Official Diagnosis: Viral infection with possible Bacterial infection.
Thank you all for your prayers and support! We definitely appreciate it. God has been so faithful to us and has sent good nurses to us daily and nightly and has sent us good doctors!
"Because of the Lord's compassion, His mercies are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness!" Lamentations 3:22-23
Tuesday was a normal day. Blake was very playful, in a good mood, and ate his normal huge amount of food at each meal and dinner. During that night he woke up a few times crying and that was odd. Normally he sleeps all night with no problems.
Wednesday morning, he woke up crying and came and got in bed with me. We cuddled until he got bored and went to watch some Veggie Tales and eat his dry cereal. He started crying and when I went in to check on him, he had spilled his cereal all over the couch. He was hysterical and nearly threw up because of crying so hard. I cleaned the cereal and made him a comfy bed on the couch. He cried off and on all day. For a kid who rarely cries, this is extremely different. He had a slight fever. He refused breakfast, lunch, anything to drink, and dinner. During the night he woke up several times screaming. Joseph and I took turns getting up to give him Tylenol and cuddles.
Thursday morning Blake woke at 5am. I gave him tylenol and he almost threw up so I rushed him to the bathroom and we sat on the floor at the toilet for a few minutes. I'm glad I keep the toilet and floor cleaned on a regular basis! Joseph got up to go to work at 6 and Blake was still crying/screaming. Joseph suggested distracting Blake with "Planet Earth" so I put on the DVD. Blake laid on one couch facing the tv and I laid on the other. He slept off and on all morning. By 10am he had refused all food, drinks, and medicine. I decided that it had been too many hours to go without liquids so I took him to Urgent Care. They recommended taking him to VacaValley ER. He was in the ER by 11am and hooked up to an IV to "fill up his water tanks". Poor fella was so miserable! Drs came in and nurses came in. Papa showed up after a few hours and sat with Blake so I could run home and grab a few items. I expected him to be admitted for a day or so. After 20 minutes of leaving, I was back in the ER. He had fallen asleep in Papa's arms. Blake went in for a chest xray and then a little while later for a neck xray. The neck xray showed lots of swelling and at 5pm they had wanted to transfer him to Oakland Children's Hospital. His throat cultures and blood tests showed negative for Strep Throat, but his throat was so swollen that they were afraid without a specialist to care for him, that his throat would swell all the way closed and prevent him from breathing. Despite the high fever he'd had all day, Blake enjoyed his ambulance ride to Oakland. He waved his little IV'd arm at everyone driving behind us. He made siren noises and fell asleep 3 minutes before arriving at the hospital! That was the pattern all day: falling asleep and after a few minutes being woken by someone coming in the room! In Oakland ER Grandma, Papa, Auntie Ash, and Daddy came to visit in the evening. Grandma stayed with us that night and we were transferred from the ER to a room on the 4th floor at 2:00am on Friday morning. Blake was awake more than sleeping the rest of the night. Grandma took turns with me to help care for Blake. If he laid down, he had a difficult time breathing and held his breath for 5 seconds then inhaled sharply to catch his breath. He had a ton of congestion in his nose and throat and that mixed with swollen nose and swollen throat was not pleasant. We slept upright holding Blake. He would wake up screaming and throwing his arms wildly all over the place and would scream and cry when a nurse or Dr came in the room. He had 2 IVs, people(including Moma and Grandma) holding him down to give him medicine, people prying his mouth open to see his throat and people constantly waking him up when trying to sleep. He. Was. Miserable. At this point, we still didn't have a diagnosis and were waiting to see if the throat cultures would grow and they did more blood work. They thought he might have an abcess behind/below his tonsils and said he might need a CT Scan to be able to see. He'd had a total of 3 liters of dextrose and finally had a wet diaper...
We'd had an exhausing night. Blake screamed and cried if anyone came close to him except Moma, Grandma, Papa, or Daddy. The little girl on the other side of the curtain kept waking Blake up with her screaming. Her Moma was gone most of the time, leaving the baby all alone in a dim room. If her Moma was in the room, she wouldn't take her out of the crib and the poor baby just wanted to be out and be cuddled! Blake kept waking from his little naps screaming. It took quite a bit to calm him. He wouldn't even open his eyes, he just kept them shut. I walked with him, within reach of his IV stand, and talked to him and rocked him some more. After a little while, he asked for his drink but because we had a CT Scan scheduled, he couldn't eat or drink anything. At 2pm, we were escorted down the the first floor to do the CT Scan. They put Blake under anesthesia and had to pay close attention to his breathing and make sure he was breathing okay on his back before they could begin. They put the mask on his face and his eyes got sleepy and started rolling. He slowly looked up at me and then slowly closed his eyes. They whisked us (my Dad and I) out of the room and said to sit in the waiting room and that the procedure should only take 10-15 minutes. 30 minutes later we heard him crying as he woke up from the anesthesia. They let us come in and I held him to calm him down. He finally woke up after 15 minutes and laid on me whimpering. Next thing I knew, he whipped his head around as Bart passed by the open window and he pointed and said, "BA!" =) That boy and his cars, trucks, tractors, airplanes, and trains! We went back to the room and the nurse came in to tell us that the CTScan showed NOTHING!!! Something would have meant surgery of somekind, but Thank GOD! that was not necessary AND... Blake could finally drink that drink he had been asking for. He chugged it and then took a nap. He had a tough time getting to sleep that night. He was so over tired that he kept screaming and throwing his arms all over the place. When he finally fell asleep, it was wonderful!! 8pm felt more like midnight. It was quite exhausting! During the night, I woke to Blake next to me in bed totally soaked. I felt his head and it was cool! No fever! I felt his wet back and it was cool!! His whole body had been burning up since Wednesday!
Saturday morning he woke around 7 and actually smiled for the first time in days! He was feeling better! He went back to sleep and slept all the way til noon. Grandma and the nurse wanted him to wake up and eat, but I felt that sleep was more necessary at this point. When he did wake up, he refused most of his food and drink. Because he had been feeling better that morning, we allowed some family to come visit, but said that Blake would probably be sleeping and not in the mood to be entertained. Grandpa Ted, Auntie Anna & Merrie came first. Auntie Merrie got Blake laughing a bit, but then we could see the clouds approach as Blake slumped back into the bed, got super crabby, and then rolled over to sleep. He didn't feel good the rest of the day. They had left shortly after the crabbies started so that Blake could get some sleep. I'd had a migraine from our roomies and I laid down with Blake. Auntie Nat & Uncle Box came to visit and Blake was asleep most of that time. They were there more for me than for him =) At that point, I'd had enough of our roomies and asked that we be switched to another room. The nurse said it was possible ,but not probable. Daddy arrived right as Papa Mark and Auntie Ash did. To get a break from our roomie, we all took a walk in the halls and Auntie Ash took pictures. In order to leave the room, Blake had to wear a mask.... for a kid who screamed at the sight of the mask, I was surprised he allowed me to put it on his face over his pacifier! I think he was in need of a break too ;) When we went back to the room Blake watched some Veggie Tales, ate a few bites of dinner and then it was time for Papa and Auntie to leave. They brought AppleSauce before leaving first. Within 20 minutes of them leaving we were informed that we got to move to the isolation room... which has it's own bathroom and a huge window overlooking the street, Bart rails and parkinglot! It took Daddy to calm the 20 minutes of screaming exhaustion before Blake was quiet. He laid there for another half hour before actually going to sleep. He slept ALL NIGHT! He slept thru the nurse visits and everything! Even I slept thru the 6am nurse visit =) We all slept so well. Joseph slept on the bed under the window and I slept with Blake again in the big bed.
Sunday morning Blake woke up happy and fully rested!!!!! He was playful with his breakfast and talking so much. I'm sure you saw the videos on FB and IG. :) He ate all his breakfast and then some of mine and some of Josephs!! Blake has been playing all day, laughing, being goofy, talking and waving to the people down on the street who he sees thru the window. Housekeeping came this morning and like he has been doing, when he sees someone come in the room wearing gloves and a mask, he starts to scream and cry and hide in Moma's arms. I told him it was okay and that she wasn't here for him! She got the trash from the bathroom and swept the floor. I reminded Blake that he does that at home with Daddy. He then warmed up to the housekeeper and started "talking" to her. When the nurse came in to flush his IV, he didn't cry and try to run from her!!! His IV was removed since it wouldn't flush so he has enjoyed his hand being free! He finally went down for his nap and hopefully will sleep another hour... He is currently awake and resting in the bed by the window. The second IV will be removed soon. If he continues to improve, we will be home Monday. If he doesn't improve, then we will stay a little longer.
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