Our 2nd Home

Oh, how I wish that title meant "we just bought a vacation home"...how I'd love a little cottage on Lake Cour de'Alene one day...but instead it means "we spend so much time at Emanuel Hospital, it might as well be our second home!" Yep, you guessed it--we're baaaaaack!



James had been running a fever of 99-101 and was just plain miserable {pretty much crying all day Monday, except when he was asleep}, so his doctors told us to admit him to the hospital last night...and now they'll probably be keeping him thru Friday, perhaps over the weekend too. Keith is taking the night shift {and all week off work, again!} and I'm taking the days. So far his labs haven't shown any infection, but they started him on antibiotics and he is still running a fever. We have to wait 72 hours for the cultures to be done growing and he has to be fever-free for 24-48 hours before they'll let us go home. It could be a central line infection {the one in his chest that delivers his nutrition}, which would be bad--they'd have to remove his chest IV and put a regular IV line into his arm or leg and another IV port somewhere else for access to blood-draws, then wait to replace the chest one for 6-8 weeks {that would be such a huge pain for James!}. I really hope that doesn't happen. It could also be as simple as a virus {I had a cold last week, so I'll feel really guilty if it's that!}, which hits him harder because of his sensitive system and shows up differently than it would manifest itself in you or me. Even if they don't figure out what the infection is from, we're still required to be there for up to 72 hours. The hard part about this is that if it were a normal baby, it could be something easy...like a cold, ear infection, urinary tract infection, even teething. You'd give him Tylenol and let it run its course for a few days. But since they always suspect a central line infection, which can get serious quickly, we always have to take these kinds of precautions with James.

All this time at the hospital takes its toll on everyone. Keith and I take shifts, but whoever goes at night never gets much sleep and whoever goes during the day gets really tired of holding a {often cranky} baby and sitting in an uncomfortable chair all day. It's also hard to leave James alone, so you feel guilty even leaving for 20 minutes to go down to the cafe to grab some food. Needless to say, everyone's schedule is off {including Maddie}, my house is a mess and I'm pulling out meals from the freezer if I'm lucky...or else it's cereal for dinner. :-) Tonight I got home at 8pm, spent a little time on the computer, did some laundry, sorted through/paid lots of medical bills, started filling out paperwork for Maddie's preschool application, and then realized "oh, it's now 12:30 and I never even ate dinner!" Now off to bed so that I can bounce up in the morning and head back to the hospital. I know this will likely be our life {in and out of the hospital} for perhaps the next year, and it's a necessary evil, but I've gotta say--for a girl who's never really liked doctors but does love being at home and having a routine, I'm NOT a fan! :-)