A Scary May

May was consumed with Liam's hospitalization. It started out innocently enough. We had off from school on a Friday and he woke up not feeling well. On Saturday he was supposed to have three baseball games and a soccer game (yikes) but ended up skipping the soccer game. He played baseball on Sunday and then came home with a fever. He didn't go to school on Monday, and when we took him to the doctor on Tuesday, she told us it was a virus. He had been mainly complaining of headaches and had a pretty high fever, and then on Wednesday he started having sensitivity to light and neck pain. We called the doc and he said to come to the pediatrician first thing in the am if we didn't go to the ER overnight. We made it through the night, saw the pediatrician Thursday am, and he said I don't know what is wrong with this kid, but he is so sick and it is beyond our ability to treat him here. So off we went to Children's Hospital, where he was seen in the ER, although they too weren't sure what was wrong with him. This x-ray ended up getting him admitted.

His pneumonia was so dense that none of the doctors heard it when they listened to his lungs. It turned out to be a very rare and serious form of pneumonia called necrotizing pneumonia, although that wasn't identified until a few days into his hospitalization, when he started getting worse and worse. Essentially one third of his right lung had a necrosis filled with pneumonia fluid. His white blood cell count was through the roof, as was his CRP, the inflammation marker. He had test after test done and all in all spent two weeks in the hospital. It was a very scary time, in which he struggled to breathe, was in tremendous pain, and got much worse before he got better. None of the doctors on the respiratory floor had seen this type of pneumonia before, so Children's Infectious Disease doctors called the shots. That said, all of the doctors were wonderful. They listened to us and Liam, and they managed his pain as well as they could. The ID docs were exactly what we needed once they identified it as necrotizing pneumonia, and we are so grateful that he was in their care, because it avoided unnecessary surgeries and procedures. We essentially had to bide our time until lung healed itself.

Concerned siblings.

This was day two in the hospital, probably his best day.

Meanwhile, life went on for these two. They went to school.

And ran the High Plains Fun Run.

They played soccer and visited their brother.

Meanwhile, Liam played a LOT of Uno in the hospital.

We had to entertain these two when they visited.

But this guy kept getting worse. Here he is on his 10th birthday. His worst days were probably the 13th through the 15th. His blood-work got worse, and his clinical signs matched that. He had to be on more oxygen to breathe.

No one wants to celebrate their birthday in the hospital, but the nurses and doctors were so wonderful and made it special for him.

Meanwhile, Field Day happened at High Plains.

Liam played with the multitude of gifts he was given. That was the amazing thing in this scary time. People were so concerned for Liam and our family. They were so generous and thoughtful. It was heart stopping to be on the receiving end of such kindness. We had so many visitors, received so many gifts and kind acts. Nana flew out to help, and Babcia and Grandpa were here whenever we needed them, Patrick would drop off a PlayStation for Liam and smuggle in a few beers for his parents, Liam's friend Tyler came to the hospital 3 different times. His soccer and baseball teams kept him entertained with videos and gifts. Other friends also visited him and us. Our neighborhood friends banded together for massive gift certificates. We were overwhelmed with the love and support we received.

Meanwhile, we took turns staying at the hospital and sneaking out for other things. Maggie was the cow in the Kindergarten production of Jack and the Beanstalk and she performed wonderfully.

 Finally, Liam started to feel better, thank God, and was able to move around the room!

 After so many years of donating to the Gabby Krause Foundation, it was special to be on the receiving end of a Bag of Fun.

He's off isolation! It was so nice to get to leave the room and walk around the hospital. Not to mention in his sweet new Croatia jersey from Uncle Patrick.

 And go outside!

 Last day.

 Breakout! Liam gets to go home!

 We filled two wagons of stuff with all of the gifts he received.

We are so glad to have Liam home!

Liam continued to be on antibiotics for a few weeks, and after that a chest x-ray identified the the pneumonia was gone but he has a large cavity in his lung where the necrosis had been. We'll follow up in 6 months to see where that stands. The pulmonologist also thinks the bacteria that caused the pneumonia was introduced when Liam was put under for his oral surgery, just really, really bad luck. We are so glad to put this behind us!

Finally, so videos of our cute cow: