The last 4 weeks have been REALLY hard at the Allen household. It all began right after the first of the year when we figured out that Malachi was having a REALLY difficult time sleeping. He kept waking up and wimpering and was ALL OVER the place. We figured out that he was having a difficult time breathing at night so we went to the pediatrician's office to discuss the possibility of him having Sleep Apnea because of his tonsils. (Side note, I'm not really sure WHY we didn't go to the ENT, but we didn't) - They tested him for Strep and Flu just to make sure that he wasn't sick from anything else. However, he had no symptoms of either, so we didn't think anything of it! The Pediatrician agreed that he probably had sleep apnea and advised us to get a video of his breathing at night to take to the ENT. Fast forward 5 days.
Ring Ring...Ring Ring
Me: Hello?
Dr: Yes, Mrs. Allen, this is the pediatrician's office. Malachi has strep so you need to start him on a course of antibiotics.
Me: WHAT? He hasn't even had any symptoms. He's not running fever and not acting like his throat hurts.
Dr: Well, the test came back positive.
Me: Okay, send the script to our pharmacy
Dr: Okay
Next day, we go visit Dr. Wright's office, our WONDERFUL ENT, the same that did Malachi's tubes. (I say "we" in a figurative sense...it was my mom and Thomas, as I had 3 meetings scheduled for that particular day!) Malachi begins to play with a little girl over by the toys and a sweet, little, old lady pops over to my mom and tells her that the little girl is VERY sick and has been coughing VERY BADLY the whole time. So, NO MORE playing over there!! The doctor sees Malachi and agrees that he has Sleep Apnea due to enlarged tonsils. We schedule him to get his tonsils out on February 26th. This was on February 3.
The next day, February 4th, Malachi wakes up with a HORRID cough and is running 101+ fever. I IMMEDIATELY thought that it sounded like his RSV cough did LAST year, so I went ahead and gave him a breathing treatment before the doctor's (pediatrician) office opened. We go in and SURE ENOUGH, it's RSV. OH GREAT!!! He runs fever for 4 days (101 to 103) and is REALLY having a hard time getting through. He won't eat or drink, so he starts to get dehydrated. We finally take him BACK to the doctor and they schedule a chest X-Ray. That night, we get a call that he has pneumonia! Perfect! So, in a matter of two weeks, my son has been diagnosed with Strep, RSV, Pneumonia and Sleep Apnea.
We FINALLY get over that. Fast forward to February 16th. Malachi isn't sleeping well, AT ALL. He's tossing and turning. I go in to check on him and realize that his breathing sounds HORRIBLE. MUCH worse than it has been. He can't get a good breath so I spend the next 4 hours trying to HOLD him in a MILLION different positions so he can breathe well. It doesn't work. I call the doctor the next morning and he goes on steroids (again) to shrink his tonsils as they may be inflamed from all the crap he's been going through. February 17th, I leave for Austin for work. Lolli keeps him that evening so Thomas can get some rest. She calls me the next day (February 18th) at 5:00a.m. to tell me that Malachi didn't sleep at all the previous night and that we've got to do SOMETHING. We can't wait until the 26th. I call the doctor and they ask to see Malachi immediately. So, it's Lolli and Daddy to the rescue again. They take him in (again, I'm still in Austin at this point) and call me immediately to tell me that his tonsils are MUCH larger than they were two weeks ago and they want to take his tonsils out the next day (February 19th.) I manage to get out of Austin late on Thursday the 18th, home to hold my baby and go through ONE MORE horrible night before surgery.
Surgery day comes on February 19th, not a moment too soon. Malachi is playing before surgery, without ANY clue as to what is fixing to happen to him. Mommy gets in LOTS of good snuggle time with him and TONS of sweet laughs and kisses.
Can I just say, Versed is an AWESOME drug, but, once it starts wearing off, you'd better hope they've got your kid back in surgery already. If they don't, you are dealing with one HACKED OFF baby!! Surgery and recovery takes about 2 hours and he's back in our arms NONE too soon! He wakes up well from the anesthesia and is actually in a pretty decent mood.
By 9:00p.m., however, his IV goes bad. Thomas and I have to hold our precious boy down while two nurses try 4 times to get a good stick. All while he is screaming "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" and we look at him writhe in pain. He's begging us to pick him up and we're the ones allowing him to be tortured. AW.FUL!
Finally, they call in an anesthesiologist. However, by this time, an hour of intense screaming has gone by and my blood sugar is through the floor. I can barely stand up, my whole body is shaking and the nurses now put ME in a chair with my feet elevated and are feeding me peanut butter and coke to get my blood sugar to regulate out. I tell them that they're on their own when the anesthesiologist gets there, and that I can't be in the room. They, OBVIOUSLY oblige and send Thomas and I to get some fresh air. 3 minutes later, they say it's over and that the IV is in. So, we head back in only for them to hand him BACK to me and then realize that yes, it's in, but the IV isn't dripping. So we're back for another 45 minutes of SCREAMING while they adjust and readjust and readjust the IV. Finally, at 10:30 or 10:45 it's over. Malachi is hot and sweaty and exhausted and has CRASHED in his daddy's arms. Thus begins a LONG night in the hospital. Though it's a BEAUTIFUL private hospital (Quail Creek for anybody that lives around here...I SO recommend it) and the nurses are WONDERFUL, anyone who has spent ANY time in a hospital knows how LITTLE sleep you get. I was able to keep the nurses AWAY from him most of the night so he could sleep.
The next day, February 20, after about 30 minutes TOTAL of sleep, I wake up sick. (Hmmm...stress? Lack of sleep? Worry?) So, I call a good friend who is a doctor (practically) and she is able to call in a Z-Pack for me. After a HORRIBLE (I'm using that word a lot, huh?) morning, we finally get Malachi to start drinking and, of all things, he asks for a "bite" while we're eating our Taco Villa burritos. He proceeds to eat almost an entire burrito. Aunt Kelly, Karter and Kadi come see us and he has LOTS of fun playing with them...
...then CONKS out.
The doctor says if he can eat a burrito that's good enough for him that Malachi's recovering well and we FINALLY get home around 5:30p.m. Lolli and Pops GRACIOUSLY offer to stay at our house so Malachi can sleep in our bed and allow us to spend the night at their house so we can get some much needed rest. We did. And, he woke up the next morning in a WONDERFUL mood! Not eating still, but drinking little sips. And, 2 days post-op, we're thinking he's doing pretty well. However, Sunday night comes around and it gets BAD. We're up every 4 hours giving him Hydrocodone for pain. But, in order to do that, he has to wake up and eat something 3 minutes before. Which means, we're actually up every 3.5 hours. But, in order for him to eat something, he has to wake up and we have to have a MYRIAD of options READY for him to eat. Which means, we're actually up about every 3 hours. But, we get through the night and I get up and go to work on Monday, because Thomas didn't need to be off on Tuesday.
Monday goes OKAY, but Malachi starts to begin to have a hard time drinking. 3rd day post-op...we knew this was coming. Monday night, his sleep is restless, but, it's okay. We've learned that the hydrocodone doesn't upset his stomach, so we don't wake him up to eat, we just pin him down and give it to him, then hold him until he goes back to sleep after sobbing.
Tuesday, I stay home and it's awful. He won't eat, he won't drink, he spends the whole day crying and doesn't have a wet diaper pretty much all day. Thomas gets home to relieve me and I begin to question my ability as a mother. I should be able to handle this, but, it's not going well! That night, we begin to pin him down and give him his Hydrocodone and it comes out his nose. Have I mentioned how STICKY that crap is??? It's like Karo syrup. I can ONLY imagine the pain that it must have caused him, so I saline spray his nose out and get him back to sleep. (Only to do it all over again in 4 hours) Honestly, though, he's not really sleeping at this point anyway. He spends pretty much the whole night wimpering and crying for us. Daddy and I take shifts, but really, neither of us is sleeping.
Wednesday, Lolli takes over for us. She brings out the big guns, Karter and Kadi and they ALL spend the day at her house. Every 10 minutes, the 3 of them sit down and drink. It's working for his attitude but he STILL isn't having wet diapers. She begins to worry as do I. So, I called the doctor. And, we begin giving him a syringe of liquid every 10 minutes. He does OKAY, but he's still not wanting to eat and his attitude is HORRIBLE from the hydrocodone. That night, at 1:30, I make the executive decision to take him OFF the Hydrocodone because I think it's making it worse!!
Thursday, he stays with Lolli again and still isn't having wet diapers, so we start doing a syringe every 5 minutes. He's still not eating. He's still not sleeping. Horrible day. That night, he still doesn't sleep. Daddy and I are beginning to get exhausted.
Friday, Lolli keeps him in the morning and Mommy keeps him in the afternoon. It's OKAY, not great, not horrible. He's drinking a LITTLE bit more and has finally started having wet diapers. However, I call the doctor again because he's just NOT sleeping, AT ALL and it's NOT pain related. So, they prescribe Valium. Friday night, the valium actually makes the situation WORSE instead of better and at 3:00a.m., he's BEGGING for Lolli and Pop. They come (because they're such great parents and grandparents!!!) and he FINALLY relaxes around 4:30 and sleeps until 6:30.
Saturday is spent chilling out around the house and resting. Although, not much. Saturday night we try Valium again thinking that maybe there was still Hydrocodone in his system Friday night. NOPE...the sleep is worse than it has been. Then, at 9:00p.m., he wakes up and Thomas goes to get him and bring him to our bed so MAYBE we can get him to lay down. (We'd been asleep since 7:30...we were PASSED the point of exhaustion by that point) I realize that I feel something wet but it's MUCH to much to be drool. Nope, it's bright red blood gushing out of his mouth. He will ONLY drink for Lolli at this point so she gets him to take some drinks of COLD tea out of a syringe. He FINALLY stops bleeding and we get him back to sleep. (kinda) The doctor says if it happens again, we have to go BACK into surgery to cauterize the wounds and that will start the healing process ALL OVER AGAIN!!! I hold him in my arms and he whines "night night, night night, night night" over and over and over and over. He wants to sleep SO BADLY he can't even stand it, but his brain just WON'T shut off!
Sunday, we FINALLY see a turnaround. He is in a MUCH better mood, EATS EVERYTHING IN SIGHT, begs for "locket" and "nonut" (chocolate and donut) and is drinking like a champ!!!! And, Monday, March 1st, the doctor says that he's completely healed, the scabs are gone and he can go back to daycare. Just no hot-tubbing for a while! haha He has a wonderful day at daycare and for the first night in over 3 weeks, he sleeps ALL NIGHT LAST NIGHT!!!
Today, my mom calls and says he's got a rash. We have an appointment scheduled for 5:30.
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Seriously?
Finally, here's a cute picture of his brand new monkeys (the large one is from Aunt Kelly, Uncle Daniel and Aunt Danielle and the small one is one that I bought in Austin before I had to leave!) Believe it or not, this picture was NOT staged. I happened to look down in the hospital and see that his monkeys were sitting like this. Maybe I'm just an overly emotional mommy, but this sure looks like a daddy and baby monkey to me! And, it DEFINITELY defines the relationship between my wonderful husband and beautiful son!!
3 comments:
Holy Cow! You've been through the ringer! I was just wondering where you've been this past week- I've missed your posts! Glad to see Malachi is doing better. We've had our share of crud this month too. Adam had his tonsils out last summer. No one told me how AWFUL the first week is. AWFUL! By the one week check-up, we were doing better. Hope this continues an upward sloping progress for you!
Geez, it took all the energy out of me just reading this! I'm so sorry you and your precious baby had to go through all that. So sad. Just a thought...have you tried taking him to a chiropractor? We know a great one if you would like a recommendation. You're in my prayers!
Oh poor baby! I can't even imagine. It all sounds horrible. I had my tonsils out in high school and it was not fun. Poor little guy. I hope this helps his overall help. I used to get strep all of the time and was just a sick kid. After they took them out, I never got strep again. I think it helped me with my energy as well.
Glad you have family there for support.
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