Thankful for my Family

So now you know all of the drama with Jack in the hospital. Well that Friday afternoon at about 2pm, we all got to go home. I was so happy that we got to get him out of there. The doctors and everyone were great, but it was really hard to see my little boy that way. Well it's a week after his treatment and he is back to his normal self. He is happy and smiling like he was before. He had a follow up appointment with his pediatrician, and he has to go to a 2 and 6 week follow up with the cardiologist at Vanderbilt, but I think Jack will be just fine. I am so thankful!

My mom talked to a friend yesterday and she knows a lady that had a son with the same symptoms as Jack. She took him to the hospital and nobody knew what was wrong. They didn't know about Kawasaki Disease and they never bothered to send him up to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital to figure it all out. So unfortunately for this family, the little boy (about the same age as Jack) stayed in the hospital for 2 weeks and died from heart failure.

When I heard about this family, it just broke my heart. It made me realize how lucky we were that things happened how they did. While we were at MTMC, both Kyle and I were getting a little upset with the different doctors that they couldn't figure out what was wrong. But I am so grateful that Jack's doctor was big enough to say that he couldn't do anymore for Jack and sent him to a hospital with specialists that could help.

As I said before, Jack is doing great. We will need to get his heart checked out every couple of years to make sure there are no long term effects, but I'm not too worried. I am just so thankful that there were doctors who knew how to treat him, and that Jack is still here with us. I love my family, and I'm grateful to be a mother!

Jack's Hospital Adventure

Wow, our little family has had quite the week. The week started with me quitting my job and deciding that we would be heading to California earlier than we had originally planned. Jack and I would go out while Kyle would stay in Tennessee and finish his last semester at MTSU. So we didn't sign the lease to our apartment, I quit my job to pack everything and to stay home with Jack, and we were going to move in with my parents until the big move.

Well... on Wednesday Jack started to get sick. He had a fever of 102 and was not moving very much. He didn't look good at all. We watched him for the rest of the day and throughout the night but on Thursday afternoon his fever was still really high and he was now vomiting. His fever stayed between 101 and 105 and never went down. So I took Jack to the doctor and they said it was probably just a viral infection and sent us home. The next day wasn't any better. Still high fever, vomiting, and he couldn't keep any food or drink down. I was afraid he was getting dehydrated. We took him to urgent care but they didn't take our insurance so...great. Now what do we do.

So Friday night we ended up taking Jack to the MTMC emergency room. They did some blood and urine tests and hooked him up to an IV. They said that he was very dehydrated and his symptoms showed he could have viral meningitis. But before they did the test for that, the ER doctor got called away and we got sent to a room upstairs. The doctor upstairs decided not to do the test for meningitis and said because of the bacteria in his urine that he had a urinary tract infection. Now we just had to wait a few days for some more test results so they knew what meds to give Jack when he went home.

Well come to find out, it wasn't a urinary tract infection after all. He still had a fever and wasn't getting any better. In fact, he was getting worse and his whole body was very swollen. By this time it was now Monday afternoon and we had knew no more than we did on Friday when we got there. So Jack's doctor had a chest xray done and came to see him that evening. At first the doctor thought it was double pneumonia. Then he looked closer and talked to radiology again and it looked more like pulmonary edema. So after this news from the doctor, we were sent to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

Jack and I rode in the ambulance up the hospital and Kyle followed behind us. As soon as we got there, there was a room full of doctors and nurses ready to meet us and see Jack. It was crazy for the first little bit and they did some more tests. We finally got a room upstairs about 2am Tuesday morning and we went to sleep. Tuesday morning we saw the Pediatricians, the Cardiologists, and the Infectious Disease doctors. They moved pretty quickly and told us that it looked like he had Kawasaki Disease. But they watched him a little more, did more tests and looked at his heart. So finally on Wednesday they said that his symptoms were closest to Kawasaki and started treatment that afternoon.

You know, I haven't even mentioned what else was going on through the weekend. While I was with Jack in the hospital, Kyle had to finish packing our apartment and move everything out. He did have some help with the big furniture, but he had to do a lot himself. Not to mention having to go to work and make the drive back and for to the hospital. But when Kyle wasn't able to be at the hospital with me and Jack, my mom was there to help me out. Having an extra person makes a big difference.

Anyways... after the treatment, his fever went down and hasn't had one all day, his swelling is going down, and he is acting more like himself. If he keeps improving and does well for the rest of the day and tonight, we will be going home either Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. I'm just glad Jack is doing better and that we will be going home soon. I think a week in the hospital for a 14 month old is long enough. So that's our week and I'm glad it's almost over. Time to go home, get some rest, and let Jack get his strength back.

Updates

Ok, So I know I'm way behind. It's getting late so I will update more later, but here's some highlights.

For Christmas we had one day over with the whole family and we all got spoiled with gifts.

Jack got a couple of new Christmas pj's that are so cute!

Christmas morning was very nice and relaxing at home.

Here is little goofy Jack. He loves his paci and is being a goof holding it in his mouth funny.

Jack can also be funny is his crib. He definitely takes advantage of having a lot of space.

We took Jack to the park to get on the swings. It was cold but we bundled him up. He had a lot of fun on them.

His hair is getting so long and so after a bath it is everywhere! Funny boy.

I just love my goofy little boy. He can crawl around now so he is always getting into everything.
Tonight he was quite a pill! So we had an empty diaper box we stuck him in to keep him entertained. And it worked for a while!

Little Laughs

Last week we took some Fall pictures of Jack, Ethan, and Cody. Kyle, Jack and I got to Cannonsburg before the rest of the family so we were having a little fun with Jack. While waiting in the parking lot, Jack was sitting on Kyle's lap in the driver's seat and honking the horn. Jack sure got a kick out of it. He has such a cute little laugh I love it!

Vote for Jack

Today I went to Carters and got Jack some much needed clothes since he's growing like a weed. While I was there I was told that I could enter Jack in a photo contest so I went home and took some pics in the backyard. My mom came to help me out so that Jack didn't fall over. Well... I went to upload one of these pics but it was too big for the website so I entered one of him in his Snoopy costume. So on NOVEMBER 24, go to WWW.CARTERS.COM/CUTIES and VOTE FOR JACK!!! The pic I used in the contest is the picture above so you can see which one to look for. Anyways, today was a fun day out and about with Jack. I don't get too many full days with Jack since I work full time, so I LOVE getting to be with him all day. Just love my little boy!

October Fun

Happy Halloween!

This month has been full of fun activities. Our first big activity was going to the Waldon Farms Pumpkin Patch. There were different animals like cows, pigs, and goats for everyone to see. There was a hay ride, corn maze, and other fun things for kids to do. We did the corn maze, picked out a pumpkin, and had fun walking around and seeing the animals.

The next weekend, a nearby park had a fall festival with some carnival games, trick-or-treating, and a hay ride. We did the kids hay ride that told a story as we went along. It was pretty fun and it wasn't too cold either. We of course dressed up Jack in his costume for the trick-or-treating. He was Snoopy this year. Nothing fancy but still so cute!

One thing we also started this month was feeding him baby food and trying to feed him with a spoon. This is from the first time we tried to feed him. It was very messy and he was more interested in playing with the spoon than anything.

Yesterday we went to Franklin for their fall festival. It was super fun! There was free face painting so Jack got a candy corn on his cheek. There were pony rides, sheep and goats to pet, and also bounce houses for the kids. There was also vendors with their tents set up all around the square. We had fun walking around, watching the cloggers for a few minutes, and getting some yummy kettle corn! Jack got worn out and fell asleep near the end.

This month has been really fun with all the different things going on. And it's already Halloween! So everyone have fun trick-or-treating tonight!

New Apartment

Exciting news! On Saturday, September 18th, we moved into our new apartment. Since we've gotten just about everything put away, it's finally looking more like a home. We have no cable or internet, but we keep ourselves entertained with movies and cartoons (for Jack). We are working on getting pictures hung up, and doing some decorating, but it's coming together nicely. Once we get it all done I will post some pics. And one nice thing too is that we have room for Jack's crib. And he actually sleeps pretty well in it! but that's all for now. More to come soon :)