We ended up staying longer than anticipated in Utah. First off, because Brian's grandma passed away. The funeral was very intimate and a great way of commemorating a wonderful woman whom we all miss greatly. Unfortunately, at the funeral James got sick. We knew something was wrong as soon as he fell asleep at 10 a.m. (James takes good naps but not at 10 a.m). He slept through the whole service while my mom held him. When we came back to pick him up he was still asleep. We put him in the car to go to the luncheon and he was very lethargic and not acting like himself at all. He kept saying that his chest hurt. (I should have had him point to where it hurt because he would have pointed to his throat).
Needless to say, we went to the luncheon and then came back to Brian's mom's house and James immediately went back to sleep. He awoke later with a raging fever. We gave him Advil for the fever. The next morning he was still complaining of his "chest" and his fever was very high. We realized quickly that his "chest" was really his throat as he cried every time he tried to drink.
I called the local Pediatric Instacare and got an appointment for that morning. We went in and I was sure this was going to be strep throat as we had already had it twice this year (only when exposed to Utah). I was very surprised when the doctor said that the test was negative. He proceeded to tell us that it was probably just a virus and to go home and watch him. I then told the doctor to make sure it couldn't be something else as James is not vaccinated and we can't rule anything out. In light of that information the doctor had us go the the McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden to get some blood taken to make sure he didn't have a blood infection. That evening the doctor called back to see if James was feeling any better and I said no. They told us to come back and they gave him 2 shots of Rocefin in the legs just in case there was an infection. James was very good when they took his blood at the hospital. He simply watched without crying but when they gave him the shots he cried for about 10 minutes straight. I felt horrible!
James fever continued overnight and he was as exhausted as before. He slept a lot on Brian's chest (his preferred location when he is sick). The next morning I went to purchase a brush from the store and the doctor called me. He said that they had found an infection in James' blood but they couldn't identify it yet. He said he would call the Emergency room and let them know we were coming right then. Then I got freaked out. We decided to go directly to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City rather than back to McKay Dee because they specialize in kids (good thing to since the nurse at the hospital told us they would have life flighted James to them anyway).
Brian took James to the hospital and got him all checked in. I got all our stuff together and took it to my parent's house because they are closer to Salt Lake and because my mom was free to watch Johnny while Brian's mom dealt with arrangements for her mother's estate. This sickness couldn't have come at a worse time. Brian was supposed to be helping his mom and I was in the middle of an intense 1 month semester at school taking 2 very time intensive classes.
I got to the hospital and this is what I found. They had inserted an I.V. into James' arm and had started administering the antibiotics via I.V. They still didn't know what the bacteria was but they thought it was HEB (yes, they do vaccinate for that and it causes respiratory problems and since James had throat pain that is what they thought it was).
We were originally told that James would need to say in the hospital for a few days and then he would need additional I.V. treatments for a total of 10 days (including the hospital stay). Of course, this put a major cramp in our travel plans as it was now Thursday and we were supposed to fly out on Saturday morning.
We got a note from the doctor and Delta waived the change fees for our flights although we would have to pay any additional price in fare. No worries there since we had purchased our tickets at the maximum price anyway in light of the funeral.
James in the hospital Day 1. He was quite traumatized by the I.V. insertion in the E.R.
After a few days. He was getting more used to the hospital and the staff was really amazing. James was in the Infant Unit and he was under quarantine because they still didn't know exactly what he had. It took them a total of 4 days to figure out what James had and I was shocked when they told us.
James had Salmonella in his blood. It was the first time the nurses or doctors had ever seen it present in this way. They said that he must have touches something with Salmonella on it and it entered his blood through a cut. Unfortunately, you can't become immune to Salmonella so he is just as vulnerable to it again as the rest of us. Once they finally figured out what James had they changed the treatment plan to 2 full weeks of antibiotics. They chose to insert a more permanent PICC line into James' arm right at the elbow. They drugged him for this.
When the anesthesiologist asked us if we had any family history of difficulties with anesthesia I told her that it would be likely that the anesthesia wouldn't work very well or that it would wear off very quickly (not pleasant during labor or a C-section). When they were finished she told us that she ended up having to use double the normal amount for a child of his size and it still wasn't working very well. Luckily they also gave him something to make him forget the whole thing. Poor little guy was traumatized enough already.
This is James attempting to eat after the PICC line was inserted. They had withheld food for most of the day because of the anesthesia and he was starving. Unfortunately he was also loopy and could barely hold himself up. But he was so hungry that the nurse said he could eat. They gave him his first dose of antibiotics through the PICC line immediately following the procedure as well. And on this the 5th dose of antibiotics James' had a pretty big allergic reaction. You can see in the photo that he is just starting to turn splotchy.
We immediately called the nurse and within 1 minute James was breaking out in hives that started to bubble. It was pretty horrifying to watch. The doctors came running back and gave Benedryl and a few other antihistamines through the I.V. which worked very quickly. He only had one little blister burst and leave a mark before the medicine worked. After that James was too tired to stay awake. He went straight to bed. Here is a picture of him after the reaction was mostly gone. (No, I didn't think to take pictures of him during the reaction as I was kinda freaking out on the inside).
We ended up trading off going back and forth between the house and the hospital. Brian's employer was very understanding considering he had just had 5 days of bereavement leave. He was working as much as possible from the hospital when James slept. We took turns staying with James but I think Brian got the worst of it. I was trying to make sure that Johnny was still getting nursed although this really helped with getting him ready to be weaned. My mom was a lifesaver as she was able to help us with Johnny while we were with James or sleeping or keeping up on work and homework. My mom kept Johnny busy with gardening. The mulberry tree in my parent's yard was dishing up lots and Johnny decided he loves mulberries.
After a long discussion with the CDC and other infectious disease specialists (yes, the Center for Disease Control) the doctors decided to keep James on the same antibiotic that he was allergic too. (We had to wait till his next dose of antibiotics to be sure that it was the antibiotic he was allergic to since he had so many different medicines in him the previous time). Sure enough it was the antibiotics and we had to use Benadryl once again. The doctors decided that it was best to keep him on the same antibiotic and simply pre-treat with oral Benadryl and a couple other antihistamines 30 minutes before his antibiotics. It worked. Poor James insisted that we sleep with him in the hospital bed.
This is the small room that James' was quarantined to for 5 of his 6 day stay. They finally got the okay to let him out after they tested his poop to make sure there was no Salmonella in it. Salmonella is very contagious so it is standard protocol to isolate anyone with it. Luckily for us (because we were around so many other people) James was not contagious except through his blood.
After 6 days in the hospital we finally got to take James back to my parents house. We decided to stay in Utah to finish the rest of the I.V. treatments at home. The home-care nurse came by and showed us exactly how to do the I.V. and how to keep it clean. This was our attempt at keeping it dry to give our dirty boy a bath.
My sister, Karen, sent two of her kids up to my parent's house to play with my kids when James got out of the hospital. It was great. It was also good for her since she had to have surgery (didn't tell any of us until after it was over! Dork!) to remove an enormous ovarian cyst (benign).
Her daughter, Elsie, told me she wanted to cut her hair like mine but didn't think her mom would let her. I called and asked my sister if it would be okay. She said yes. We took her to the salon and cut enough off to donate to Locks of Love. Here she is before with her long hair.
And after, with her short new cut! She loved it. I think she looks beautiful either way but I love the short cut.
James playing with cousin Max. You wouldn't even know he had a PICC line in his arm except that we had to call the home nurse 3 times because of problems with it. You see, they placed it right at his elbow. And that wouldn't have been such a problem if it had been the other arm. Nope, it was the arm that he uses to suck on his fingers and so it is constantly being bent up. This caused his line to bleed which caused the bandage to get compromised and therefore need cleaning and replacing. What a pain! James did not like this at all since it was irritating his skin. They finally double taped it all into place and it stuck for the final few days.
Aren't those boys adorable?
Brian and his mom and our boys.
Dorks! Avoiding the camera.
We got James' PICC line remove the day before we came home. We flew gratefully back home the 15th of July, 3 weeks after our originally scheduled departure. We were so happy to be home! Oh, and I still got straight A's that semester (divine intervention).
I had a little chat with the department of health about all the places that James could have picked up Salmonella. Seems that it is pretty much everywhere and all the doctors told us it was a fluke that he had gotten it into his blood that way. So we will never know how it happened. All we can be sure of is that it probably happened 48 to 72 hours before he showed symptoms.
Let me tell you that we hope to never relive the experience of having a child in the hospital like that again. It was very stressful and I think I gained about 15 lbs. between stressing and eating crap food on the way to or from the hospital. It wasn't exactly how we wanted to end our trip to Utah but I suppose these things happen and I'm not surprised that my 2 year old boy (who touches everything always) finally caught something nasty. Here's to hoping it won't happen again anytime soon!
I mean he really liked the whipped cream.
Johnny playing with some of his presents.
