This Last Week

To everyone who knew that we were having trouble this week thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement. To those who had no idea what was going on just the fact that I knew we have so many daily prayer warriors who are always thinking of us and praying for us I felt so encouraged from it!!
I will give you the good news first. We are officially now switched to Cincinnati Children's Hospital and I couldn't be happier. This news came the last tuesday which to me is just a the Lord blessing us because Ben got sick the same day and we did not have to call the old clinic and deal with them with all our uncertainties there.
Last tuesday Ben was not feeling well and by Wednesday morning he was running a temperature. Matt took Ben to the pediatric emergency room nearby. They drew Ben's blood for cultures and also ran cultures on his urine. They did an X-ray to check his lungs as well. They also checked for Strep A and Strep B. The Xray and the Strep A came back immediately negative but the rest were cultures and we had to wait 48 hours for results. They gave Ben Recephon which is a pretty strong antibiotic and gave orders for him to follow up Thursday and Friday for more Recephon.
On Wednesday night Ben's fever spiked again but because he had been checked out and as of Wednesday am his ANC was 2086 they allowed us to keep him home and give him tylenol. He went back to the ER for his antibiotic on Thursday and had no fevers again until Thursday night when they spiked again. On friday morning he went back for the final shot of Recephon and then went home. On Friday night his fever spiked again so we called and the Doctor said to take him in on saturday morning to have his ANC checked again. Matt took Ben in on Saturday and his ANC came back 411. He was taken to Cincinnati by ambulance and we got there mid-afternoon. They reran the blood and urine cultures and performed another xray. His ANC at Cincinnati was 550. This difference of ANC was the difference between manual and automatic deciphering of his counts. They admitted Ben and gave him a stronger anitbiotic called Zosyn. This antibiotic is what they use when a patient iss Neutropenic (low ANC) it attacks gram-negative bacteria better then Recephon. On Sunday morning Ben had made it through the night with no fever but his counts had dropped to 430 so they decided that he could go home on Monday as long as he didn't have anymore fevers and as long as the next CBCs they checked were increasing. So we spent all of Sunday hanging out. Matt went home Sunday afternoon because he had to work. I was blessed by my co-worker and buddy Alex, who switched days with me so I didn't have to worry about missing work. Thanks Alex!!! Ben and I got to hang out all day and we actually had a lot of fun. He was really tired though and took a long nap late in the afternoon which meant he didn't go to sleep until 1:00am. I still am laughing over it because I started falling asleep next to him and he kept waking me up saying "Mom your missing the Thomas movie and it's the best one I have ever seen!!!"
On monday we went over everything with the doctors and Ben's counts were 470 and he didn't have anymore fevers so they sent us home. They discharged us and Ben and I hung out until Matt came to get us.
Today Ben is feeling great and we go back to check his ANC tomorrow just to ensure that he is still doing good. He is a little more tired than normal but he is doing really good. Next week is Ben's appoinment for his Spinal Tap at Cincinnati.

On a happy note we are so wonderfully pleased with Cincinnati. Just from this visit they have given us so much help and it has been so nice to be treated with kindness and love instead of the hatred and disrespect that we have had to deal with for so long. He even told one of the Doctors "Thank you for saying my name instead of 'the patient'. Ben had a great time and instead of being quiet and not talking and being terrified of his Doctors he was my sweet talkative little boy at Cincinnati. He was even cracking jokes to the Doctors and laughing with the nurses. He wouldn't even leave the hospital without kissing and hugging his nurses goodbye. It was such an answer to prayer to see him doing so much better and not having such a horrible time.
He has gone through so much and I am so happy that he is in a better place now.

I am going to end this with Ben's joke to the Doctor "What did one Snowman say to the other Snowman?-----Smells like Carrots!!!


Love you