...the hospital. Yes, Eli's inpatient at Peyton Manning Children's Hospital in Indy and we will be here the rest of 2013. It's more fun to say that today than when we "jokingly" said it in the spring. If you follow Eli on Facebook, you probably know we asked for prayers Monday morning. Since then there have been very little updates because I didn't have a computer. So, sorry for the delay. Why is he hospitalized? Let me back up to Christmas.
Eli woke up vomiting Christmas morning. After about four hours he seemed better, but kind of weak. That didn't concern us because he hadn't eaten anything. As the morning went on, he was better and wanted to go to Mamaw and Papaw's for Christmas Day. We decided to take him because he was doing better and we wanted our family to be together for Christmas. Besides, if he started feeling poorly again we could just leave. As the day went on he did great. He ate well, but what we thought was weakness that morning was actually a limp. We checked his foot, ankle, leg and knee but nothing seemed to hurt him. There was little if any swelling and no bruising. We just kept an eye on it and let him play.
The next day, he seemed fine health-wise, but was still limping. By the end of the day he was barely putting weight on his foot. When he did walk, he would turn his foot so he was walking on the outside of it. It was painful to watch. We gave him ibuprofen to see if that would help lessen the pain and allow him to walk better, but it didn't seem to help. He never complained of any pain even when we asked him. We opted to take him to the ER that night to get xrays. We had to wait over two hours in the waiting room (which was kind of a treat for us because that meant we weren't the most emergent case there! We don't want to make a habit of it, but it was nice for once). The xrays were negative for any fractures so we just figured he sprained something.
Throughout Friday and Saturday he was still limping, but he played with his new toys, ate well, and was generally in a good mood. Sunday morning he woke up crying at 4am. He was running a temperature of nearly 102. One dose of ibuprofen resolved that and he had a good day until the evening. After supper, he started coughing, had a runny nose, was getting feverish again, and just generally didn't feel well. He was either extremely fussy or just lethargic. Again one dose of ibuprofen broke his fever, but his oxygen saturations weren't as high as they normally are when he sleeps (usually 95% or above but that night was hovering around 90%).
When Monday morning arrived, we were in contact with Dr. Amy (our family doctor) who wanted to see him as soon as she could and to work on getting an orthopaedic referral for the same day. Dr. Amy agreed that Eli just looked "off" and didn't find a real reason for it because his nose, throat, etc all looked good. He wanted to ensure we knew he didn't feel well, so he threw up in her exam room. Her exam of his foot was better than she expected although he still didn't want to put weight on it. Her office got us an appointment with a pediatric orthopaedic group at St. Vincent's for 3pm. It was noon. I called Bryan and he started packing for us. Eli & I arrived home and Bryan left to go to our local hospital so we could take copies of those xrays with us. In the meantime I finished packing and we were on the road within 20 minutes of leaving Dr. Amy's! I did have to stop for some gas but we made it by 3:15 and we made it safely! We decided that just Eli and I would go for now while Bryan took care of things at home with Z until we knew more.
Our appointment was with Dr. Jonathan Wilhite. He was very interested in Eli's history of staph aureus and how he presented in the office. Eli still wasn't putting any weight on his right foot and he also still had a cough and just looked/acted like he didn't feel well. The good news from Dr. Wilhite was that he didn't suspect any joint infection, septic joint, or osteomyelitis. Any of those could explain the foot pain and Eli's other symptoms. His thinks Eli has a hairline fracture in his foot that wasn't showing up on xray. He was fitted for a boot and we were told these usually resolve on thier own within a couple weeks. The boot is merely for Eli's comfort and stability so we don't have to make him wear it if he has a huge fit about it. That is the good news from Dr. Wilhite. However, he did think Eli needed evaluated by one of the hospitalists to rule out any possible infection elsewhere because of how sick he was. Eli was directly admitted to PMCH from Dr. Wilhite's office.
By the time we finished the appointment and got up to the floor it was almost 6pm. Throughout the evening he was evaluated by two doctors, had a chest xray, had blood work drawn for labs and blood cultures, and got to visit one of his aunts who brought me Fazoli's for supper. Eli slept pretty well and seemed better this morning. His oxygen levels were higher through the night and he didn't have any fevers. Today (Tuesday, New Year's Eve) has been a day of waiting. We're waiting to see what the blood cultures drawn last night show us. The earliest we'd know is late tonight. Eli's other lab work showed that he had higher than normal white blood cell count and CRP, both are indicators of infection present in the body. It could be his body's reaction to the hairline fracture, or it could be something else. His chest xray came back looking the same as his last one done in early November so there's nothing new to worry about there.
Overall he's acting like he feels better today although he still has a cough, runny nose and tires easily. The highest temperature he's had today has been 99.1. Early in the day we made two trips to the play room, but now he's in isolation so his activities are limited to the room now. The reason for isolation isn't because they're afraid of him spreading germs, but because they don't want to risk him picking up getting sick/sicker from other germs he could come in contact with. So that means no more play room. We can possibly walk the halls if he wears a mask, but for now we'll just hang in our cool Peyton room (yes, kiddo lucked out again and has another Peyton room). Daddy arrived just minutes after Eli woke from a nap so that has made his afternoon much happier.
The plan for tomorrow (New Year's Day) is to hang out some more and wait for lab results. The earliest we could be discharged would be that afternoon, but it's also possible we could be here for more days. For now we'll just take it day by day!
Thank you for your prayers this time around and throughout this entire, stressful year. Your support means so much to us and we are incredibly grateful for each of you. We hope you have a blessed and safe New Year!
Much love,
the Veales
