Finding Normal

Tuesday night we got a call from our pediatrician who after looking at the results of both the ultrasound and her blood work made the decision to have us take Hannah to Dell Children’s Hospital right away. I quickly grabbed her and carried her to the car. She was crying and was filled with fear and telling me she didn’t want to go. Heather was some what quiet about what the doctor had told her on the phone. This left me overwhelmed and seemingly traveling blindly through a tunnel of doubt.

And there was a kid, with a head full of doubt. So I scream til I die or the last of those bad thoughts are finally out

I met up with Heather an hour or so later. We still didn’t have many answers and they were still taking blood, xrays, and an ultrasound before making any decisions on how to move forward. Time seemed to flow differently in that small room in the hospital. I tried distracting myself with my cell phone and the internet. Soon they informed us that they needed to stick a needle into her hip to see what the fluid looked like. Depending on that would decide the next steps. So they rushed her back and put her to sleep. Heather and I waited patiently in the waiting room. They quickly sent someone out to let us know that the fluid was infected and full of puss. So they had to then make a small incision and flush the infected fluid and then clean out the hip joint.

Soon after we met back up with Hannah as she was waking up out of her short surgery. Then they moved us into a more permanent room on the 3rd floor of the hospital. Once in the room we decided that Heather should head on home and I would stay with Hannah in the hospital. So later that night I met 2-3 doctors who gave me a little bit of information each time. The next morning our room was filled with a team of 7 doctors and medical students. I felt like I was on an episode of Scrubs, only there wasn’t much comedy. They still were waiting on results of tests and monitoring Hannah. They still didn’t have much of an idea of how it happened or what it exactly was. They were calling it Septic Arthritis of the Hip. Which essentially means that their is an infection in her joint and the joint in this case is her hip. They didn’t know what was causing the infection, so they just make an educated guess based on her history and that it was caused by a bacteria. They just don’t know what bacteria it is. So they have to make another guess on which medication to give her. The only way to know if it is working is by how well Hannah progresses and reacts. Luckily so far the medication is seeming to work and slowly she has been able to regain complete movement in her hip. Since the infection is in her hip, it is a very long term cycle of medications. It could be anywhere from 1 week to 6 weeks, but they are guessing that it will take 3 weeks. So they had to place a PICC line to allow us to continue giving Hannah medication at home through an IV. There are a lot of risks involved, so it’s a little scary, but after a lot of research and multiple conversations with her team of doctors and medical students both Heather and I felt this was the best option for Hannah and us.

Coming Home

We finally arrived home from the hospital at around 3:00pm on Saturday (July 2nd). On our way home from the hospital we had to stop off at the home care office to pick up a weeks worth of medication and get our last training session.

Finding Normal Again

Now we are trying to find normal again. We are adjusting to a new schedule where Hannah needs her medication 3 times a day. So the medication schedule we are on is 6:00am, 2:00pm, and 10:00pm. We are also having Hannah wear a leg warmer on her left arm to cover up and protect her PICC line from Connor. It feels very comforting to finally have everyone back home under the same roof and relatively safe and healthy again.

This small experience has made me THAT much more compassionate and sympathetic to all the other children and families in the world who are enduring much longer stays in the hospital with more severe health and medical issues. The children and families who are battling cancer and other potentially terminal issues are especially heart wrenching. I don’t know how they have the faith and strength to battle their way through it all.

Life is Full of Choices

Children are so innocent and pure that in my mind they don’t deserve to go through anything like this. But the fact of the matter is, this is all just life and the beautiful struggle that it is. Their is seldom any real rhyme or reason for any of the things that happen. I feel that we as people are constantly searching and wanting a reason. however I just feel like things just happen and as things happen and as they happen it creates an environment to learn and grow. At the same time those exact same things can also create an environment where you can become resentful and full of hate. Life really just comes down to how we chose to react to the circumstances and environments in which we are placed throughout our lives.

Pain

Hannah (6 years old), almost 3 weeks ago had pink eye. So we took her to the doctor and it turned out she had pink eye, an ear infection, and her throat appeared to have strep. So the doctor prescribed Cefdinir and felt like it should basically take care of both the strep and the ear infection. She also prescribed some eye drops for the pink eye. On Thursday June 16th, she was complaining of some mosquito bites. So I looked on her leg and sure enough it appeared as though something had bit her. Only it didn’t appear to be a mosquito. So then we started thinking that maybe it was fleas. So we gave her some Benadryl and sent her off to bed, after a bath of course. Friday morning she woke up and had more of these bites but now they were on her head. So we immediately assumed that something was in her bed attacking her. So we attacked back and deep cleaned her entire room, washed all of her bedding and everything. I took off for work and Heather and I both were hoping this would solve the problem.

Sunday, she had more of these bites, but they were on a different part of her body now. So we were a bit puzzled. In the mean time both Heather and I were continually forgetting to give her, her medication. We never forgot the eye drops, but kept forgetting the Cefdinir. Usually Hannah is even really good about reminding us about her medicine, and she also would forget. Sunday night she seemed to be abnormally itchy and unpleasant and Monday morning both Heather and I were both a bit puzzled. I said a silent prayer laying in bed that one of us would be able to figure out what was going on. So on Monday I went to work and quickly was contacted by Heather. She had a new hunch. She said, “I don’t think these are bug bites at all. I’m pretty confident these are hives. I think Hannah is allergic to this antibiotic. So I said, “Well, maybe that’s why we both kept forgetting to give it to her. So Heather called the nurses line, and they seemed to agree with her. So we stopped giving her the medication. On Tuesday she then seemed to also be complaining about pain in her feet, and hands. She could barely move her fingers to accomplish much of anything. So we began to be a bit worried. So Heather called the doctor and got Hannah into an appointment at 3:00pm or so and I left work and helped her man handle Connor at the doctor office. The doctor continued to believe that it still seemed like an allergic reaction to the medication. So she instructed us to continue giving her benadryl around the clock.

Fast forward to Friday and Hannah woke up crying in her bed because her leg was hurting so bad that she couldn’t straighten it or put any weight on it. So I carried her out onto the couch and we gave her some Benadryl and Motrin for the pain. Around 9:30am or 10:00am she was up and moving around and playing. Friday night the pain came on stronger again, but she was able to sleep through the night. Saturday morning I had to carry her out to the couch again and the same thing happened. As the day moved on she eventually became more and more mobil and her normal self. Saturday night the pain returned, but she was able to sleep through the night once again. Sunday the same thing happened again where she woke up unable to move, but as the day went on she was playing and having fun. Sunday night the pain returned and she slept all night. In fact at 2:00am she came running into our room pain free to show us that she had lost her very first tooth. Monday morning she needed no assistance out of bed and went through the day normal and completely pain free. In fact I was convinced it was all over and done with.

However, Monday night around 8:00pm she began to hobble and complain of pain. We put her to bed and soon she was in tears and agonizing over the pain. She was laying in her bed crying and telling me, “I can’t take this anymore, it’s too much, it hurts too much.” We eventually moved her out onto the couch and I pulled out our air mattress and attempted to sleep on the family room floor to be with her. She cried and agonized in pain the majority of the night.

This morning we contacted the doctor to get her back in to figure out what exactly is going on. They ended up taking blood, and then sent us over to another radiology office to get an ultra sound on her hip. The doctor is thinking that it could possibly be a bacterial infection, and she thinks that maybe it could be in her hip. So she needed to see if there was any fluid in her hip. We wont know the results of the ultra sound or the blood work until later today.

There are various possibilites of what could be causing all of these symptoms. They range from an allergic reaction, dehydration, lyme disease, arthritis, liver problems to a virus or even a bacterial infection. If it is the bacterial infection and there is indeed fluid present in her hip then most likely they will have to perform surgery to remove the fluid and get rid of the bacteria infection. If it’s a virus then we just have to sit it out. Also if it’s the allergic reaction then we just have to continue waiting it out and giving her Benadryl and Motrin as we are already doing.

Here we are praying and searching for the light at the end of this seemingly endless tunnel.