A rough few weeks

It all started out with a runny nose and a little cough; both symptoms lingered on for 2 weeks. However, he never really acted sick, they were both just an annoyance. After 2 weeks though, he really started to act sick. Real clingy, didn't want me to put him down, just a lump. So, it was that day, that I called the doctor. I knew that his pediatrician was retiring (He was my pediatrician growing up), but he still had 2 day left. Right after I made the appointment, his fever started. After being examined by the doctor, he was prescribed some antibiotics and sent home. A bad cold, I guess...no ear infections, or trouble breathing. Two days after being on the antibiotics, he got worse. His fever would not break, and he turned from a clingy lump, into a crying clingy lump. Also, he wouldn't eat or drink anything. I know that he doesn't eat much in the first place, but he had dry diapers for 2 days. And his cry was a real sad cry, a "something is hurting me" cry. Eventually, after 2 days of crying (not even kidding, it never stopped), it went from a sad cry, to a mad cry.....he kept getting so frustrated that we couldn't help him, or figure out what he wanted. He started hitting himself, and me in frustration, plus the antibiotics still weren't doing anything. So finally, after a long day of non-stop crying (from both him and I), we took him into the ER. He stopped crying when we took him in the car. There were 2 things that made him stop crying: the car, and McDonald's chicken nugget happy meals, with Sprite. He started screaming again when we got to the hospital, all during the hour wait to get in, and the first few hours we were in the ER. He had to get blood drawn, and an IV put in for fluid replacement. That was a disaster. They tried both arms a few times, both hands, and both wrists. I don't know the terminology, but they said that it kept "blowing" the vein. His little arms, had red dots all around where they tried to get it in. They said his veins were minuscule, and he was the one kid that they get a year, that's a challenge. Finally, they backed off for awhile. They did try again later, and finally got an IV in. His arms, and hands, are so beat up. They did every test imaginable, including x-rays. We ended up in the ER for 6 hours. During all that time, he kept crying for the car, or home.

Since they finally got the IV in, they gave him some morphine, which relaxed him a little. After awhile, it was hilarious, every time someone came in, he would point to the door and say, "away." He's not dumb, he's knows what they do....and it doesn't feel good. After 5 hours, and not much headway, they decided to get a urine sample. All his diapers were still dry, and he would not pee. So they had to catheterize him. Poor guy. Scott says they're pretty painful. And after that ordeal, it hurt him to pee. So, he held his pee, all day Sunday, and all Sunday night. At this point he had a lot of Sprite, and all the fluid from the IV in him. He told us a million times that he had to go; he says, "pee pee toilet." We tried to get him to go, but he wouldn't. He just bawled. We obviously had a horrible night, because he had to go so bad. But he still wouldn't. Finally, at 6 in the morning, we threw him in the bathtub, and he instantly went. Then, luckily, he crashed till almost noon.
The next day, I took him back to the new pediatrician. Her suggestions were, either get a CT scan to check his sinuses, or a spinal tap to check for meningitis. However, he was acting better. We didn't know if the screaming was only from the peeing stuff, or from whatever was making him scream before we took him into the ER. So, instead of jumping into something big, we decided to do one more round of blood testing, to see if it looked like he was getting better. So the poor guy had to get poked again. Fortunately, it looked better, so she ordered more antibiotics. Right now, we think that it was a sinus infection. He's getting better, he still has a week of antibiotics. However, the doctor also thought that it could be a virus, which is festering in a joint. He kept walking really funky during all this. She said that sometimes viruses can live in joints, like your hip joints, which in turn can make you walk funny. So, we are going to finish the 2 weeks of antibiotics..and if its a joint infection, he'll start walking weird again, after he's been off the antibiotics. Great. So right now, I'm really hoping it was just a nasty sinus infection.
Whenever someone in my family is sick like that, we always set up the couch bed in the family room, for them to lay on. So they can be ill, but still be around everyone. Well, our couch bed is busted, so we set up some mats, and made a nice bed with our down mattress pad, and a lot of pillows and blankets. All he wants is McDonald's and to play "blastoff" - Mario Kart racing on the wii. So for the past week, I've done nothing but sit with him on his little bed we made, and play the wii. He had 7 happy meals in about 3 days time. He's feeling better now, the antibiotics are finally kicking in, and we hope it stays that way.