It's amazing how much has happened in the last month. Saying that, I'm so aware of how much more could have
happened, and I'm counting every blessing. But here's a recap just for memory sake!
- About 3 weeks ago, Ben got really sick with some sort of a virus. He only threw up once, but then he wouldn't eat for about a week. With him being so small already, that completely stressed his mother out!
- In the midst of Ben being sick, I myself started feeling bad. I was nauseous, very hormonal, and had serious stomach cramping. For a second there I panicked and thought I might be pregnant! Don't worry! It was a false alarm, but it definitely added the number of gray hairs on my head.
- Finally, to top it all off, last Tuesday night, Hector started complaining about a headache. I didn't think much about it because he gets headaches pretty regularly. The next morning at 5:20AM he woke me up complaining of an excruciating headache. He said the pain was unbearable. Then he started throwing up. We tried to give him pain medicine and nausea medicine but he couldn't keep them down, and when he finally did, they didn't do anything for the pain or nausea. Finally we decided to go to the ER. Little did we know the average wait time was 6 hours! I've never seen the ER that packed. Just our luck. Hector stayed in his wheel chair and I stood up as much as I could holding his head in my hands because it provided a little relief.
After 5 hours, an iv and a ct scan, we finally got back to a room. Why they put an IV in 3 hours before they give you any medicine beats me! Actually it made me mad. Everyone we saw along the way kept talking about migraines. And I knew, and Angela knew, this was not a migraine. At least not like anyone anyone we know has experienced before. When I would tell the nurses that, they would say, "every migraine is different". Anyway, he finally got a little relief, but he should have gotten complete relief. So they decided to do a spinal tap. The doctor said it came back clear so they were going to send us home. I about flipped! I asked Hector what his pain level still was. He said a 7. I said to the doctor, "Your going to send him home with a 7 pain level on major drugs with no idea what he has." I kid you not, his response, "OK, I'll admit him". I couldn't beleive it. It was like he knew Hector needed to stay but decided to see if we'd just leave. Unbelievable.
Finally after being in the ER for 12 hours, we arrived in a room. It took another 12 hours to get his pain under control. When they did, he was basically unconscious. He slept probably 20 hours a day for the next two days. When he would wake up, if the medicine was anywhere close to due, he would be hurting again. Over the course of Thursday and Friday, our doctor, Dr. Greco, who was awesome, called in a neurologist and an infectious disease specialist who ran about every test on him, including an MRI. All of the tests came back clear. They finally decided it was a migraine induced by viral meningitis. Can you beleive it? One is bad enough, but both! That explains the pain. Meningitis causes severe heachaches as well.
On Saturday night, the neurologist took him off all of his pain medicine, which totally freaked me out. He ordered this migrain medicine called DHE instead... with no back up pain meds just in case. I pitched a fit, the nurse called the doctor, but the doctor assured us that if it didn't work, they would change plans during the night. Well, my fit was for nothing. The medicine worked like a charm. They gave it to him about 11PM (two hours late of course) and it ran for an hour. Hector fell asleep which i saw as a very good sign b/c he had been really hurting without the pain meds (which he hadn't had for the last 9 hours!) He woke up at 2AM and I asked him about his pain level. For the first time, it was a 1 and he was awake! He actually decided to watch some TV.
The next day, doctor Greco came in and told us that the final test they ran (a specialty test that had to be sent off) came back positive for enterovirus in his spinal fluid, confirming the viral meningitis. Over the next 2 days Hector progressed incredibly. They had to put a PIC line in because of how many different medicines they were pumping into him just in case it was bacterial meningitis (it took 3 days to confirm for sure that it wasn't. ) His veins couldn't take the medicine anymore. That was a process I was glad I missed! A catheter to the heart? Hmm.. not for me. And he only had it in for one day. Why they didn't do that at the beginning, I don't know!
Even though he was feeling physically better, Hector really missed Ben, and Ben was definitely wondering where the heck his daddy was, so on Sunday we brought Ben up to see him in the waiting room. It made his day and helped him survive the rest of his hospital stay. Monday he got to come home, after 5 nights in the hospital. He went back to school on Thursday. He's doing great, but his mind is still a little groggy, probably from the massive pain meds they were giving him. Anyway, we're thankful he's home and ok. And we appreciate Aunt Angie, Sassy, Abuelita, and everyone else who stepped up to help with Ben. Did I mention Mom and Dad happened to be in NYC during this! Talk about timing. But everything worked out just fine. Thank you Lord that it was viral and not bacterial!
