A Week with Wesley

This past week has been interesting to say the least. Under normal circumstances, I would be thrilled to spend some uninterrupted one on one time with any of my children, however this isn't quite how I had imagined it... lots of snuggling, sleeping in late, taking little walks to see the waterfalls and fish, friends dropping by with yummy treats, naps at odd times of the day, endless encouraging emails, text messages and facebook posts, well those have been the high light of my week. But, the reality of our week has been rough.

Monday- the kids and I, with Rachel and Nathan, spent a glorious day at the beach. The weather was amazing! Everyone had great attitudes, we ate lunch, played in the sand and the water, has dinner on the way home and dropped Rachey off at CBU. Not a bad start to the week. However, this is where we are assuming Wesley was bitten or stung by some mysterious bug, animal or creature. Wesley was playing in and out of the rocks all afternoon, but never complained of anything until Tuesday morning.

Tuesday- I made a trip to Costco with the kids. Once in the basket Wesley was complaining about his flip flops, so I took them off and then noticed a large bump/bite on the outside of his left foot. His foot was swollen and tender to the touch. I wiped it with a soap and water, which made him scream. A hug and a kiss later, he was good to go. We finished Costco.
At home unloading Costco, I noticed he wouldn't walk normal on that foot and used only his tippy toes and limped. I showed James and called our Dr. James took him in. The Dr. assumed it was a bee sting or a spider bite and he was having an allergic reaction. Benedryl and Tylenol and he should be fine. Tuesday evening, limping and whining he struggled to play at McDonald's with Nana & Papa.

Wednesday am- Wesley woke up with 103 fever. I gave him both Tylenol and Benedryl and he lay on the couch for the remainder of the morning, lethargic and whining his foot hurt. His foot was now really swollen and red. I took a closer look at it and ran my finger across the bump when it proceeded to explode with puss and blood. I wiped it with hydrogen peroxide and put antibiotic ointment on it. Called the Dr, packed all 5 kids in the car and went right in. The Dr took one look, -it was now turning purple and black around the bite area and was swollen nearly even with his ankle bone and redness had began to spread up his leg as well-, and told us to go to Loma Linda ER immediately, as he thought the infection had spread possibly to his blood stream.
I met James at the park n' ride, just by the grace of God he was even anywhere close to Yucaipa and gave him the other 4 kids. About 3pm we checked in. We waited about an hour and then got taken right back with a fever of 102.6. They started an IV and asked all sorts of questions.
We are admitted, but there weren't any beds upstairs, so we got a private room in the ER, where we stayed for the next 33 hours. They took an x-ray to see if there was a foreign body in his foot. Then they put him under to cut open the wound area and take cultures, as well as drew blood cultures. (side note about putting him under...they are explaining how and they'll use propofol to sedate him and James says"you mean the drug that killed Michael Jackson?" he looked all serious and the nurse didn't quiet know what to say, then tried to explain herself before James told her he was kidding :-)That night about midnight his fever spiked to 105.2.

Thursday- He remained lethargic and pretty much unresponsive and wouldn't eat. However, They decided after 5 rounds of 2 different antibiotics and that even though his foot had not improved, his fever had broken and we should be okay to go home on some strong oral antibiotics. They told us if anything changed on the bite area or if he got another fever to visit our PCP or come right back, as it could serious.

Friday- 1:30am I drove home and tucked him the bed next to James and then I took a shower and slept in our bed. 8:30 am Wesley woke with a 103.7 fever. I gave him Tylenol and a sippy cup. Got everyone ready for the day and took Wesley to go back to our Dr. Our Dr. was very surprised to see us and looked at Wesley and wondered why we were there instead of at Loma Linda. He said we never should have been discharged and we headed right back. We waited in the ER for about an hour. By 3pm we saw the Dr and he admitted us, at about 4 we were in the 5100 unit, where he got a new IV, labs drawn and another x-ray taken. By this point he was screaming crying when the nurse even came close to him and told her " go away lady, don't poke me" :) But we survived the night.

Saturday- Wesley had just had a low grade fever and was very excited to see his favorite visitors, Rachel, Nathan and Sarah. We took a walk to see the fish, went outside to see the waterfalls and he was happy. Sarah stayed the afternoon with us. About 4pm his fever spiked again to 103.2, and they had to draw more blood cultures. Tante Chris and Uncle Jim came by to visit until they came to draw his cultures. Tiffy stopped by to visit for a minute and at 6 my folks, came and watched Wesley for an hour or so while James, the boys, Tiff and I went to eat a real dinner. James and I switched for the night. Grace and Hope stayed with the Kimms (Thank you John and Beth for keeping them all day and letting them sleep over) and I took Grady and Zach home with me, which made them both exceedingly happy. The 3 of us slept in our bed and were fast asleep by 9:30pm.

At this point the wound culture is positive for staph infection that seems to be resistant to the 3 antibiotics that he has previously been given. The Dr. is thinking the infection might be a bone infection which not only is dangerous, but very hard to treat, sometimes needing hospitalization up to 6 weeks! The Dr. talks about doing a bone scan and another culture with the return of another fever over 100.4.

Sunday- James got up early with a happy Wesley and ate breakfast, took a walk and visited the play room for a bit and had a few visitors. The boys and I got up late and then I worked on some house work...laundry, put a meal in the crock pot, swept the floors upstairs, emptied the trash, layed out clothes for the 4 at home and set out school work for everyone and took a nice hot shower! I dropped the boys at the Nydams, where the girls were also and headed on to the hospital. 4pm, James left to do some work and then picked up the kids before heading home for dinner. I've been here at the hospital with a slightly happier Wesley. Sarah and Jess both stopped by for a little bit and Jess brought me dinner (thank you Jess!) Wesley sat with Sarah until he started to get cranky. I layed the chair down about 8:30 and started to get him ready for bed. He started getting a fever, but we caught it in time with Motrin, at 100.2, so and it hasn't risen again. He had a 2nd dose of this 4th medication in hopes that the staph infection won't be resistant to it. Now he's sound asleep and I'm sitting here typing away because the Dad of the little girl next to us is snoring so FREAKING loud, I could scream...just saying... A little while ago he was so loud he woke the baby on the other side, as well as Wesley, they were both screaming, but he just kept snoring away!
Anyway...that's where were at. I have pictures to load, but I brought the wrong cable to connect the camera to my computer, so those will have to wait...
More as the week continues...
Thank you so very much for all your prayers, notes of encouragement, texts, facebook messages and for those of you who have stopped by, or taken care of the other 4...THANK YOU! We value your friendships and feel blessed to call you friends!
We know God is in control and is in the process of healing Wes so we can all be home together as one big happy family! Please continue to pray for Wesley infection to heal!
Much Love <3
Faithy