What is up with Johnson kids being hospitalized for weird things and spending days in the hospital while doctors try to figure out what is up with them? So.Not.Cool. No more kids in the hospital!!
Last Sunday Kameron woke up with a fever and was feeling sick. I wasn't too concerned since both Reilly and Tyler had been sick and were just getting over nasty colds and horrid sore throats. Ailey and Bryn were both sniffling so I just assumed Kameron was the next in line to get whatever was going around. We let him stay home from church and he pretty much slept all day. He felt like eating something on Sunday night but just threw it up and continued running a low-grade fever and sleeping. Monday morning he was still running a fever and not feeling well. At 11am I went into his room and checked on him. He was complaining of a stomach ache. I questioned him further, prodded around, and found out that it was only hurting on his lower right side. Not good. I googled appendicitis and he had all the symptoms. I called our pediatrician and he wanted to see Kam right away.
We drove immediately to Dr. Morgan's office where he checked him out and felt that it could be appendicitis and wanted him to go immediately to the hospital for an ultrasound. Luckily the hospital is connected to his doctor's office building so we didn't have to go too far. Kameron wasn't thrilled about having to ride in a wheelchair.
We spent most of the day in a room in the ER, getting tests run, and an ultrasound and CT scan done. He had all the markers of a severe infection but oddly his appendix looked great. He was admitted and a urologist was called in to check his right kidney which was not looking great.
He was given a room up on the pediatric oncology floor which was a sobering experience. VERY SOBERING. It is also the sub-specialty floor and a much less germy place for Kameron. Still. Sobering.
The only real bright spot (to Kameron) was that there was an XBOX in his room (which we don't own) so Kam got to play all the video games he wanted. Thank goodness I got a Kindle Fire for my birthday and that was my bright spot...I read a bunch of books.
The girls coming to visit were a huge help. Every time they would visit, Kameron would look so much better by the time they would leave. Laughter truly is the best medicine.
This had us all laughing for quite awhile. The couch/bed is abnormally large. My mom is tall and her feet were dangling like Edith Ann. Imagine what a short person would look like? ;)
Lots of hugs and kisses helped too!
Kameron was diagnosed with pyelonephritis which is a nasty kidney infection. He was on major IV antibiotics and tons of fluids. The odd part was that he never had any of the symptoms that would go with a UTI. Many more tests were run and it looked like the infection was localized to his right kidney and ureter. He was a very sick kid there for awhile. I was a very worried Mom and Tyler was a very stoic dad.
Eventually...after about 24 long hours...he stopped running a fever, and his white blood cell levels dropped, and he started looking better. He ended up having a VCG done which was not pleasant. It is basically an x-ray of the bladder, urethra, and kidneys with a dye contrast. The test helps to determine if the flow of urine is normal. Turns out Kameron's wasn't. His ureter on the right side was so horribly swollen that the urine couldn't flow down the tube and was very clearly flowing back up into his kidney causing his infection.
The thought is now that this is a secondary infection caused by the surgery on his arm and that the infection somehow settled into his kidney. Grrr. Not cool.
He also ended up having a horrible GURD attack in the middle of the night. Probably due to him eating solid foods for the first time after about 3 days and the strong meds he was one. It scared the heck out of his mother and nurse. He was clutching his chest and screaming with chest pains. This from a kid who has a very high pain threshold and only took Tylenol for pain the entire time he was in the hospital (his choice) when morphine and other big time pain meds were available. Needless to say that was one of the worst moments of my life. Thank goodness he got that under control and only ended up having one more minor incident. My nerves were shot after that!
So after 4 long days the boy was FINALLY given his walking papers!! Woohoo. All next week though is going to be multiple doctors visits including a visit to a pediatric urologist while we try to get over this hump and hope that things clear up and start looking good and staying that way. Wish us luck and keep him in your prayers. As we walked out of the hospital overjoyed to be taking our child home, my heart was breaking for the parents and kids up on that floor that weren't so lucky.
View of the sky from Kameron's hospital room.
I am thankful for modern medicine and good doctors and nurses. I am thankful for promptings of the Spirit that helped me to know that things were more serious than they appeared. I am thankful for priesthood blessings. I am thankful for family that dropped what they were doing to be there for us. I am thankful for a sister who works at the hospital and made sure that her nephew got top notch care. I am thankful for my mom who gave Ailey a super and special fun birthday when her parents couldn't. I am thankful for friends who were a constant support. I am thankful for prayer. We are truly counting our blessings.
0 comments:
Post a Comment