Levi's Health Scare

We had a little health scare on Friday. Levi had been feeling crummy for about three days. He had a low fever and just slept all the time. Friday afternoon he woke up from his nap and I noticed one of his ears was sticking out kind of goofy. I just thought he had slept on it wrong. I just kept thinking it would lay back. Then I was holding him outside and noticed it was red and swollen behind his ear. I thought he must have a pretty bad ear infection. So I made an appointment that was set for 7:30 pm about three hours later. Meanwhile, I got on the internet to make my own diagnosis. I started reading about something called mastoiditis. Which is really bad. Basically its an infection in the bone behind the ear. It is serious because it can cause hearing loss and the infection can easily spread to the brain. Emergency surgery is usually performed to remove the infection. Well after reading this I of course panicked. I called and asked if I could come in right away. The nurse said it sounded like I could wait for my appointment. I figured I would have to wait that long in the emergency room anyways. So I went to the doctor's appointment. The doctor took one look at it and said it look like classic mastoiditis. Having already scared myself about this condition, I was fear stricken. She said I need to head straight to Primary Children' s Emergency room. I just broke down. So I called Rocky and arranged for my sister Bobbie to take my other kids. Then we headed up.

Well we walked into the emergency room and just about died. It was packed. All the chairs were full. People lined the hallways. I guess its the peak of RSV season. Not the time you want to be in Primary Children's ER. The doctor came out and said " we're sorry, this is not how we like to run our ER but all the rooms are full we're going to start seeing patients in the hallway." I KID YOU NOT! It was miserable. Being in there with your baby around all those very sick kids. We didn't even want to sit down. The wait for someone just walking in was 5 hours. Luckily because we were called in by our doctor ours was about 2 hours. Well you get the picture.

The doctor eventually made his way over to us. He though it looked like mastoiditis also. So Levi had to have and IV put in, Not Fun. Then he had a CT scan, didn't love that either. After waiting awhile the doctor came over with GREAT NEWS. The scan showed there was not infection in the bone. The infection was just in the skin. So they ruled it a case of cellulitis. Which can be serious but nothing compared to what we thought we were dealing with. I was a very happy mom. The next step was IV antibiotics. Of course there was no available room so the just put us in a hallway that was out of the way. CRAZY!

We finally made it home at 2:30 am. Levi was beyond tired. So were we. He is now on antibiotics and the infection is getting better every time I look at it. Today he was actually smiling and running around. Even though it was such a crazy experience I am so grateful we live so close to such an amazing place like Primary Children where doctors are experts in treating children. We knew we were in good hands. Being in a place like that sure gives you an appreciation for healthy children. There were many there who weren't given good news. My heart aches for them.

Here's a picture of his left ear sticking out.

His ear from behind

In the hallway getting the IV antibiotics.

The IV

They drew this marking so we would know if the infection was spreading. This is the morning after. There was already an improvement.

Now we can relax and wait for the bills to come rolling in. O wells, you can't put a price on your child's health.