The Week From Hell

That's the only way to describe this past week. Sorry in advance that this will be long.

As y'all know, I was in Boerne starting Sunday to help my mom and stepdad with my neice, Rosabelle. Monday, Toots started being really fussy and it was hard to get him to eat but I just thought it was his normal gas or a growth spurt or something.

Tuesday, he was super fussy and after 9 AM, I couldn't get him to eat at all. He was screaming all day, which made me have to continuously hold him which meant I couldn't hold or play with Rosabelle, which, in turn, made her start crying and screaming. I'm usually able to keep things under control but I totally broke down and called my mom crying. I also called the pediatrician here in Fort Worth about him not eating at all (it was 1 PM at this point). The nurse that called me back told me I needed to take him somewhere because it wasn't okay that he wasn't eating. My mom called her doctor and I called a pediatrician in Boerne and they said to take him to the ER in Boerne. We took him there and they took a blood and urine sample. It was SO sad to see them put an IV needle in his arm and do a catheter on him and he was just screaming and screaming. :( Also, he ate a tiny bit while we were there but then he threw it all up. They came back and told me the blood and urine had come back normal but they were keeping a sample of both to do a culture on and see if any bacteria grew over the next 24-48 hours. They thought he probably just had some sort of viral infection/cold. We went home and he seemed to get a little better and I was able to get him to eat.

Wednesday, I thought he was back to normal and fine and I went and had lunch with my mom and ran some errands and then my mom and I headed to the airport. While we were driving, I had a call from an Unknown Number on my phone but I didn't answer and I didn't get to check the message they left until after we were in the airport. We had just checked my bags and gotten my ticket and were about to sit down at Starbucks for awhile before I needed to go to my terminal so I checked my message. It was the doctor from the Boerne ER telling me it was very important that she talk to me. I called back and she told me the blood culture they had done grew bacteria and Toots had some sort of bacterial infection and needed to be admitted to the hospital. I told her I was already at the airport and asked her what I needed to do. She told me I needed to leave the airport and take him immediately to Methodist Children's hospital in San Antonio and that they were already expecting me. Of course, I started freaking out and so did my mom and we ran to get my bags back from Southwest and leave for the hospital. We spent the next forever number of hours at the hospital ER getting him evaluated. They had to do a spinal tap on him :'( I left the room for that, at the doctor's suggestion. They also had to take a lot of blood. The whole thing was just totally mentally and emotionally exhausting and Toots was just so sad the whole time and he seemed so small and fragile and of course we had no idea what was going on. They admitted us to the hospital and we got in our room about midnight.

Tim had left Fort Worth as soon as I called him when we were leaving the airport and made it to the hospital about 10:30 or 11:00 that night. They started giving Toots antibiotics while we were still in the emergency room and continued when we got to our room.

Thursday, we waiting for the doctor the ENTIRE day and she finally showed up at 11:30 PM to basically tell us that they were still waiting for the bacteria in the culture to grow so they could know what specific bacteria it was. The only good news we got was that the spinal came back fine. The nurse had originally thought it came back showing an infection but it was just because, when they did the spinal, they got a lot of blood in it and the second and third vials didn't have any problems. So we had to wait around until Friday still not knowing if we were going to be able to go home or have to stay at the hospital for several more days. Poor Toots had monitors all over him and an IV in his hand. It was heartbreaking.

Friday morning, the nurse figured out Toots had pulled out his IV and he had to get another one :( The poor thing had just been sleeping all the time and seemed totally exhausted. We waited around again and the doctor came by at 4:00 on Friday afternoon to tell us that the bacteria showed up as Strep (some really long name along with that), which is a cousin of strep throat, but the subsequent cultures they had done at the hospital were showing up clean. So, she decided to send us home with seven days worth of antibiotics instead of making us stay in the hospital. We spent the night in Boerne and came back to Fort Worth on Saturday. Longest most awful week EVER.

Luckily, thank God, Toots is okay and seems to feel totally fine. The antibiotics made him have some diarrhea but it seems to be getting better now. I hope we NEVER have to go through that again with him or any subsequent children we have. Needless to say, we have been totally exhausted.

On a happier note, we got a preview of our pictures we got taken back. I should be getting the CD of all the images sometime in the next few days. I'm posting both of the picture groups here. Please ignore the one of us kissing him on the cheeks. I mean, could I look any more horrible?! First of all, my nose looks like a witch and, second, it was taken on the side with my jaw surgery scar, which looks terrible as well. I didn't think she would choose that picture because he was freaking out while we were taking them so I didn't think any of them would turn out normal. Gag. I love the rest of them, though. They are showing up kind of small on here, but I think you can still see them well.

Here's hoping this is a MUCH better week - which I think it will be! Hope y'all had better weeks and weekends than me. See you tomorrow for Skinny Tuesday!