In the first week or two of December, our family passed around a sinus bug. Nearly everyone took a turn with it, as usual. Then, while Quinton was in the middle of his turn, I noticed a bump on his neck. I wracked my brain for anything that could have caused it. I remembered that a few days earlier, he had been jumping on our couch and had fallen off. He hit his neck on the edge of our coffee table and cried pretty hard. My mind instantly jumped to all the worst-case scenarios: spinal cord injuries, wheel chairs, child abuse charges, and jail time. I immediately called David at work and said, "I think Quinton's neck is broken!" David was a little more rational about the whole thing, but encouraged me to take him to the doctor.
Our pediatrician examined Quinton's neck while I told him all the details of Quinton's fall off the couch. But instead of ordering x-rays, he said, "This is not from a traumatic injury." That was a huge relief to me, but I could tell that the doctor seemed pretty anxious about what was actually going on in Q-ball's neck. Basically, the infection that he had been dealing with had colonized in one of his lymph nodes. It had created an abscess and was threatening to make him "go septic." I'm not a professional or anything, but I think that's pretty bad - like, your blood gets poisonous bad. Anyway, his doctor put him on Augmentin (\a pretty heavy duty antibiotic) and said, "This will help IF we caught it in time. But if he doesn't get significantly better soon, or if he starts to get worse, take him to Primary Children's' Hospital in Salt Lake. You could take him somewhere else, but they'll just transfer him to Primary Children's, so you might as well start there." Wait, what?!?!? I was starting to think the broken neck was sounding better and better! The pediatrician gave us his cell phone number and strict instructions about what to be watching for.
Well, Quinton took his first dose of medicine, but by the evening he was doing pretty poorly. His fever was climbing above 101, he was complaining of a sore throat and neck, and he just looked like he was wilting. I texted the doctor and this is the text I received back, "Contacted the ER on your behalf. The charge nurse knows to look for you. Let me know if you have any challenges." Both girls were gone at the time - Alison with some friends and Nicki at a basketball game, so my brother David came over to hang out with my boys for an hour or two, until Nicki came home. How nice is that? The boys LOVED it!
Meanwhile, David and I took Quin to Salt Lake City to Primary Children's Hospital. They are obviously very nice there, and well equipped to take care of children. They even had one person who was assigned to play with Quinton and keep him happy/diverted. Poor Quinton was so sick! He threw up in the car at least once on the way there. For some reason, he didn't like to sit up on chairs - he always wanted to sit on the floor. I don't know why.
The ER doctor ordered a CT scan. It being a children's hospital, they make everything pretty cool - even fun. But still, my heart was absolutely shredded as I watched my poor little brave, super sick four year old go in that machine. We were in contact with his pediatrician the whole time - he's the best! And the pediatrician was in contact with the hospital, so there was a whole team of us worrying about Quin. It was great. The CT scan showed a 4x2 cm abscess in his neck. I guess that's big. Our doctor said it was a maxillary sinus infection (maybe someday these things will mean something to someone who's reading this history). The next step was to meet with the ENT surgeon and get that thing removed!
We had to wait for a long time (between scan resulls, consultations, ER wait times, etc.) but Quinton didn't seem to mind. He was excited to be playing with the hospital's iPad.
They brought him some toy cars and Play Dough to occupy his time.
He made himself a lovely crown.
After several hours, it was decided that instead of surgery, it might be better to just try to drain some of the puss out of his neck with a needle. So a whole bunch of people came in and surrounded Q's hospital bed. There was the doctor performing the procedure, Quinton's play specialist, a nurse, and I think a medical student or two that wanted to observe the procedure. I don't think it went as well as they were hoping - the puss was a little bit thicker than they expected it to be. But they did get a little bit out, so they called it a success. Meanwhile, Quinton was amazing as they poked and prodded and dug around in his neck. He was actually chatting with his fun specialist the entire time about the game he was playing on the iPad. His comments and sound effects had the whole crew cracking up! Later on, he told me that it hurt and he was frightened, but he was being brave.
After his procedure, Quinton needed to be given IV antibiotics every few hours for a couple of days, so they admitted him to his own room. It was well after 2:00 am when we got there. Daddy headed home to be with the older kids and I slept on a couch/bed in Quinton's room with him.
So this became Quinton's home for the next few days. I stayed with him all day on Saturday. David came and slept with him that night. I came back Sunday morning and stayed with him all day and through the night. David spent a few hours with us on Sunday afternoon. He would have liked to spend more time, but he had to keep things running at home (and moms have a hard time leaving their babies in a hospital!) so he couldn't.
One of the things David took care of was sending Alison off to her first high school dance. Well - not exactly. I mean, it was the high school Christmas dance, but she wasn't on a date. She went with a bunch of friends from debate. They all split the costs of tickets and went Dutch. Still, though! I missed her first dance! I didn't get to help her get ready or take pictures, or anything. I had to ask them to send me pictures on my phone so I could see.
Meanwhile, back at the hospital.... Quinton developed a SEVERE case of diarrhea. He couldn't leave the bathroom for more than a few minutes! In fact, we ended up putting him in a pull-up diaper because it was so severe and sudden! Poor boy - that sickness made him more miserable than his neck did! I felt like it must have been from the heavy antibiotics he was taking, but the doctor said it was too soon for a reaction to that. And since we were in a children's hospital with lots of very sick kids, Quinton was basically quarantined. He was not allowed to leave his room. Bummer! We couldn't take him for walks, or to the playrooms, etc. He was trapped (once, I was allowed to take him out to give him a bath).
Luckily for us, Quinton was too sick for most of the time we were there to even care that he was trapped. Plus, he had plenty of things to keep him busy. The bed, for one thing, was a source of hours of fun.
Plus, he had a PlayStation machine right in his room, and access to tons of video games and DVDs. The hospital brought him play dough, cars, and a large box of Lego's to play with, along with crayons and coloring books.
He could order any food he wanted at any time and the hospital would bring it to him. It was a dream come true for him - if he was feeling good. But he wasn't, so it was a big waste. I realized pretty quickly that he didn't eat much. I stopped ordering tons of food for him because he wasn't eating it all. Even fruit smoothies, etc. went to waste. The only thing he loved was mini bagels with strawberry cream cheese. He ate three of those per day!
And he had visitors! Grandma and Grandpa Smith came once. So did Aunt Kristin and Uncle Brian. They would bring treats and toys for him, so he really enjoyed their visits. For the most part, the three days went pretty quickly.
By Monday morning, Quinton was doing well enough to come home. I didn't really need a doctor to tell me that. I could tell by the fact that he was literally jumping off the furniture - he felt good and was getting stir crazy. Here he is posing by a little Christmas craft we made while we were in the hospital. You can tell by the mischief in his eyes that he feels better.
I didn't want to stay around any longer than necessary. Once Quinton felt good, that room seemed to shrink and I wanted to leave before he broke something with all his pent-up energy! So we checked out, and then we explored the hospital for a few minutes while Daddy drove to get us. We saw an awesome circular fish tank.
And this lovely mural.
They even had Spiderman and Superman statues! What a cool place to be sick! In fact, it may have been a little TOO cool - I think Quinton wants to go back...
A day or two after he came home, I took Quin to Build-a-Bear Workshop to pick out a stuffed bear for his trauma and bravery. I felt like he earned it.
