Tyson in the Hospital

 

Three weeks ago Tyson had a high fever all week and wasn't getting better. It got up to 104.5 and wasn't come down. It was lasting the whole week and he just didn't seem himself.  I had called our pediatrician and finally got in on Thursday. It was actually the nurse practitioner which I'm not a fan of but she thought maybe his ears were a little red but that might be because of the high fever. She was just trying to give us a prescription for amoxicillin and get us to leave.  Well I wasn't satisfied and something in my mommy instincts said that wasn't right. So I started crying because I was scared and frustrated. She then proceeded to say we could order some blood work on him if that would make me feel better. I agreed and we did it after we left. They called that afternoon and said his levels were a little alarming and we needed to repeat it in the morning at Cook children's hospital. We were supposed to be leaving town that morning to FL with my family for the week so we were just going to stop by and do blood work on our way out of town. He actually seemed better on Friday and for the first day was fever free.  We did the blood work and by the time we were half way through Lousiana they called with results. It was one of the worst phone calls that I'll probably remember forever..... they basically said his neutrophils (white blood cells that fight infections) were very low and he could have either a bad virus, lymphoma, or leukemia. They told us to turn around immediately and they'd be waiting for us at the hospital. So we did. Scary and long ride back to Fort Worth.  When we got there we had to go through the ER.  He was admitted and we were told they didn't see any cancer cells in his blood but his levels were so low he needed to be hospitalized.  This is him in the ER.... 

 It was a hard few days.  The first night was the worst and I think one of the worst nights of my life.  He was so so exhausted.  We finally got him in bed and settled down around 11 and the nurses came back in to give him something else in his iv.  When they cleared his iv line it had come loose.  It was devastating.  This was the first time that I learned of one negative with having a chubby baby.....getting an iv in them!  His little arms are so chubby they couldn't find his veins.  It had already taken them awhile in the ER with his first IV and now they had to redo it.  Thankfully Logan had stayed that night with us too.  They had to call a special team in that took forever to get there.  We were holding him down for what seemed hours.  He was so exhausted from screaming he eventually was falling asleep :(   They eventually put it in his foot which made moving around a little difficult.  He is a VERY active boy even when he is sick!  You'll notice by the pictures they brought us all kinds of toys to make it easier.  They took a big blood sample that first night too.  They checked for several viruses and rechecked his level.  Because they didn't know exactly what he had and his levels were so low we had to keep him in his room the entire time.  Everyone that came in had to wear a mask and he wasn't allowed to go down to the amazing playrooms they had in the hospital :(

We got the results from that nights blood test and all the levels had stayed the same.  So we knew we had to stay another night for sure. They repeated them on Sunday morning which we were hoping and praying they would've gone up.  The dr finally came in Sunday morning and gave us some hard news.  He said his levels actually dropped more which brought leukemia back in the picture. Not only were his neutrophils low but now his platelets had dropped significantly too.  The oncologist that we were seeing gave us 2 options... go home and come back Tuesday morning to retest and if lower then they'd do a bone marrow sample immediately or stay and do a bone marrow sample on Sunday. The bone marrow samples are very painful and he would have to be sedated so we chose to go home and come back Tuesday. So it was a long few days of waiting.  It was SO SO good to go home though.  He was acting happy and great at home.  He was SO happy to be in his own bed!!!! 

Mimi flew into town to be with us.  My parents had actually decided on Saturday (when we thought things were ok) to go ahead to Florida with the older two boys.  We were glad they were there so at least they could have fun and see the beach!! 

Basically we had all of our sweet friends from Boerne and all of our news friends here praying for Tyson.  We were just praying and asking the Lord to make those levels go up!  Tyson was acting so happy it was honestly hard to imagine that he could be so sick!  So Tuesday finally came and we went back and retested his blood levels and thankfully they started rising!  This was huge and got us in the clear for leukemia.  We were so so thankful that he is ok and we weren't facing the thought of our little boy having cancer.  The dr was glad that we had waited on the bone marrow sample too.  We were given the all clear and now we will go back again the first of August and do another blood test and check his levels again. His neutrophils were still low but they were rising which was the biggest thing. In the hospital his had gotten down to 70, normal is 1500 and on Tuesday his were at 260. The doctor really thought it was just a bad virus.  They tested 3 different ones in the hospital and all 3 were negative.  They obviously can't test for all the viruses so it was some kind of nasty one!!!   

So after we got that news we crazily decided to pack up and head on to Florida.  We knew we wanted to be with our family and even though we had missed part of the trip it was worth us to get Tyson to the beach to play after all of that.  So we loaded up, dropped Mimi at the airport to catch a flight home, and we headed to Florida.  We got there around 3 on Wednesday morning.  Tyson did amazing and slept great most of the drive.  For those of you that prayed for our little boy we are so grateful for you.  Looking back on it all it seems almost not real.  We were actually on the cancer floor at the children's hospital.  So we were seeing precious little bald headed kids that were fighting for their lives.  It definitely changes you when you see that and know that we could have been right there with them.  We met an amazing family that will forever be in my heart because of what they are facing with their little girl.  I was reminded over and over how this is not our home.  This is not how the Lord intended it to be but because of our sin there are many things that take place that we just can't make sense of.  But one day we will be healed and be with our Father in a home that will not be a place of brokenness.