After 4 nights at Santa Theresa Hospital Alex is finally home.
Last Sunday Alex complained of a sore throat and by Sunday night had a very stiff and swollen neck. He cried all night, and couldn’t talk or eat. Monday a doctor at Kaiser said he had 3 separate things going on – a sprained neck (what?!), a fever/cold, and pink eye. Wrong. By Tuesday afternoon, thanks to my Mom being proactive and really there for me and the boys, she talked me into bringing him back in, this time to the E.R. The E.R. sent us over to pediatrics…pediatrics sent us back to the E.R. This is after Alex kicked a little Dr. that looked like Freud right in the crotch. Freud said he had an abscess in his neck.
Anywho, after another 9 hours or so involving a blood draw, an x-ray, a CT scan, 3 tries to get an IV in, and some morphine, Alex was admitted to the hospital with an abscess behind his tonsils. They started him on 2 types of antibiotics. By the next morning we (we = meaning my Mom and I) found out he had strep group A which caused the abscess, spread to the tissues around his neck, and into his blood (this is called “scarlet fever”). Jesus.
I have never seen Alex so sick and not himself. He is normally so active, and loud, and impulsive; it really must have taken a lot to knock him down. He was so brave and I’m so relieved to have him back. Now if I can just get him to take the oral antibiotics that taste like crap 3 times a day for 6 more days…
On a related note – Thanks Mom, for caring about us and not being afraid to do something about it. You would think most people would act this way, but it’s actually pretty rare.
