On Monday morning, Lincoln woke up saying his head hurt. We asked if he fell or hit it and he said no, so we gave him an ice pack and headed to school. When we got there I bent down to give him a kiss and he felt really hot. Lesson #1, always kiss your child goodbye, you might discover they have a fever! We checked him right there in the class room and discovered he had a fever of 100.2, high enough to go home for the day. When we got home I gave him Tylenol and he seemed brand new an hour later.
We went on with the rest of our day and he went down for a nap. About an hour into his name he woke up crying. I headed in there and he would not let me pick him up and said his head was hurting again and was holding it and had a temp of 102.2. At that point I thought we should go to the doctor, that he might have an ear infection. Before we got there I noticed he was not turning his head to either side as well, very strange.
At 4:30, his doctor came in to check him out. I told her about the stiff neck and I guess that alarmed a few bells. She ran a strep and mono test as well as a blood panel. Both tests came back negative, but the blood test showed elevation in his bacteria fighting cells. She said we should head to the ER and see if they could get a better look at him. She thought he might have some abscess'.
We got to Cook Children's Medical Center a little before 6pm that night. They put in an iv and ran an xray and ct scan with contrast on him. All those tests took about 5 hours before they determined that he did have these abscess' and because of the locations of them they had to be treated right away or his air way could close off. Scary stuff!
Here is Lincoln waiting to be admitted at 11pm on Monday.
We were admitted that night and finally got in a room on the Infectious Disease floor at 12am. We did not have Kennedy with us, thank goodness, but I needed to go pick her up, feed her and get to bed so I could head back up in the morning. Craig ended up staying with him that night and neither of them got much sleep.
They had to do 3 different antibiotics and 1 steroid around the clock to get the bacteria to go away. We were in contact isolation which means that Lincoln could not leave the room. Cook's is amazing and they have people come around to your room trying to find things to entertain you little child. On Tuesday, Lincoln got to do art. He painted, played with foam and made me a bracelet. He really enjoyed the art teacher!
He also got a prayer bear, two stuff animals and two pillow cases all from Cook's volunteers. They also brought in other toys for him to play with. My mom came up at lunch on Tuesday so that Craig and I could leave the room and have some lunch. It was so nice to get out of the room but we also felt guilty because Lincoln could not come with us, that was really hard. He didn't seem to notice, he just enjoyed having his Grandma there to play with for a while, she brings candy! See Lincoln was not contagious to other people, he just had to stay away from the people that were since he had a weakened immune system. Craig stayed with him again on Tuesday night and was getting very tired from not having much sleep.
On Wednesday he started to look a lot better to us. My mom came in again at lunch and we went out for a quick bite and at that time not seen the doctor yet. She did not end up coming until around 3 and told us we might have to stay until Friday and see and ENT and see if they thought he needed surgery. Ugh, we were bummed because he looked so good to us!
She wanted him to stay because she had taken him off the steroids on Wednesday and wanted to make sure he didn't swell back up. Craig planned to stay again on Wednesday night, so I headed home again to put Kennedy to bed.
When I was walking in, I saw our neighbor, Bill and told him what was going on with Lincoln. He said he would pray for him and that warmed my heart. The next thing I know I hear the sound of someone mowing their lawn and it sounded really close to our house. That is because Bill was mowing our lawn at 8pm at night! I love random acts of kindness, that really warmed my heart!
Later that night Lincoln was getting inconsolable and wanted me so I had my brother come over to watch Kennedy while Craig and I switched places. He got some fun gifts from his preschool, Kid's Place, which is actually the Cook Children's daycare, haha, so he was not far from school!
I notified everyone that we would probably be in the hospital until Friday. So surprise, surprise when the doctor came in on Thursday late morning saying we could go home today! Yay! We were so excited. She did warn us to watch him and that it could come back so we need to be careful, but other than that he can resume normal activity! We are going to try to keep him home all weekend and then resume outings on Monday. He was so excited to be leaving!!! Cook's took great care of all of us.
We asked Lincoln what he wanted and he said he wanted to ride the train, haha. My boy likes his trains! So before we put him in home isolation, haha, we took him to the train really quick at the zoo. And let me tell you it was quick because it was like a thousand degrees outside. But Lincoln didn't notice and really enjoyed the train ride. It put a smile on both our faces to see him so happy!
We are so happy our little man is better. We are so lucky to have family so close, i don't know what we would have done without them helping watch either Kennedy or Lincoln. Our friends also kept up with us thru texting, calling and visiting me at home and that helped too! Both our works are also awesome, Craig's wrote him a card and got some bundt cakes and mine gave him a card to build a bear! We want to thank everyone for all the kind thoughts and prayers for Lincoln and us.
He is definitely catching up on his sleep, which is great for everyone. I don't think the scariness of it all hit me until I got home. I was just in go go go mode until we left. I know most abscess' are not harmful, but they kept telling us the location of his were dangerous to his breathing and that really scared me. What if they didn't get it down, then what would happen. I am just glad I don't have to worry about that now.
I definitely hug my little Lincoln longer now, which in a three year old can be hard to do since they don't want to be still. It is a horrible place to be in when your child is in the hospital. I prayed and prayed that he would just get better and that no surgery or long stay would be required. I continue to pray that he will get healthy and stay healthy. I feel a calming when I ask for this and I feel now that everything is going to be ok. I am glad we caught it early. I love you so much Lincoln and I thank God for choosing us to be your family!
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