“If our view is limited to mortal life, some things become unbearable because they seem so unfair and so permanent. “ –Boyd K. Packer
When our little man was born, he seemed like an overall healthy baby. His temperature was a little low the first night, but that just meant I got to snuggle with him more with skin-to-skin contact. It was always a precious moment to hold my sleepy newborn, feeling his soft skin next to mine.
Other than that, he was born with a rash- neonatal pustular melanosis. He literally had a rash when he came out. This kind of rash is apparently much more common in African American babies, but, leave it to my son to beat the odds of most things. Haha! Although it got worse a few days after birth, it resolved on its own within a couple of weeks.
Things stayed pretty normal for a few weeks after coming home from the hospital- at least, as normal as they could be with a newborn in the home.
At about 5 weeks old, Kal suddenly had a fever one night. Jonald watched him in the night for a couple hours while I got some rest, but he awoke me when his fever seemed as though it would not break on its own. With a temperature of 101, we headed to the Emergency Room. Thank goodness my little sister had flown in to visit that very night- a few hours before his fever showed up- and was staying at our apartment. That was truly a miracle that she could be there during the night so she could stay at home while Kayelee (our daughter) slept. That was among out first sign of many to come that Heavenly Father is always looking out for us!
Upon arriving at the E.R., they began a whole laundry list of tests. Everything came back negative, so we were told we would most likely be sent home that night. The nurse just wanted to check his temperature one more time before we left. When she did that, his temperature was up at 102 degrees, and at that point, she said she could not let us go home and that we would have to stay the night at the hospital, and that they would have to perform more tests.
My heart sank. Here we were, my husband and I, watching this tiny, helpless baby, our baby, being poked and prodded everywhere. Other than several blood tests, Kal also had to have an X-ray, a catheter put up in him to get a urine sample, and a spinal tap. Let me tell you, for the spinal tap, it's not a good feeling to sign a consent form to have a doctor do something that could possibly paralyze your child. And if all of those things weren't enough, his veins were too little that they had to put his IV into a vein in his head. Poor little guy! :(
It was completely exhausting hearing your child scream in pain when all you wanted to do is help. But, on the other hand, you knew the only way you could truly help your child in that moment was to step back and let the doctors do their procedures... oh, and try not to pass out on the floor amidst everything.
For the most part, we were at a loss for words. But, occasionally we could muster up our feelings verbally on Facebook posts. I can still feel the ache in my soul as I look back and read those words and see the pictures of our little man during that hospital stay.
"As a parent, nothing hurts more than seeing our month-old baby getting poked all over his body for some tests. I couldn't bear the pain every time I see the IV stuck in his head to administer drugs. I would trade places in a heart beat! It just hurts! It hurts a lot! Please pray for our little baby!" - Jonald
"On this Thanksgiving Day, I am brought to deep humility and gratitude for my sweet little family. I have such a wonderful, patient husband, Jonald, and Kayelee is such a sweet, spunky daughter. And, our little son Kal's health has improved tremendously over the past 18 hours or so. We were told we will have to stay another day or two here in the hospital while waiting for more lab work to come in to see what was the cause of his high fever. In the meantime, he's still hooked up to an IV and has rounds of 4 types of antivirals and antibiotics, but we're so happy Kal is mostly acting like his old self again. God is good! Happy Thanksgiving, my family and friends!" - Elisha
"Just talked to Kal's on-call pediatrician and we're going to have to stay another day and have more lab work done. We're still waiting on some of the cultures to show any answers. He's getting an IV put in for the 3rd time because it's at a weird angle on his head and keeps moving out of place and getting kinked under his skin. Poor thing. Other than that, though, he's acting mostly back to normal, so I can't complain too much." - Elisha
"After 4 days with Kal in the hospital, WE'RE HOME! They still are not exactly sure what virus caused his fever and other symptoms, but guessed whatever it was must have caused some viral meningitis. His inflammatory and white blood cell count have gone way down, meaning his infection must be subsiding and no fever. I'm SO grateful for all your likes, comments, and messages of incredible love and concern. It literally brought tears to my eyes to feel surrounded by so much love for our sweet son and family. Thanks be to our wonderful Heavenly Father and to all of you!" - Elisha
As you can probably tell from the comments above, we ended up staying at the hospital through the Thanksgiving holiday. We waited, and waited, and waited for his blood cultures to come back with any sort of results, to no avail, and had to end up staying 4 days in the hospital. The worst part was probably the fact that his IV kept getting kinked under his skin, so he had to have an IV put in his head two more times! The only humor I could find in the situation was that the nurses and I all agreed that he looked like a unicorn with the IV sticking so straight up on his head. It just added to his pitiful, but extremely cuteness factor look, for sure!
After the first day, Kal ended up being the only patient in the whole Ped's (Pediatric) Unit during the rest of our stay. The nurses were angels! They would come in and check on us, even if it wasn't their routine check for Kal's vitals. There were a couple nurses in particular that went above and beyond to take their time and talk to me, as I would be alone occasionally in the room if Jonald had to go grab something to eat or take care of Kayelee at home. There was even a mother and daughter that were both nurses on that floor, but worked on different shifts. When the mother (who had worked with Kal) had gone home but her daughter was working with Kal on her shift, she would even call her daughter to check on Kal's progress and see how he was doing. Bless their sweet hearts! I swear, it takes a special kind of person to be a nurse, especially those that really have their hearts in their job like that. Their love for our baby radiated throughout the room and gave me the strength to not crumble to the floor and/or slip into depression (literally, I've been there before with slight postpartum depression after my daughter was born).
When our world seemed to be crumbling and the lab results kept coming in negative, those nurses were there for us. Some of those nurses literally felt like extended family, and I wish I could truly thank them for their boundless love for us, complete strangers.
The other source of strength we received was from all the calls, messages, prayers, and notes sent our way from family, friends, and even mere acquaintances. The amount of love and mental/spiritual support we received was almost overwhelming, and hard to comprehend most of the time.
As hard as it was to see Kal endure through that process, it was amazing to see his recovery. One day he hardly wanted to wake up to eat more than a couple minutes, and the next day he was almost back to his old self again. Miracles are real, and I cannot deny that they happen.
After it all, the lab results still all came back negative, which made the doctor conclude that he most likely had viral meningitis and that it had resolved on it's own. We were extremely grateful our baby had recovered so quickly, was discharged, and sent home with us! We settled back into our normal routine, happily (and naiively) thinking the worst medical days and experiences were behind us. It turns out this was merely the first puzzle piece on a complicated road ahead.
Upon arriving at the E.R., they began a whole laundry list of tests. Everything came back negative, so we were told we would most likely be sent home that night. The nurse just wanted to check his temperature one more time before we left. When she did that, his temperature was up at 102 degrees, and at that point, she said she could not let us go home and that we would have to stay the night at the hospital, and that they would have to perform more tests.
My heart sank. Here we were, my husband and I, watching this tiny, helpless baby, our baby, being poked and prodded everywhere. Other than several blood tests, Kal also had to have an X-ray, a catheter put up in him to get a urine sample, and a spinal tap. Let me tell you, for the spinal tap, it's not a good feeling to sign a consent form to have a doctor do something that could possibly paralyze your child. And if all of those things weren't enough, his veins were too little that they had to put his IV into a vein in his head. Poor little guy! :(
It was completely exhausting hearing your child scream in pain when all you wanted to do is help. But, on the other hand, you knew the only way you could truly help your child in that moment was to step back and let the doctors do their procedures... oh, and try not to pass out on the floor amidst everything.
For the most part, we were at a loss for words. But, occasionally we could muster up our feelings verbally on Facebook posts. I can still feel the ache in my soul as I look back and read those words and see the pictures of our little man during that hospital stay.
"As a parent, nothing hurts more than seeing our month-old baby getting poked all over his body for some tests. I couldn't bear the pain every time I see the IV stuck in his head to administer drugs. I would trade places in a heart beat! It just hurts! It hurts a lot! Please pray for our little baby!" - Jonald
"On this Thanksgiving Day, I am brought to deep humility and gratitude for my sweet little family. I have such a wonderful, patient husband, Jonald, and Kayelee is such a sweet, spunky daughter. And, our little son Kal's health has improved tremendously over the past 18 hours or so. We were told we will have to stay another day or two here in the hospital while waiting for more lab work to come in to see what was the cause of his high fever. In the meantime, he's still hooked up to an IV and has rounds of 4 types of antivirals and antibiotics, but we're so happy Kal is mostly acting like his old self again. God is good! Happy Thanksgiving, my family and friends!" - Elisha
"Just talked to Kal's on-call pediatrician and we're going to have to stay another day and have more lab work done. We're still waiting on some of the cultures to show any answers. He's getting an IV put in for the 3rd time because it's at a weird angle on his head and keeps moving out of place and getting kinked under his skin. Poor thing. Other than that, though, he's acting mostly back to normal, so I can't complain too much." - Elisha
"After 4 days with Kal in the hospital, WE'RE HOME! They still are not exactly sure what virus caused his fever and other symptoms, but guessed whatever it was must have caused some viral meningitis. His inflammatory and white blood cell count have gone way down, meaning his infection must be subsiding and no fever. I'm SO grateful for all your likes, comments, and messages of incredible love and concern. It literally brought tears to my eyes to feel surrounded by so much love for our sweet son and family. Thanks be to our wonderful Heavenly Father and to all of you!" - Elisha
As you can probably tell from the comments above, we ended up staying at the hospital through the Thanksgiving holiday. We waited, and waited, and waited for his blood cultures to come back with any sort of results, to no avail, and had to end up staying 4 days in the hospital. The worst part was probably the fact that his IV kept getting kinked under his skin, so he had to have an IV put in his head two more times! The only humor I could find in the situation was that the nurses and I all agreed that he looked like a unicorn with the IV sticking so straight up on his head. It just added to his pitiful, but extremely cuteness factor look, for sure!
After the first day, Kal ended up being the only patient in the whole Ped's (Pediatric) Unit during the rest of our stay. The nurses were angels! They would come in and check on us, even if it wasn't their routine check for Kal's vitals. There were a couple nurses in particular that went above and beyond to take their time and talk to me, as I would be alone occasionally in the room if Jonald had to go grab something to eat or take care of Kayelee at home. There was even a mother and daughter that were both nurses on that floor, but worked on different shifts. When the mother (who had worked with Kal) had gone home but her daughter was working with Kal on her shift, she would even call her daughter to check on Kal's progress and see how he was doing. Bless their sweet hearts! I swear, it takes a special kind of person to be a nurse, especially those that really have their hearts in their job like that. Their love for our baby radiated throughout the room and gave me the strength to not crumble to the floor and/or slip into depression (literally, I've been there before with slight postpartum depression after my daughter was born).
When our world seemed to be crumbling and the lab results kept coming in negative, those nurses were there for us. Some of those nurses literally felt like extended family, and I wish I could truly thank them for their boundless love for us, complete strangers.
The other source of strength we received was from all the calls, messages, prayers, and notes sent our way from family, friends, and even mere acquaintances. The amount of love and mental/spiritual support we received was almost overwhelming, and hard to comprehend most of the time.
As hard as it was to see Kal endure through that process, it was amazing to see his recovery. One day he hardly wanted to wake up to eat more than a couple minutes, and the next day he was almost back to his old self again. Miracles are real, and I cannot deny that they happen.
After it all, the lab results still all came back negative, which made the doctor conclude that he most likely had viral meningitis and that it had resolved on it's own. We were extremely grateful our baby had recovered so quickly, was discharged, and sent home with us! We settled back into our normal routine, happily (and naiively) thinking the worst medical days and experiences were behind us. It turns out this was merely the first puzzle piece on a complicated road ahead.
Love it...love it...and love it some more!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI love you and your little family. Kal WILL get better. <3
ReplyDelete