The day the we moved was busy and stressful, so I did not think it was incredibly odd that Owen was especially whinny that day. But that night we noticed he had a fever. We were not overly concerned about it, kids get sick; Owen's fevers typically last two or three days, then he is back to his regular little self. I stated home from church with him on Sunday. Monday, I went to my moms house to make candy, and poor Owen just sat on the couch moaning the entire day. By Tuesday, I was starting to get concerned, his fever had not broken, he was acting lethargic, I could tell he was getting close to dehydrated, and his tongue broke out with a weird rash; so we took him to the doctor.
I really like our doctor, I think he is a very competent doc, so it made me really nervous that while he was examining Owen he just kept muttering, "Wow, this is one sick kid." After a minute he turned to me and explained that he could see no obvious sign of infection, and with how lethargic and dehydrated he was he thought it was a good chance it could be meningitis. He told me to take him to the hospital immediately because this could easily be a matter of life or death. Of course, I am internally freaking out, but trying to stay calm so Owen does not get scared. The doctor then tells me that I should not accompany Owen to the hospital, because he does not want Maxwell to be exposed to anything. So Tom cancelled the rest of his patients for the afternoon, and off they went to the E.R.
Luckily, my mother-in-law was at my house helping me unpack boxes, so I was able to leave the baby with her, and go visit my little sick guy. He was so cute, when I walked into his room in the E.R. he was so happy to see me. It was the sweetest "Hi Mama!" I had ever heard. The staff was great with him, and they gave him a little wooden car, which he thought was awesome.
After 5 hours of IV and countless tests he had not improved and they had no idea what was going on, so they decided to have him stay over night, and transferred him to the Pediatric floor. I went home to Tal and Max, and Tom stayed with Owen.
The next day, Owen was so sick (they were masking up every time they came in the room), and they had no clue what was wrong, so they decided to play House (the TV show) on him. Because they did not know what it was they started to treat and test for everything: Mersa, pneumonia, mono...seriously everything (they were checking for anything that was not meningitis, trying to avoid having to do a spinal tap). They finally narrowed it down to a disease called Kawasaki Disease, which attacks the heart, and did an ECG. That came back clean, so once again, we were back to square one. They did get a positive test for both mono and pneumonia, but with how sick he was they thought that he had something else, and decided to keep him one more night.
This morning they decided that he just has mono and pneumonia, and the let him come home! Oh, I am so relieved to have him home, and Tal was super excited to see his brother again. The poor guy is still feeling a but under the weather, but at least he is not being poked and tested anymore. And more importantly, HE IS HOME!!!
