Austin goes to the hospital again. Part 1

Sunday May 29th we were getting ready for church and Josh was trying to get Austin down for a nap so we could all get ready. Austin was a little squirmy so Josh brought him to me and said he feels a little warm. I felt his arm and it was twitching. I took him from Josh, walked into the living room, sat on the couch and by then I looked at his face and most of his body was twitching, including his face and his eyes were rolling all around. It was one of the scariest times of my life. I said I think he's having a seizure. So I put him in his car seat, Josh game him a quick blessing and I ran out the door, put him in the car and drove like a mad woman to the hospital. The whole way I was trying to listen to him breath. When we got there, he was thankfully asleep. The ER waiting room was packed full of people but they took me in right away. By then he had a 104 degree temperature, he was screaming and they put a monitor on him, he had low oxygen and his heart rate was through the roof!

They put us in a room and we waited for a while, then a Dr. came and told us that this is perfectly normal to have a seizure after a spike in high fever. He would probably go home and never have another issue. The Dr. checked his ears, and throat. Everything was good. He wanted to run some blood work just to make sure everything was fine. They put an IV in and then we waited. This would have normally been very long and boring but since it was Memorial Day weekend, it was pretty entertaining. Alcohol, camping and ATV's don't mix well! It was a complete zoo. Drunk people everywhere and idiots doing dumb things in the woods near Flagstaff. The blood work came back negative. We were still waiting when he had another seizure in my arms. Luckily he had a IV in so they were able to give him medicine right away to stop the seizure. So then the Dr. wanted to do a CT scan and a spinal tap to check spinal fluid. The CT scan looked normal. The spinal fluid looked clear so the Dr. thought for sure it would be negative. They admitted us to the hospital. Our room was next door the the one we were in for 6 days in March. The nurse even said......"You're back?" So that evening the dr. came in and told us that his white blood cell count was 270 something and it should be below 10 which means he has Meningitis. That is a big word for an infection in the lining of the brain and the spinal fluid. It requires 10-14 days of antibiotics through an IV. WHAT!? Do you know how full my calendar is the next 2 weeks? Oh well, it would have to be cleared a little.

Josh and I took turns being at the hospital with him. He was very miserable for the first couple of days. Then on Thursday he had a great day. He was happy, eating, smiling and playing. The other kids were able to come visit. That was the thing that made him the happiest!

Thursday night my sister Ann came to stay with him while I got a break and went to Josh's softball game. While we were gone he did good. Ate and slept. That night he started another seizure. It lasted for over 2 and 1/2 hours. The nurses game him 2 doses of a medicine to stop it and that didn't work. They gave him 2 or 3 doses of another medicine to make it stop. That didn't work. At one point during the seizure while I was holding him he stopped breathing. That was so freaky!I was so glad that I was in the hospital for that! They moved us to the Intensive care unit so they could keep an eye on us better. His foot was still in a partial seizure. The dr. called a pediatric neurologist in Phoenix to ask him what to do and he said that we needed to come down there.

So 2 hours later, Austin was strapped to a stretcher and he and I boarded a plane for Phoenix. He screamed the whole flight. It was the smallest plane I have ever been in. We finally got here to this hospital in phoenix about 3:30 am. They had a million questions to ask me about the past 5 days. I finally went to sleep about 5:00 am. The next day, Josh got everything figured out with the kids at home and then he packed up some clothes and came down to join me. All day yesterday he was just drugged and fussy! He has been miserable all day. He has sooooo many cords hooked up to him and he loves to pull them off. At one point he got so mad about all his cords that they had to put restraints on his arms to keep him from pulling off the cords. He went in for an MRI in the afternoon. The MRI results were what they were expecting. There is just some infection on the brain from the meningitis which is causing the seizures. The antibiotics and time are the only medicines. So here we sit in a very nice hospital watching the Womens College World Series. The hospital has been great. It is only a year old. The hard part is the long distance from my other kiddos!

Tomorrow Josh is going back to Flagstaff to be with the other kids. The older two have 3 more days of school. I will continue to help Austin get better.

We have so many people to thank for meals, babysitting and the many prayers that everyone has given. We have marvelous friends and family! We will keep you posted for the rest of the story...............