the full story

I was telling about the ordeal we had with Will before we had to rush to the ER on Friday.

We took Will to see the NP at the Children's Clinic on Thursday with a headache and a 102 fever. He woke up from his nap at daycare crying and they couldn't get him to stop crying. I sent Don to get him at 3:30. She couldn't find anything that would be causing a 102 temp. So she sent us home to give him Motrin for the temp and benadryl for the clear fluid she saw in one ear. She told us that if he got worse to come back in to the office on Friday or take him to the Gallatin office on Saturday.

Friday morning, Will woke up crying. Every time he moved he would cry saying his head hurt. When Don finally got him up, he wouldn't move his head. He was still running a high fever also. So I called the pediatrician and got another appointment with the doctor that we like. We took him in and Dr. Rundus. She did an exam of Will and a strep test. She also wanted to do a finger prick to take a blood sample. The strep test was positive so she didn't do any more tests. She also said that she was going to rule out meningitis. She gave us an antibiotic and told us to call the office in the afternoon to give her an update on who he was doing.

Will laid around all day long and cried anytime we moved him. He was real lethargic most of the day also. We stayed at my parents house most of the day and finally came home around 6:30. About 7:30 Dr. Rundus called the house. (she was on call that night) She wanted to check on Will and once I told her how he had been all day long, had me to see if I could get him to move his head. He was holding his head stiff at this time, so she told us that she wanted us to take him to the ER. She was concerned about the way he was acting now.

So we left the house around 8:00 on Friday night on our way to the ER in Gallatin. We called our parents and told them. Kaitlyn had already decided to spend the night with my parents, so she was taken care of. We got to the ER about 9:00 and was taken back to a room.

It wasn't long after being taken to the room that a young ER doctor came in and introduced himself. He said they had been in contact with Dr. Rundus and knew why we were there. He did an exam of will by trying to move his head . He told us that they would hook Will up to an IV and give him some meds to help relax him. They were going to so a spinal tap once the meds kicked in.

Will did really well during the spinal tap. He only cried out once and that was when the needle went in. At first the dr wanted us both to leave the room, then he said I could stay and help. So I helped to hold Will in a fetal position and let him know that mommy was right there. Once the meds kicked in, Will was a different person.... it was almost funny to see him laying there and point to things with this really silly grin on his face. My uncle was coming in from Nashville and stopped to check on us. Will gave him a silly grin and my uncle laughed.

The spinal tap results came back clear (what they call a champagne results... meaning that it had no other cells in it other than spinal fluid) Will's white count was high, but we already knew he had strep throat. So the diagnoses was a very bad case of strep. They did give him a strong antibiotic through his IV along with the morphine and Valium. Will was feeling better before we left, so much that he wanted a popscicle.

Saturday morning Will woke up acting better than he did on Friday. By 11:00 he wanted something to eat which was a huge improvement. He didn't run a high fever until 5:00 that night. He even played in the floor and watched tv most of the day.

Now it is Sunday, and he woke up and was saying his head hurt. He has had his meds this morning and now we are watching Hook on tv. Don and Kaitlyn have gone to Sunday School. Don also leaves today for a week long school. If Will runs a fever today, I will have to stay home for another day.

I am ready for him to feel better.... this has been a long few days.