A Trip to the Emergency Department

Today Alex, Tessa and I went for a walk - OK - I walked, they were riding in the Red Waggon I was pulling up and down the hills of our neighborhood. We did a little shopping, and had lunch. It was a nice day - and both of the kids napped in the afternoon, which was nice! (My legs were killing me, after pulling 60+ lbs up the hill to our house)

When Eric got home, and woke Alex up, he noticed Alex felt warm. We took a temperature, and sure enough, he had a fever of 99.4. We waited 15 minutes, and took it again - this time it was 99.8. We ate a quick meal of spaghetti, and took his temperature again, and it hit the magic number 100.4. I called Doerenbecher, and they said to bring him in. We packed up some clothes, and Tessa, and headed over to my mom's house so they could watch Tessa while we went to the ED.

Alex was *not* happy about this - who can blame him!. We literally walked right in, gave our name, and as quickly as they could get a wrist band on him, we were ushered into a room. There was a swarm of nurses ready to access his Port (I'm glad we thought to put the numbing cream on before we left). They all commented on how good he was while they were working on him - he's so brave!

Then, we waited to find out the counts - if they were low, he would get admitted. About 45 minutes later, our favorite ED doctor informed us that his counts were at 6700 - excellent counts. His body was effectively fighting off whatever he had. Over the next 30 minutes, he received some antibiotics, and some Tylenol. The, the nurses deactivated his Port. We had a quick scare that they would keep us longer, when his vitals were checked one more time, and his temperature was up to 101.6. The doctor said not to worry - with his counts being so high - he was safe to go home. Whew!

We have to watch his temperature tomorrow, and if it doesn't come down, we may have to go back again (I really hope not), and get his counts checked again - they can plummet at any time.

But for now, we are home, Alex is asleep in his own bed, and we'll pick up sweet Tessa-Lynn in the morning.

We are so amazed at how streamlined everything is at Doerenbecher. We really feel that we are cared about here - we are not just a number. Our great doctor in the ED said he was actually talking about Alex today (one of his interns was actually doing a rotation in sedation, and watched Alex's procedure yesterday). We are in the best possible hands here, and our Alex is going to make a full recovery with the help of all of the great people surrounding us right now.

It's good to be home...good night!