Not The Post I Was Expecting

This was supposed to be our post about our trip to Spain ... that will have to wait ... Kelty was admitted to the hospital on Friday.

Kelty had his 2-year appointment on Wednesday and had a perfect check-up. On Thursday afternoon I received a call from his school; Kelty had woken up from his nap screaming and with a fever of 103. I immediately picked him up, gave him a dose of Tylenol and brought him home. He was pretty pooped the rest of the day and fell asleep at 6:30pm ... still with a fever. It was a pretty rough night; I slept on the floor next to his bed ... we rotated between rocking in his chair and sleeping restlessly in his bed. He continued to run a fever throughout the night and kept touching his head and neck when I asked him what hurt. I called the clinic when they opened and was able to get Kelty in to see the doc Friday morning.

He was running a fever of 102.3 when we checked-in ... with no other symptoms ... not a sniffle, not a cough, not a sneeze, nothing but a fever and something hurting in his head/neck. As usual Kelty screamed during his check-up with the doctor and as a result started having a snotty nose. The doctor continued to question "other symptoms" ... I insisted he had no other symptoms. He questioned the runny nose and I told him it was a because he was crying. He seemed skeptical and told me if that was the case then he would have to run a full work-up on Kelty ... otherwise he just has a cold. I insisted that he had no other symptoms and we proceeded with a morning/early afternoon of unpleasant procedures for Kelty ... and for mommy.

We had to collect a clean urine sample and unfortunately it had to be done via catheter ... following the catheter was blood work. I spent the morning/afternoon holding Kelty down for these procedures ... it was horrible and made me sick to my stomach to see Kelty put through this.

We headed back to the clinic waiting room where Kelty stayed curled up in my lap, lethargic and still with a fever. After 1-hour the doc came to get us and apologized for the wait ... the lab had to re-run the blood sample 3 times because the results showed a white blood cell count of 33,000; the norm is 5,000 - 15,000. The doc told me "I was right" ... there is some sort of infection and it's not a cold. With Kelty's lethargic behavior, pain in the head/neck and the high white blood cell count of 33,000 ... the doc was speculating that it could be meningitis. He gave Kelty a shot of Rocephin (a really strong antibiotic) and made arrangements for us to head over to Landshtul Regional Medical Center for a lumbar puncture.

As I was leaving the clinic parking lot, Al called ... his flight was canceled due to weather and he was on his way to the clinic. He drove up as I was pulling out ... perfect timing. We carpooled over the the hospital and I filled him in on the days events.

After arriving at the hospital the doc decided to hold off on the lumbar puncture ... it's a very painful procedure and since Kelty was acting a little feisty with the medical staff he wasn't certain it was meningitis ... he speculated that if it were meningitis he would be too lethargic to "fight back". He admitted Kelty to the pediatric unit for monitoring with a diagnosis of a "fever with unknown origin" and because his white blood cell count was so outrageously high he was fighting off some sort of infection ... he just didn't know what.

After we got settled in and Kelty was resting quietly Al stayed with Kelty while I ran home to shower and take a nap. I returned to the hospital at 4am so Al could take his turn ... it was rough night of sleep for all of us. By morning Kelty's fever had broken. The medical staff continued to monitor Kelty throughout the day and felt comfortable discharging Kelty Saturday late afternoon/early evening. Kelty received a 2nd shot of Rocephin and was also started on Tamiflu. The doctor found a raging ear infection in Kelty's right ear Saturday afternoon which he said could have been the reason for the high white blood cell count even though they didn't see the ear infection on Friday. Either way, we have to have blood work done again on Monday in hopes that the culprit of the 33,000 white blood cell count was indeed the ear infection ... let's hope! We're also waiting on a few cultures to come back to determine if the mystery infection was bacterial or viral.

To wrap it up ... Kelty is home and back to his happy and active self! It's so wonderful to have our little boy back! I'm pretty certain he's going to have some issues with going back to the clinic and seeing any doctor ... during our stay at the hospital any time there was a shadow outside our door Kelty would shake his head "no" and start to whimper ... anytime someone in scrubs tried to enter the room he would bury his face and start to cry. My next trip to the toy store will be for a "doctors kit" ... I'm hoping to break this fear that he's developing ... but who could fault him for being scared!

Settled into his bed ... he was so flushed!

Poor little guy had so many little monitors stuck to him. One monitor was taped around his big toe and it glowed red ... we kept a sock on that foot. He was not a fan of his "rudolph" toe.

Safe with daddy