally ready to go home!


We didn't know the results of the 48-hour bacterial meningitis test when we left the hospital on Wednesday evening but the 24-hour test was negative so the doctors were hopeful the 48-hour test would also come back negative. We had a re-check on Thursday and then took him back to the pediatrician's office on Friday when his fever came back. I told Aiden on Friday to put his shoes on so we could take Devin to the doctor. His response? "Not again!" in a very long, drawn out and dramatic way (if you have a 3 or 4-year-old, you know what I mean).

All tests came back negative and Devin seems to be back to his normal self! We're grateful to the missionaries who came to the hospital to give him a blessing and to our family and friends who kept us in their prayers!