Our stay at the hospital

On July 4th about 8:30 pm we took Harrison back to the ER because his lump was really red and he had a temp of 101.2. We took him to TC Thompson's Children's Hospital this time. Upon admisson they immediately took blood and urine samples from our little guy and started an IV. His CBC was 34000 and the doctor told us a normal CBC is 10000. They did a CT scan and x-rays. The ER physician, Dr. Kelly, was great and was very upfront. She gave us the worst case scenario so we knew what we were facing. Basically Harrison had an abcess on his left side on his ribs. They intially thought it might be attached to his spleen and thought his little spleen might need to be removed. Thankfully this was not the case...Dr. Kelly called a surgeon. The surgeon resident thought he saw a small bite on the abcess but wasn't sure. They admitted us to the hospital around 3:30 am on July 5th. Harrison wasn't allowed to eat after 12:30 since he may have needed surgery. They decided to hook him up to IV antibiotics right away. When Dr. Carr, the surgeon saw him on Tuesday morning around 8 am he decided to drain the abcess. They gave Harrison a local anthestic and drained it. It was the most pitiful thing ever. We have never heard him cry like that. Thankfully he was allowed to nurse right after that so he quickly forgot about the pain and was glad to eat after 8 hours. Dr. Carr told us that he would keep an eye on the abcess and it may require surgery. He got a ton of pus out of it. They said we may never know what caused the abcess...maybe a bug bite or maybe where he scratched himself. They sent his blood off to see what kind of bacteria was infecting him. He was monitored all day Tuesday and his temperature went back down to 98.6. On Wednesday morning Dr. Carr looked at his abcess and decided it would need to be surgically debrided/drained so he couldn't eat anymore prior to surgery. They also determined he has a staph infection. I thought that staph infections were caused by being dirty. Evidentally we all have staph bacteria and Harrison's entered inside him or under his skin. Our pediatrician said there is an aggressive strand that causes boils and abcesses so I guess that is what happened. I couldn't hold him at all prior to surgery because he smelled milk and couldn't understand why I wasn't feeding him. He had his surgery at 1:30 pm and it lasted about 30 minutes. When we went to recovery to get him he was pitiful because he was still under anthesia. He looking like a little sleeping angel. He had surgery on his 2 month birthday :( Well his surgery went well and we got to go home about 7pm. He goes back to the surgeon on Friday to has his wound unpacked and then we should be back to normal. The amazing thing about this stay is what a trooper Harrison was. He was so brave and such a good boy. He really didn't cry that much (and he got poked and prodded a lot). I don't know if he could understand any of it but he was such a brave boy. I hate that any of this happened but we are relieved that it was not as serious as it could have been and it brought us closer together as a family. We had a very pleasant experience at the hospital and are thankful for the wonderful doctors and nurses that took such good care of our precious baby. Thank you for all the prayers for our sweet boy.

Scared pt.2

So everyone knows what's going on with my buddy now. It's my time to add my two cents. I'm with Alicia in that this is one of the scariest things I've gone through in my life. There is a very good possibility that we're totally over-reacting, and if we are GOOD. I'd rather over-react to something like this than under-react. All my life Mother has said, "just wait until you have kids of your own, you will understand". I think the fear we have in our hearts now set's that statement more true than ever, I understand! Knowing that something is wrong with Harrison breaks my heart, knowing there is nothing I personally can do to help him hurts even more.

Back last week when he had a little tummy virus, Alicia took his temp rectally, I stood beside him. I put my finger in his hand and he grabbed a hold tightly. When he shed a tear he was looking into my eyes. I just looked back and said "I know buddy, I'm here and everything is going to be OK". Now, even though he doesn't seem to be in any pain, I can't look him in the eyes and say it will be OK. I don't know. I try not to think about it when I'm around him, because I don't want him to get the vibe that something is wrong.

I know Alicia is having just as tough of time with this as I am. We have talked about it several times a day since we discovered it on Friday. How we wished we had reacted sooner, how we wished it weren't a holiday and we could take him to see Dr. Jones today, how we wished there was something we could do. It helps a little to let her know I'm having the same feelings, but it still doesn't set my heart at ease, nothing will until I know he is going to be OK.

I feel badly that we haven't kept up with this blog any better than we have over the past month. Some days just don't seem long enough for such a thing. However last night when Alicia was really having a tough time dealing with this, I said, "why don't you go write Harrison a letter, so when all of this is behind us, and he is old enough to understand, we can let him know how much we loved him even back when he was two months old." Then I checked our e-mail to find out she put it on the blog. I'm glad she did that, now you can see what we are going through, and if we don't seem like ourselves, this is why. I got to work this morning, and I can't stop thinking about him, about that lump, about Alicia and how much pain she is in.

I know blogs aren't suppose to be structured in any way, but I know this one is poorly written and all over the place, but I had to spill my guts for a while, and I'm glad I have this to do such. Hope you could read this, and it's not too scattered.

Love to all,
CHO

Scared....

Well, I don't think either one of us has posted in quite a while. Life has been busy since our sweet bundle of joy arrived. He changes so much everyday...it's just amazing. Harrison is smiling and cooing like crazy. My sister Daresa (that lives in Colorado) arrived to TN on 6/23 with her hubbie and 2 girls. Troy left eary and they are staying until 7/8 or so. We have had fun catching up...it's been 2 years since I have seen them. The girls adore Harrison and make quite nice little helpers. Bailey is the "calmer downer" because she can soothe him and make him stop crying. Camryn is the "diaper changer". She helps wipe him and fasten the diaper tabs. It's really cute. So many things have happened in the past few weeks but I am really only here to post about one thing.
Friday morning I was nursing Harrison on my mom and dad's porch. He was only wearing his diaper because he had peed on his PJ's. I noticed a large bump on the left side of his ribcage. I asked my sister if it looked normal. We compared it to her daughter's ribs and concluded that it is probably just his rib but I should ask Dr. Jones about it. So I really didn't think much about it after that. Well that night when Chris picked him up he noticed it. It grew larger throughout the day. We put him on the changing table to exam it and it looked pretty big. So we call Dr. Deb (my sister is a pediatric nurse for our doctor) and described it to her. She says she will look at it tomorrow and if it isn't causing him pain it probably is okay and to make a dr's appt for Tuesday. As far as the pain thing...he is acting just fine. He kind of squirms when you touch it but he squirms when you touch his ribs in general. Well Saturday he was in a wonderful mood....smiling and cooing more than normal so we figured it was okay. I changed his dr's appt from Thursday to Tuesday morning just so we could have peace of mind. Well later on Saturday when we went to my parents house my 2 nurse sisters looked at it and told us to take him to the ER due to its size. So we take him and they do chest x-rays to rule out a fracture. The doctor there told us after 3 x-rays that he has no idea what it is...his guess is a benign mass. He advises us to follow up with our pediatrician on Tuesday for further evaluation and to come back if it grows or seems to cause him pain. He has done fine today...no more crying than normal and doesn't seem to be in pain. It does not appear to be any larger. For some reason my mind is full of worry tonight though. I keep thinking...can babies get cancer? I honestly have never been so scared in all of my life. I cannot wait for Tuesday morning to get here so we can set our minds at ease.

So anyone that reads this post, please pray for our sweet baby boy.