Thursday, May 5, 2011

Very sick Benjamin

What a day.  Benjamin started getting sick yesterday.  He ran 102 fever and wouldn't move and slept.  He barely drank.  Lots of pushing to get him to drink, same again today.  He was so weak he hadn't moved from the couch at all.  He was sleeping again and next thing you know he's running screaming and grabbing his stomach yelling about flashlights and monsters and pain and needing meds.  His heartrate was high.  He was shaking so bad that he couldn't hold a cup.  Immediately called the doc.  They were concerned about appendix so had me rush him in.  He couldn't walk so I had to carry him.  He couldn't even stand on the scale so he had to be laid out across the baby scale to get a weight.  Within minutes they had an IV going.  Doc was checking him over and looked at his throat.  When she swabbed it, it was literally bleeding.  Ben has strep.  Apparently in young children it presents with high fever, severe stomach pain, shakes, sometimes delusions, and tons of other weird things.  Ben got 1000 mls of IV fluids, plus a massive shot of penicillin.  He was so cold and shivering we had to keep covering him in blankets. We were there for hours.  His fever crept back as we were leaving the doc.  His pediatrician literally carried him out to the car.  We are home and he was carried back to his place on the couch.  He is hardly drinking again and sweating alot with the fever.  We haven't seen a drop of pee in over 30 hrs.  It's been decided that if he isn't better by morning he will be taken to the childrens hospital in KC and admitted.  He's super sick and it's really scary.
As they were getting his IV going he was screaming at them "pretty pretty pretty please don't poke me" " pretty please stop" "I wish this was a dream" "I wish I didn't have to have 2 pokes" "I wish there was no such thing as sick"
The one that broke my heart the most was after they got him hooked up to the IV and he looked at it and said "I don't want to be like Eli".  He's scared that because he has to have a tube that he will be super sick like Eli.  Benjamin understand how much Eli suffers and that the quality of his life is hard.  His pediatrician, nurse and I spent constant time at his side to help him not be scared. 
He still doesn't have enough energy to sit up yet, so it took 2 people to get his shirt off...1 to sit him and hold him up and 1 to get it off.  I will update more as I can.  It's going to be a long night pushing fluids and keeping track of all of his vitals.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Heather & family right now I lift up Benjamin to the Lord & pray for this fever to drop & pray he will take in enough fluids. "In Jesus Name" I claim healing to this young body!! Please give the parents comfort. Thank you & Praise You Lord for your answers to prayer. Amen. Generic Pedilite is very good for them. Walgreens has it as I am sure other places do to. They suggest Gator Aide, but it is just a suggestion. Sometimes they will take flavored better than plain water. God's Blessings over all of you!!

Heather said...

Jenny thank you!
He is on pedialyte but right now with him being so weak and with him hurting he's simply not taking in enough to keep his body hydrated, especially with the high fevers and increased heartrate and respirations burning up more fluids.