When Liam woke up around 2AM I noticed he had a fever. I gave him the smallest dosage of Tylenol and he went back to sleep. At this time, even with the fever, he was smiling during the middle of the night. That morning he still had a fever and it was pretty high, 102 (that was the highest his fever ever got during this whole ordeal). I called the pediatrician when they opened to make an appointment. Luckily my parents were able to watch the girls so I left them at home.
The doctor first said they would probably do some blood work just to be careful since he was still so young. Then she examined him. Then she told me he had swelling and I needed to take him to the ER at Scottish Rite (freak out #1). The fact that she made this change in call after she examined him really scared me. I'm not a crier and when I do I can usually control it and hold it in if I'm around people. Not this time, I just lost it. She was pretty confident the hospital would admit us too (freak out #2). Then she said she could send us in an ambulance (freak out #3). I said it was fine and I would get my husband to go with me. (Jason had been at the office every day that week and decided last minute he would work from home and go to the office the next day). She then tells me I need to go straight to the hospital and not take too long (freak out #4).
We get to the ER which luckily wasn't too crowded. The first nurse noticed his head, bulging soft spot. The next nurse takes us straight back to a room since according to her they rushed her down to get us (freak out #5). The hospital Doctor was impressive. She was very professional, nice, and answered all our questions. Liam had to get a urine and blood culture and a spinal tap (freak out #6). They put an IV in his tiny arm and splint to keep it still. My poor baby was poked and prodded and he was just so pitiful. The nurse started antibiotics before they even got the results back just to be careful. Liam really did have all the symptoms for meningitis (what they were testing for). The spinal tap results came back perfect. And amazingly they said we could go home. They were going to watch the cultures for over 48 hours to make sure nothing grew and I had to go back to the pediatrician's the next day.
Liam was exhausted and so sad. When I put him to bed he was whimpering in his sleep so I put him in bed with me. He had a rough night and would only calm down when I was holding him. At the doctors the next day they gave him more antibiotics. Again, just to be careful since nothing had changed with his cultures. It was administered with two shots and they said it would burn him :( (freak out #7). They also took more blood. His blood results came back perfect again. All his results were coming back fine but he still had fever, and puffy soft spot, and he was not a happy guy. He was never lethargic but he was doing a pain cry and didn't smile once during these few days :( He looked fine but Dr. Dewling said I could take him home or back to the ER and have him admitted so they could monitor him (freak out #8). Thankfully, he wasn't dehydrated or anything so I took him home.
The poor baby was obviously in pain. He would cry out whenever I moved him and it got to the point where I was scared to reposition him or lay him down to change his diaper since he would cry. I made the mistake of looking on the interent which led to a call to Scottish Rite. I couldn't find anything that sounded like his symptoms that weren't beyond awful. My Mom called my Aunt, who talked to my cousin, a pharmacist, and he gave us tips on how to make Liam more comfortable, which was really helpful. He said Liam was most likely hurting from the spinal tap and/or from the swelling. So sad!
He again had a fairly hard night but the next morning he woke up and smiled! It was the greatest thing ever! His fever had also gone down. I still had to go back to the doctor's and he had to get the shots one last time. At this point it didn't look like it was bacterial but since an infection of that type is so severe they didn't want to take any chances.
He's sleeping now and is practically back to his old self. Smiling, cooing, no pain cries... He's still getting over something so is a little uncomfortable but I can not even begin to explain how relieved we are. We still don't know what he had. The ER doctor told us an example of another baby who had similar symptoms and was completely fine. I guess we now get to be that rare case the doctors will use when talking to other patients!
We are so blessed to be near my parents. I don't know how we could have survived this week without them. I really needed Jason at the hospital since I was a mess and I know he wanted to be there too. Plus, each doctor's appointment was about 2 hours long. The girls love my parents so they actually had quite a fun week!
This was after they told us at the hospital that his results were negative. He still had the IV and monitors on him. I think I held him straight for almost three days and when I wasn't holding him, Jason or my Mom was. He is one very loved baby boy.
*He was having trouble falling asleep the night he started his fever so Jason went up and rocked him to bed (before we knew he was sick). I'm so glad we didn't let him cry or anything.
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