We're becoming pros at this

I wasn't sure how sleeping in Callum's bed with him would work - but about 10pm last night, as he was drifting off, I laid next to him to rub his back and snuggle.  He actually went to sleep pretty quickly but I wasn't terribly comfortable with about two thirds of my ass hanging off the side of the bed, so I moved to my pull out bed but he woke after a couple of hours in more pain.  That went on and off and he kept asking me to lie next to him so we did end up spending the rest of the night together - he was super sweet, at one point, about 2am in the morning, after we had a potty break, he was getting situated back in bed and moved ALL the way to the side saying he was making room for me.  :)

We actually got a bit more sleep and I think the nurses and I were also smarter about managing his pain proactively.  He had a few stomach cramps through the night but not nearly as many, or as painful, and his fever seemed to be lowering and not poking its ugly head as often whenever the nurses would run vitals.  So, while exhausting, I felt like we braved the night much better.  

Our pediatrician called first thing in the morning, which I really appreciated.  He said, "Bree, what're you still doing in the hospital?!"  I explained the latest and after hearing my report, he was curious about the platelets count (which really, was the main thing left in my mind that had folks nervous) but wasn't particularly worried.  He said it just means we'll need to do a follow up with him next week to make sure they've gone back up to normal.  He said given everything he was hearing, we should get discharged today - since anything they were doing at the hospital, we could do at home too (meds weren't anything we couldn't do ourselves).

As for Callum - his fever was gone, and it was AMAZING to see the shift in his attitude and overall disposition.  He was smiling.  He was laughing.  He was asking to EAT!! (What, you ask?  Cheetos.  And yes, I gave him a bowl and he ate it all!)  He was playing on his bed, doing little upside down gymnastics like a little kid again.

He was getting in and out of his bed on his own.  He was getting impatient with me for not changing the movies fast enough and while that in and of itself wasn't new (he was impatient with me when he was feeling crappy too) ;-) now he was doing something about it, by getting out of his bed and going to the movies to pick something out himself!  It was quite transformational.

So, we were very sure we'd be getting discharged today.  The nurses started preparing paperwork to get us ready.  I started packing up our bags.

Then, our doctor came to visit.

She was leaning toward keeping Callum another day because she was worried about another fever spiking tonight (since he technically hadn't been fever free for 24 hours, which is what they like to see).

Also, she wanted to see what the stool culture results came back as - since, if they were positive (for various strains of bacteria that they were testing for), we'd need to come right back because the treatment would be antibiotics, only given via IV.  She told me that if the cultures were negative after 48 hours, then that usually means they'll be negative for the entire test (they run the culture test over 5 days).  Today had been negative but it's only the first 24 hours of the test.  :(

I asked her, what about the blood results from this morning?  She said she hadn't seen them yet and would go check.  She went to look them up and immediately came back and said, "Mom, you need to stay another night."  :(

So, unfortunately, Callum's platelets have continued to drop.  And, they don't really know why.  She gave me a few possible reasons why they could - she still felt this was a viral infection (apparently some viruses can suppress the platelet production), but she wanted to consult an Infectious Disease specialist, as well as Dr. Safir (our pediatrician) and Dr. Abi-Hanna (Callum's pediatric gastroenterologist).

After reviewing his blood work with "our team", they all agreed Callum should stay another night.  That would give them the opportunity to continue monitoring him and run a few more tests.  :(  She's running some of those tests off the draws we've already done, but poor Callum will get stuck again tomorrow morning since they can't run everything off of what they've already drawn (and they want to see a new set of data on his platelets and whether they'll start rising back to normal or not).  Likewise, they've also asked us to collect another urine and stool sample tonight - fun!

I was a little shaken by the news - I had thought for sure we'd get to go home.  Callum was in such great spirits and had started to look SO MUCH BETTER.  The ID specialist dropped by to talk to us and examine Callum.  He has a few theories on what's wrong - a couple viruses that he seems to be a good candidate for - and which they'll look for with the tests tomorrow.  Dr. Abi-Hanna also stopped by in the evening (while I was home taking a break and hanging out with Logan) and agreed the couple of viruses that the specialist mentioned were good candidates and that it was good we were staying another night.

Now that I'm back at the hospital for the night, Callum and I are hunkered down watching a few flicks before we turn in (any minute).  I was actually ready to crash once I got back but damn it if he didn't wake up from his nap and get all chatty on me and want to hang out together! ;-)

Still, we're both really quite tired and I'm not sure how many more of these restless nights I'll be able to last through, especially in the hospital with nurses flitting in and out, beeping machines and blinking lights and my poor little guy moaning in agony next to me.

"In Isolation"

It sounds a lot scarier than it is - but sometime last night, our status changed to "in isolation", due to a stool sample request that the doctor ordered, once she realized Callum had several episodes of diarrhea in the afternoon.

So what does that mean?

One, we get this ominous looking sign posted on our door.

It's mostly an inconvenience really - it means we shouldn't really have too many visitors (Callum's brother, being one of them) :( due to the risk of infecting others.  And, anyone who DOES visit or enter our room needs to go through this rigamarole of washing their hands, donning a gown and gloves, and then washing their hands again when they leave.

Most importantly though, it means poor Callum can't leave his room.  And, Jon and I cannot go to the pantry to freely grab a drink, or juice for Callum, or a snack.  Anything we want or need, we have to ask the nurses to do for us.  Ugh.

We had a really rough first night.  Callum woke every 15 minutes or so, with awful stomach cramps that had him hunched into a little ball crying big heart-wrenching tears.  He also continued to spike a fever throughout most of the night, which was worrisome.  This was with doses of Benedryl to ease the stomach cramps and Tylenol or Motrin (rotating every couple of hours) to keep his fever "down" (it was still very high).

He finally passed out at about 4am and then slept for a chunk of time - waking up around 8:30am or so - just in time for his blood draw of the morning (screaming hysteria ensued for that - yay).  While dead tired, we were both in happy spirits, even posing for a "Look! We made it through the night!" selfie.

Most of the day was spent waiting for the blood results to come back and the doctor on call for the day to come see us.  Callum had gone through a number of the old classic cartoon (VHS) tapes that the hospital had available for kids and was getting a little bored.

Jon came up the amazing idea of streaming some more current shows via Netflix on our iPad - genius! ;-)  So, we set my iPad up and most of the afternoon Callum just hung out watching his favorite flicks.

Because Callum's fever continued to spike and he was in a fair amount of pain all night, the doctor decided to keep him another night.  I had been asking the nurses why we weren't hydrating him (via IV) since I wasn't feeling like he was taking in enough liquids, yet he had been going diarrhea all day!  Because the doctor from yesterday hadn't ordered it, they couldn't do anything about it.  Grrr.

However, today's doctor was different!  I'm sure he could tell I was frustrated - but more so, he was just more logical about it all.  He said (what I've been thinking/saying myself) that if Callum is in the hospital, might as well take advantage of it.  Oh, he has an IV already in?!  Then why aren't we giving him any fluids?  (seriously, he said that)  To which I replied EXACTLY.  He nodded to a nurse and voila, fluids were suddenly streaming into my kiddo's system.  Thank goodness.  He also had the nurse give him some additional Benedryl and Tylenol since Callum had another onset of nasty cramps while he was visiting.

The doctor was also a tiny bit concerned with Callum's blood results from the morning.  His white blood cell count went back down to normal levels, so that was good.  But, his platelet count (which was low yesterday), was lower today.  Because of all of the above, and this, the doctor wanted to keep an eye on Callum and do another blood draw again tomorrow.  OH BOY. (Read: NOT FUN)

I headed home for a short nap while Callum was sleeping in the afternoon.  I got back to the hospital in time for Jon to then head out to pickup Logan and take him home.  Because of the "isolation" status and the doctors being a bit cagey about whether Callum had a viral or bacterial infection (but either way, probably contagious), we decided to keep Logan away.  It was really hard for me since I hadn't seen him all day, but I knew it was safer to keep him at home.

Callum declared that tonight, he'd like me to sleep next to him in his bed (vs. in the pull out bed next to him).  We'll see how it goes.  :)

The "Million Dollar work up"

Just about 24 hours ago, our latest hellish tale began to unfold.

Callum woke up in a lot of pain last night, complaining of a stomach ache and then later that his knee/leg was hurting him.  We thought he might have bad gas (his stomach was rock hard and taut) and growing pains or a sprain (knee/leg). So we gave him some anti-gas drops and some ibuprofen to see if that would help. It was tough calming him down but I was able to finally get him (and me) to sleep (in our bed), and at some point, Jon transferred him to his own bed.

Around 4am he woke up moaning, and crying, and eventually screaming in pain again. I'm not quite sure how, but I did again eventually calm him down enough to go back to sleep. However, he woke up again about 6am, with the same thing (the last two wake ups he had stopped complaining about his stomach but continued to talk about his knee/leg and would refuse to walk on it). We had no idea where this was all coming from since he had been just fine hours before and no falls, etc. We were also both exhausted and beside ourselves as to what to do next, and poor Callum was inconsolable. So we finally made the call to take him to the ER since it didn't feel right.

Jon stayed home to take Logan to school while I drove Callum to the hospital. On the LONG 10 minute drive there, his pain and agony seemed to escalate to the point of hysteria by the time I got to the ER. Surprisingly, it was a ghost town, but given the screaming child in my arms, it didn't take long for a nurse to come straight to the door and usher me in as fast as he possibly could.

They were alarmed at how sick he appeared and how much pain he seemed to be in (he was screaming, writhing all over the bed and quite hysterical unfortunately). Our ER doctor later told me it's rare that they see a child in that much pain, so he was thinking it was something pretty serious.  I knew at the time they were all thinking that, based on how they were treating us, which made me wonder if I should be more worried than I was. :)

The doctor was pretty sure the leg/knee pain was referred pain and that what we were actually dealing with was a case of intussusception (essentially, an inverted intestine, which is extremely painful as you can imagine). They also thought it could be a case of appendicitis. Based on how Callum was presenting, either could have been a fit.

So, began the flurry of tests. We had blood work done. 3-4 vials worth. That was rough.

Callum could barely answer yes or no questions while in pain, yet the first and only thing he asked me when we arrived to the ER and he saw all the doctors and nurses surrounding him, was if he was going to get a shot. :(  Just a few minutes later, two nurses came in to let me know they needed to put in an IV.

I said uhhhh, that's not going to go so well. He's going to freak. We talked and agreed it would be best to wrap him in a "burrito" (with bed sheets) to help contain him. The nurses actually wanted to try without it but I encouraged them it would be better. As they were inserting the IV, Callum shrieked so loud I'm sure the entire first floor of the hospital heard us. One of the nurses looked at me and nodded, "Good call Mom."

After blood was drawn they gave him a small dose of morphine. We were all worried about his pain but we also needed to break the unbreakable hysteria that he was in. It, of course, calmed him down immediately. Phew.

Here's a quick peek at his "glowing toe" - a little sensor they taped to his toe to get his oxygen and heart rate readings. He asked me to take this pic since he loved his glowing toe so much. ;-)

From there, we were whisked off to run ultrasounds - many different angles and shots of his abdomen, as well as his testicles (the doctor also wanted to rule out twisted testicles). Callum did great, nodding off here and there, no doubt due to the morphine and sheer exhaustion.  The morphine caused a fair amount of chills/shakes (normal), which made him uncomfortable though, so he never truly fell asleep.  We also got a urine sample to run tests off - and they gave him some Tylenol (via suppository, poor guy!) to combat the fever he had developed.

After a bit of dozing back in his room, we were whisked off again, this time to run X-rays. The doctor was pretty certain nothing was wrong with his knee, leg or hips (I felt the same, you could move his knee and legs all around without any real change in his reaction), but he ran the X-rays anyway, just to be safe.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, the ultrasound results were inconclusive. And his X-rays came back looking great, without issue. His blood did show elevated white blood cells, a sign of infection, but at that point, it's all we knew.

There was some discussion as to whether they'd do a CT scan next, since they aren't crazy about CT scans on young children due to radiation exposure, but finally they decided to do a scan as well. This meant first poor Callum had to take down a cup of contrast liquid, which was absolutely awful to taste (I did taste it to see), and took FOREVER to finish (we technically didn't finish it all before the tech came to get us).

After the start of ingesting the liquid, you have to wait 2 hours before the scan, which I was actually fine with since Callum was super tired and kept asking to sleep. :(   The morphine and Tylenol were working and he was slowly feeling, looking, and responding better by the hour.

When it was time for the CT scan, we headed in. Callum was grumpy because we had woken him from a nap, and unfortunately, that grumpiness continued to spiral downward once he noticed the big rotating loud circular machine that I told him he'd be going into, so the doctors could take more pictures. The poor guy had had enough (can you blame him??)

On top of the scary machine and the crappy contrast fluid they had him drink beforehand, they also gave him an enema just before his scans AND THEN gave him several more doses of the contrast in between scans, via his IV.

When the techs had walked me through all this before we started, I explained to them that he hates the IV and is super sensitive about it. So good luck to them if they wanted to put more in him. Likewise with the enema, he wasn't going to like it (we've done one before on him at home and it was not fun). And finally, I asked if they had anything that could help keep him still because he wasn't going to be still for their scans. They said they did have a "papoose" like thing they could wrap him in, and I could then hold his arms/hands above his head as he went in and out of the CT.  Knowing my kiddo, without hesitation, I said yep, do it.

So we wrapped him up, I talked him through it and back and forth he went, in and out of that machine, with me holding his arms and hands as still as I could. He was crying and screaming and super afraid and upset by the whole ordeal, yelling to me to "get him off and out" and he wanted to stop. It was the most traumatic event, for the both of us, amongst it all. :(

It wasn't too long after, our doctor came to talk to us about the results.

The CT scan yielded nothing. Everything looked great and healthy and as it should. No appendicitis. No intussusception. No tumors, lesions, masses or anything else to explain it. This was discouraging for me because I wanted to know what was wrong. But the doctor said this was great because it could have been some really bad stuff.

But, given how sick he was when I brought him in and throughout most of the day, they wanted to admit him to the hospital and keep him under observation, just in case.

The ER doctor also called our pediatrician to let him know all that was going on and no more than 10 minutes later, Dr. Safir showed up to our room.

When he walked into the room, Callum immediately said "I've already had my shots" and showed Dr. Safir the IV in his arm. ;-)

The first thing Dr. Safir said to me when he walked in was, "Hi Bree, I see you've had the Million Dollar work up". Tell me about it!

We talked for a bit. He thought it was something viral affecting Callum's intestinal area, and believes it may be something going around since he's had three other patients, all with the same symptoms, in the last week. :(  But, thought this was best to keep him at the hospital overnight since they could help us get him hydrated, treat his pain quickly if need be and let him rest. And, he didn't want the same to happen again tonight and require us to make a U-turn back to the ER.

Once we moved to the pediatric unit, Callum was in such great spirits (go figure!). He was chatting with the nurses, walked a bit on his own and played in the toy room for awhile. I think the nurses were wondering why we were here. :)  I took a short break to go home and shower, pack an overnight bag, pickup Logan and grab dinner to eat back at the hospital.

When Logan and I got back, Callum had just woken up from a nap and was grumpy again. :(  So unfortunately, Logan's visit wasn't much fun and he didn't get much time with his brother before we decided it best to take him home (Jon is home with him while I stayed with Callum at the hospital).

Callum's pain and discomfort the rest of the evening has been up and down. He's had a few episodes of painful stomach cramps and diarrhea, but still nothing like before and overall he seems better. I'm hopeful he'll sleep through (most of) the night and is much better in the morning.

Speaking of sleep, I better get some myself, if I can. Here's my bed for the night, right next to my little buddy. :)

Loganism of the day

"Callum, you don't say no to your mother!"

(If only Logan would heed his own words) ;-)

Pink lips!

Pink frosting didn't stop Callum and his good buddy Ryker from chowing down today. ;-)

What a fun card!

Love this card. Love Callum's writing even more! (He wanted to put his name on it twice, so there's also a Callum signature under the lips - which pop out at you!) :)

A foreign object

Callum and I are headed to a birthday party later today so I'm wrapping the present now. He asked me what each of the princess's names are, and I had to look up about half of them!