Yesterday was hands down one of the scariest days I have ever had as a mom. The night before which was Saturday night, our baby had a fever of about 103.6. We were able to get it down and he was playing again. We kept him in our room for a while but ended up putting him back in his room to sleep.
By 10 the next morning, I went and got him up, and he wouldn't wake up. He would look at me and fall right back asleep. I ended up calling the Urgent Care who said to take him to the ER, the ER who said not to bring him, and ultimately his doctor's office on-call service who said to take him because he probably had croup.
I got ready to go and got to the ER. There were millions of people there. The intake person didn't even ask me what was wrong with him, just gave me a number. A nurse walked through and I caught her and showed her that he just wouldn't wake up. She triaged us and got us into a room right away. The resident came in minutes after and was extremely concerned about his lethargy. He never woke up while she was examining him. She told me she was afraid he had a blood infection or something worse.
Those words are not one that a mommy with medical knowledge wants to hear. They sent us for x-rays immediately. And then they moved us to the room closest to the nurses station. They came in and put an IV in him and he never woke up. It was so scary. I just wanted him to cry or something.
They gave us Pediasure to try to get something in his tummy and that perked him up for a few minutes. They did multiple other tests, and for those he actually cried. A sound so welcome to our ears. (Daniel had joined me by this time. We are so thankful to our friends who kept Austin for such long hours for us). I hated it that my baby was being poked and prodded so much, but the fact that he responded made me feel so much better.
And then the trend turned again. We could keep him awake for about 20 minutes and he would sleep for up to another hour. It had gotten to the point that all of his test results had come back normal except for a neck x-ray which showed croup even though he wasn't coughing and his oxygen levels were fine.
The next step was supposed to be a lumbar puncture. But I was concerned about that. We finally saw the attending doctor who said he just didn't have the signs of meningitis. And he listened to our history again and decided that what baby probably had was a sinus infection and the fever was just making him non-responsive.
So after 8 LONG hours in the hospital they sent us home with signs to watch for, orders to keep the motrin and tylenol going because he would sleep a lot when the fever was up, and an antibiotic for ten days.
A sinus infection, what a relief. They had been talking about admitting us for days. And now we could go home with just an antibiotic. Thank you Lord!
We made it home and got him tucked into bed in our room (we had just bought a portable crib, another blessing), and he slept all night. His fever feels like it is going up again. So we just did motrin. But he is playing a bit, has eaten a little, and just stops for little rest breaks a lot.
There is nothing scarier than basically being told that if they don't figure out what is wrong your baby could die. I felt so lost. But we called our family and some close friends and we felt people praying. We are so thankful that God worked it out for the attending to come in and see us and realize what was wrong, that it wasn't life threatening, but just how his body was responding to the fever.
It is true that in your darkest times, God carries you. He did. We couldn't have managed without His upholding Hand. And we are so thankful for our family and friends who loved us so much to pray for us and ask for prayer for us from others even those who didn't know us.
We aren't out of the woods quite yet, but we are definitely so much better than we were yesterday.
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