Welcome to the conclusion of the “A Long Six Weeks” three-part series. In Part 1, James spent about five days in the hospital with pneumonia. Part 2 starts twelve days later when he was at a different hospital having an adjacent tissue transfer surgery to repair a wound on his tailbone that appeared shortly after his full spinal fusion two years ago. This final episode begins six days after he came home from that surgery. Are you read for this?
Thursday, August 5th
James woke up with a high heart rate and a fever that we monitored throughout the day. We gave him some Motrin to which helped bring the fever down a bit, but then he spiked a fever again at around 7 pm. Stacy called the pediatrician who started out giving us a long list of things to do, but then said that we should probably call the doctor that performed the surgery on his tailbone. The surgeon told us to hold tight and see if he spikes a fever again on Friday.
Friday, August 6th
Friday morning, he woke up without a fever, but still had a high heart rate. We asked a nurse from palliative care to stop by to check him out. She said his lungs sounded good, a little diminished on the left side, but his heart was beating so fast that it was hard to hear past it.
In the early afternoon the fever came back so we called the doc that did the tailbone surgery and he told us to start packing up and head to the ER. The ER doc ordered a chest x-ray, CT scan, bloodwork, and a viral panel…a whole bunch of stuff to see if they could figure out what was causing the fever and high heart rate. He told us that “it could be three or four hours before they got all of the tests back so get comfortable.” And he wasn’t kidding. I think I dozed off for a little bit while we were waiting.
Now, if you’ve been wondering where the title of this post, “An Expensive Uber Ride”, came from, here it comes. The chest x-ray showed pneumonia on the left lung, so they started to get things ready for him to be admitted. Great. Another hospital stay! A little while later the doc came back in for worse news. The viral panel was clear, which is good; bloodwork showed an elevated white blood count which means there’s an infection somewhere; and the CT scan showed what looked like and abscess around his tailbone. Now are you ready for this? James’ tailbone surgery was done at a different hospital than the one we were at, so because of that abscess by the tailbone, the ER doc arranged for a special transport to take James back to the hospital where the surgery was performed:
Yep. James and Stacy took an ambulance from one hospital to the other while I followed in the van. I’m curious to know how much that ride is going to cost. Insurance should pay for it…I hope! If not, you may be seeing us having a fundraiser in the near future.
James was finally settled into his hospital bed just before midnight. I wish I could have laid down in that bed next to him. I was so tired, but I had to get home to Maggie.
I got home around 1 am, gave Maggie lots of lovies, put her out to go potty, and went to bed. Got about four hours of sleep because Miss Maggie is used to mommy feeding her at around 4:30 am. Oh, and in case you were wondering, I did sneak out of the ER while we were waiting on tests to let Maggie out to go potty and give her some dinner.
Saturday, August 7th
Saturday was a whole bunch of watching movies on Mommy’s laptop. Because he needed to spend so much time on his belly to let his tailbone heal, he wasn’t able to see the TV in the room, so the laptop was the best option.
The plan for Saturday was to go down to radiology to get the abscess drained, but when the radiologists looked at the CT scan sent over from the other hospital, they didn’t feel like it was drainable. They wanted to wait until Monday so that they could get another x-ray, CT scan, or ultrasound of his tailbone to get a better look at the abscess and then determine if they wanted to attempt to drain it. I guess some techs don’t work weekends unless they get called in for an emergency…and James’ abscess wasn’t considered and emergency.
Infectious disease stopped by James’ room to discuss culturing the fluid that was drained from the abscess to see if they could determine what kind of infection he may have and then choose the best antibiotic to fight it off. Because radiology didn’t drain the abscess there wasn’t anything to culture.
They performed a chest x-ray, and it looked similar to the one done at the ER at the other hospital, but they didn’t think it was pneumonia. They didn’t see much fluid; it was just cloudy.
Sunday, August 8th
James got a special delivery. They brought in a new hospital bed with an air and sand filled mattress that provided extra cushion for his butt so that he could actually sit up and not have to be on his belly all the time. I was curious and had to see how much one of those beds cost. Over $40,000! Sorry James, but you will not be getting one for your bedroom at home.
Other than that, it was a pretty boring Sunday. We did, however, make the decision that James will not be having a birthday party this year. We need to focus on his health and healing. Stacy spent some time looking for a birthday shirt for him, because we were still going to celebrate another year of him being awesome. She narrowed it down to eight choices:
After thinking about it for a few days, and having friends and family vote, we went with shirt #5. He is definitely one of a kind, a limited edition, and awesome. And it was one of the few options that he could continue to wear when he turns thirteen. Woah! In just over a year, we’re going to have a teenager?!
Monday, August 9th
Chest x-ray was looking better. The combination of the antibiotics and the breathing treatments he had been getting were doing their job.
They did an ultrasound on his tailbone, and it looks good. They didn’t see much fluid at all like the ER CT scan did. They didn’t know if there was just a blip on the ER’s CT scan or if the antibiotics were clearing that up, too.
The doctor who did the surgery on his tailbone stopped in and said that he will be able to use his Nap Nanny—the chair he sits in at home—as long as we put a pillow under his left side, so he is not sitting directly on the wound.
Tuesday, August 10th
Homeward bound! There really wasn’t a reason to keep him any longer. Nobody knows what caused the fevers or high heart rate. The chest x-rays look the same and the abscess that they saw at the ER on Friday wasn’t there anymore.
We did know that there was some sort of infection behind the wound and tailbone, but it was thought to be contained in that area, so the course of action was to continue with antibiotics for a couple of months and do some routine labs to check levels.
Well, I am happy to report that it has been over two weeks since he left the hospital, and he has remained healthy. That was rough on all of us. Maggie included. She really missed her momma.
We want to thank everybody for your thoughts and prayers. And thank you Nestle for the get-well balloons and stuffed animal.
If you can’t read the card, it says:
“Dear James, We are following your unexpected journey and hope you feel better soon. You are always in our prayers. Love, Your Nestle Family xoxo”.
They really are an awesome company, and they have become family. If you missed the post about how they interviewed us for one of their employee programs, you can read about it at the bottom of this post.
James’ birthday is on Sunday so I should have something posted about it on Monday or Tuesday. We aren’t having a normal party this year, but we do have a special family celebration planned for him. You’ll never guess what the theme is this year.
