Trust your momma gut

I'm going to start and end this post with the same advice - always trust your momma gut. When something is wrong with your babies - you just know. I can look at any one of my kids and know that they aren't feeling well or that they have a fever. I know when they aren't themselves and sometimes I question myself but I always trust what my gut tells me and it's generally right.

We got home late Sunday night from the hospital with Max after 5 days at the hospital. He went home doing great. The last day or so in the hospital we had really weaned him off most of his pain meds with the exception of tylenol suppositories and he was doing great. He also seemed ok on Monday at home. He was happy to be picked up and held for short periods, we took a wagon ride around the neighborhood and generally he was his happy self. During the night Monday night we realized that it seemed like he was super irritable and upset - more than he had been. By Tuesday morning I was pretty sure something was going on - my mom gut was telling me I needed to make the call but that little voice inside my head - the anti hover mom - was telling me to hold off. Once Max woke up from his nap happy and giggly and the second I touched him he started screaming and crying in pain I knew I had to call the doctor. Because we haven't been able to really hold him for a whole week now whenever we did get to pick him up - flat as a board - he would giggle and kick his pigs. So when he was clearly in pain I knew it wasn't right.

I was going back and forth with the nurse and getting ready to send pictures of his incision to her when my gut told me to take his temp rectally and it was 101.8 at which point I knew we were going to the ER. We hopped in the car faster than I've ever moved and were here in 40 minutes. The neurosurg team had called down so they were expecting us. We were still in the ER from 12-5:30 but I'm positive it would have been much worse had they not been expecting us. In the ER his temperature was OK which was surprising so I was a bit confused. After a nasal swab for basically every sort of virus (cold, influenza, etc.), a urine catheter, a few tubes of blood, a chest x-ray and exams from the neurosurg team, apns, and the ER doc we decided after hearing that his white blood cell count was elevated at 18 that there was most definitely an infection - somewhere.

It was interesting to see the ER staff and the neurosurgery team working together and sort of dance around one another. Technically he was an ER patient as we can through that but he was also neurosurgery's patient due to his recent surgery. The resident sent a picture to his neurosurgeon and she said that she was pleased with how it looked but no matter what - we would be admitted at least overnight to keep an eye on him and try to get him comfortable again.

By the time we got up to our 2nd home these days - floor 19 Neurosurgery - his fever was 103.8 and rising and he was a mess. He was so so sad, bright red, burning up, and very very stiff. He was barely using his arms or extremities and was miserable. The neurosurgeon attending examined him and I could tell right away it wasn't good. He said he was going to consult with Dr. Bowman - Max's surgeon - and go from there but in his opinion we needed to get a spinal tap to rule out a post operative form of meningitis. It wasn't long before Dr. Bowman was in the room and she didn't leave my side for the rest of the time until Max was done with all of his testing and we had a course of action. I am so so thankful to her and all the staff as I was alone through it all because we had decided it would be best to have Chris go out and spend some time with CJ because Tuesdays are their nights for a daddy/Ceej date.

After looking at his back Dr. Bowman wasn't at all concerned about the incision and actually thought it looked good. So long story short - they started him on an aggressive course of vancomycin and ceftriaxone as well as IV tylenol and another pain medication called Toradol. He was pretty miserable but managed to sleep for decent periods of time because he was totally exhausted. At that point the doctors let us know that we were here for a while - at a minimum probably 5 days to let the meningitis cultures grow. Of course the word meningitis terrified me - especially since he was exposed to Mia and Ceej - in my mind all I kept thinking was Dear God please don't give me 3 babies with meningitis. It turns out it's more of a post operative infection type meningitis - not the communicable meningitis that we all think of. So at this point they are suspecting either a bacterial or a chemical meningitis due to the surgery.

For now we are keeping him comfortable and just trying to manage his fever - as it continues to spike during different periods of the day to as high as 103.8. He's been pretty achy and sore and tired but for all he's went through he's in amazing spirits. He's a total warrior - we knew what we were doing when we gave him such a strong name. Maximus Alexander is a total warrior's name - and that's what he is. But as said before - always always trust your momma gut. I get the sense that things could be a lot worse had I not trusted my gut and just tried to wait it out and see what happened. So momma's - you know your babies better than anyone and you are the best advocate for them.

This post is getting super long so I'm going to wrap it up and I'll post another update soon!

XOXO
K

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