Jonathan's Hospital Trip Part 1

As many of you know, Jonathan was admitted to the hospital for a few days recently.  Joe and I definitely appreciated all your thoughts and prayers.  Everything turned out so much better than what the original diagnosis was when we were first admitted to the hospital. But let me say... what an adventure we had!  I guess we should start at the very beginning!

Mimi had come into town the weekend before Jonathan's birthday party to spend some time with baby since we hadn't been able to come up the month before due to the stomach flue (thanks daddy).  I had a cold the week before and it seemed Jonathan was getting something similar.  Jonathan ran a fever off and on all weekend and the first few days of the week.  Luckily, he seemed to be feeling better toward the middle of the week- except continued to have a runny nose and a little cough.  Jonathan's birthday party (March 30) went off without a hitch but afterwards I could tell that Jonathan was starting to feel a little worse and sure enough, he was running a temperature again!  Thinking that this cold had turned into something else Joe and I headed to the pediatric urgent care place.  He was placed on Amoxicillin for 10 days for an upper respiratory infection.  About 24hrs later his runny nose was clearing up, fever was gone, and so was his cough!  Yay for antibiotics!

Fast forward to the next weekend (April 5).  Jonathan had gymnastics that morning and came home and took a nap.  When he woke up Joe and I played all afternoon with him until it was time for church.  This is my month to volunteer in the nursery (infants and toddlers) at church so Jonathan was there with me.  He was in a great mood until the very end when he became really fussy and his face looked a little flushed.  All he wanted was to be held.  When we got home, he felt really warm, but wasn't running a temperature (to my surprise), but was even more inconsolable. I would get him to sleep for a little bit but then he would wake up crying again like he was in pain.  I told Joe that I was really worried about him and thought something was wrong, but I couldn't figure out what would be bothering him so much.  The urgent care place closed at 10pm, so we decided to go just because this behavior was so unusual for Jonathan.  Unfortunately we got there a few minutes too late and they were closed (blessing in disguise??)  Jonathan fell asleep in the car, so we thought that maybe his fussiness was due to being overtired, so we went back home and went to bed.

Left side of his body when we got to
the doctor. About 12noon 4/7/2013

When we left the house- his right
side only had a few spots.  At
least he was still smiling at this point.

Jonathan woke up in a better mood on Sunday.  While changing his diaper I noticed a few red bumps on each of this legs.  I thought it was kinda funny, but didn't know what to think of it since he hadn't gotten anything new lately.  As the morning went on, I kept noticing more and more bumps popping up and starting to go up the sides of his stomach.  What concerned me more though, was that by late morning I noticed that Jonathan hadn't been walking or even crawling pretty much all day.  Of course I always think the worse.  Luckily we have an amazing pediatrician and they have Sunday hours so they were able to fit us in pretty quickly.  By the time we got to the doctors office this rash was even worse!  The doctor didn't know what to think of the rash- thought the distribution was very strange but attributed it to some sort of allergic reaction.  She was more concerned that Jonathan is a very active child, but now was not wanting to use his legs at all.  She advised us to go to the Emergency Room so they could run more tests like Xrays and blood work if needed.

In the ER- Face is puffy and red

His IV... so hard to watch this!

I DREAD going to the ER.  As a nurse I try to avoid that place at all costs, especially since the ER is used by soo many people as a doctor's office.  I reluctantly packed Jonathan back up in the car, stopped by the house to get my phone charger and some cheerios, called Joe to tell him we were on our way to the ER, and we would see him in a few hours, and drove to the emergency room.  Of course there was a huge wait and I could tell Jonathan was feeling worse and worse by the minute.

Resting and getting some much
needed fluids.

When we finally got into the ER, his rash was a lot worse, his face was red and puffy, and this whole right leg from the knee down was red, swollen, and warm to the touch.  The ER doc ordered an IV (I think I might have cried more than Jonathan with that one), some IV fluids, Ibuprofen (he was now running a low grade fever), and a bunch of blood work.  After what seemed like FOREVER... the doctor came back to fill me in.  He sat down on the side of the bed (not a good sign)... and started... "Well...".  Apparently Jonathan's white blood cell count (WBC) were elevated, along with some other blood tests- so with those results, the rash, the red swollen leg, and fever- our doctor thought he had a bone/joint infection of some sort (google: septic joint) and wanted to transfer us to Johns Hopkins Hospital where they had a pediatric orthopedic specialist and could run some more specialized tests.  To get from the hospital we were at to Hopkins they had a special ambulance that would come and take us.  It was so weird being on THIS side.  Usually I am the one who is receiving the patients and taking care of them...

Jonathan strapped in on his
stretcher  on his way to Hopkins.

At this point, it is close to 8pm and we have been in the hospital for over five hours.  When the ambulance got there they had to strap Jonathan in and hooked him up to all kinds of monitors.  Jonathan was exhausted and was really not happy to be strapped down to the stretcher and not in his Mommy's arms.  They let me ride in the ambulance with him, but I had to ride up front with the driver.  Joe drove to Hopkins and met us there (since only one of us could ride in the ambulance).  In the ambulance they played Finding Nemo on a small TV screen for him which at least distracted him enough for the 30min drive.  They brought us to the Hopkins Pediatric ER which brought even more waiting and guessing what could be wrong with him.  Jonathan had been being so brave through everything, but with each doctor that came in I know he was getting more and more exhausted and frustrated with all the picking and poking.  By the time we got to Hopkins both legs were red and swollen- along with his elbows now and his rash was even worse.  Based on these symptoms the Hopkins doctors didn't think it was a bone infection (thank goodness).  As they were trying to find what was really wrong with Jonathan, they admitted us to the Infant and Toddler Unit where we would stay for the next two days.  FINALLY at 3am Monday April 8 we had been admitted to our unit.  Both Jonathan and I passed out... only to be woken up again at 5:30am to a team of resident doctors.... (gotta love Hopkins).

This post has gotten way to long- so I'll split it up into a few posts!  More to come!