good news and bad news

Okay, Where to start.

First of all, Brian is doing great. Just great. He gets stronger each day and is improving quickly. He gets stitches and staples out on Friday. We see the oncologist tomorrow to talk about further treatment. His speech is improved and he is walking better each day. In fact, just today, he walked the corridor of the hospital there and back twice.

The hospital, you ask????

Hospital. That's right.

Sunday night, Gavin lay in bed with a 103.8 fever not responding to Motrin or Tylenol. He lay there shivering and trembling and shaking. At 2:30 am, I had enough, and I left for the ER. Thank God I had asked Jan to spend the night at our house in case of an emergent situation because an emergent situation we had.

I knew this was beyond a bug. He was sick. Very sick.

In the ER, he was given a bolus - a large amount of IV fluid quickly. He responded well and got another one. It took two tries to get an IV because he was so dehydrated. I could not get him to drink much on Sunday. Mom said she had the same problem most of the weekend. He ate almost NOTHING since Wednesday night. They told us they were calling our Pediatrician to follow up with him the next day and were sending us home since Gavin kept down the juice and crackers and could continue to hydrate at home. They took out the IV, so naturally, about 5 minutes later he vomited everything and they said we needed to watch him for 23 hours.

For the next several hours, Gavin underwent an IV infusion of a potassium mixture to bring back up his electrolytes and hydrate more. HIs urine and throat were tested. He had labs drawn. It was assumed this was a nasty stomach bug. He was given Tylenol and Motrin IF his fever spiked. Which it did. However, Friday through Monday he was FINE from about 10:30 to about 3:30. At 4:00 on Monday while we were here, his fever spiked to 103.2 again and they said they would keep him overnight - they were just about to let us go home, I guess. Anyway, all through the night last night, unless he was sleeping, Gavin complained of tummy and back pain. He would tremble and shiver head to toe and moan. The only relief he had was when his body would succumb to exhaustion and he would sleep. It was a long night. At about 1:00 am, his nurse noticed he was dripping with sweat, came in to uncover him and noticed his IV was falling out. So, he was poked for a FOURTH time to insert another IV. I sure hope this one holds out. He hates the pokes as he says.

This morning, his pediatrician came in and said it was pretty obvious by his trembling and his fever that will not break this is more than a stomach virus and is some sort of infection. He ordered more tests that probably should have been done the day before, but what's done is done. The test that FINALLY came back positive was the chest X-Ray. Gavin has pneumonia. He is now being treated with a broad antibiotic and an additional antibiotic in case it is a sort of atypical pneumonia. The good news is that that it appears so far the pneumonia is not growing. Gavin is not having problems breathing and isn't coughing a lot. The cough really just started last night. The pediatrician said this can happen with pneumonia - once the body is hydrated, the fluid can build up.

So, today, he spent a lot of the day trembling and uncomfortable. He appears to be doing a bit better tonight. I pray the antibiotics continue to work and other drastic means are unnecessary for his recovery. Please pray with me.

I had no idea how painful it was to watch your child in pain. I pray you never do.

I will write more when I have time.

KEEP BELIEVING