Cade Sick

I don't even know where to start with this one....we have had sickness around this house since the beginning of January, but this past week was the worst of it.

So last weekend we had planned a family trip to Blue Ridge. Because of the crazy snow storm we were not able to get to our cabin and therefore had to come back home. (long story that I might get to in another post) As frustrating as it was, God always knows what he is up to and it ended up being a good thing we came home. We started noticing on Sunday that Cade was going downhill quickly. What had been a nasty cough for almost 2 weeks turned into labored breathing and lethargy. We decided we were definitely going to take him to the doc first thing Monday morning....we didn't make it to Monday. After he woke up from his nap on Sunday, and I could tell it was taking a lot of effort for him to breath, I took him straight to Children's Healthcare. (I feel like pretty soon these people are going to know my name and greet me when I walk in the door) Although the wait time said 2.5 hours they always triage you right when you come in to make sure it isn't urgent. Needless to say we didn't wait even 10 minutes. When the nurse took us back and weighed Cade, he had lost a couple of pounds and he can't really afford to lose any weight! Then she put the little clip on his finger to test his oxygen level....she couldn't get it past 90 and it should be at 100. I began to grow very nervous at this point. The nurse became very concerned and said we had to get in a room immediately and start a breathing treatment or oxygen. My heart is pounding out of my chest....why didn't I bring him earlier...how long has he had trouble breathing...I am such a terrible mother...how could I not know this.....is he going to be okay.....what is going to happen..... My mind was racing!! Then before they could even get him on oxygen he started throwing up. Now I am really freaking out!!! I am shaking, have sweat dripping down my shirt and hives from my chest up! After a breathing treatment and an xray, they couldn't get his oxygen level up so they put him on oxygen and said he had to be immediately transported to Scottish Rite. I had held back my tears to this point, but then the nurse looked at me and said "Are you okay? You are covered in hives." I then began crying and tried to explain that my body always reacts that way to high emotion situations and I just wanted to know that my son was going to be okay. After the doc came in and told me he was going to be fine we just had to get this under control, I got myself together. So Cade and I had our first experience together in an Ambulance. Cade did so good and was so brave but he did not want them to beep the loud siren! The story just gets better from here....We got to Scottish Rite and after sitting in the ER on oxygen, they said they still couldn't get his oxygen levels up so he needed to be admitted and we would probably be there 2-3 days. I just had no idea that pneumonia could hit you this hard, but it definitely did!! While in the hospital Cade did so good. He had to be on oxygen for 24+ hours and had to get an IV to take blood and put meds through. They also had to constantly monitor his oxygen levels, so he had wires everywhere! He was such a good patient though...he did get to sit and watch TV 24/7!! After 3 very, very long nights in the hospital we got to go home.

I obviously didn't have my camera with me, but I took some pics with our laptop.

This was just after they had taken all of the wires off except for his IV.

blowing bubbles with Daddy (this was part of his physical therapy) He always came to life when Daddy got there! Joe informed me that Cade is now a daddy's boy...he use to be a mommy's boy. That's okay though, it was so cool to see him get so excited when his daddy got there!

Finally feeling better and being silly :)

He became very weak through this whole process, so by the last day we were really trying to get him out of bed and walking. He hardly had strength to stand at first and had trouble keeping his balance, but after a few walks he was doing better. He had to wear this mask when he left his room.

Since we've been home, Cade has made great progress!!! He is finally getting back some energy and not sleeping as much. We are slowly getting our old Cade back and I am so glad. I never knew how much I just wanted to hear that little voice say "momma." He was so weak and lethargic at the hospital that he literally didn't talk for 2 days. Thank you God for healing my baby! What a scary experience and I am just so glad he is okay! Here are a few pics of him resting at home...so good to be home!!!

I don't know who missed Cade more while he was gone, Luke or Daisy...

As for Luke...he is still Luke...and I missed him terribly while I was gone!!! He got SPOILED ROTTEN while we are in the hospital and we are paying for it now!!! :) He missed Cade so much while he was gone. The first night Cade was away Luke could not get to sleep. My mom finally asked him what was wrong and if he missed his "bubba". Once she said that, she said he just crumbled in her arms crying that he missed his "bubba"!! So sad, but I am glad to see they really love each other!! I talked to Luke many times at the hospital and he always asked if he could talk to Cade. Finally by Tuesday Cade was starting to talk again and he got on the phone and talked to Luke. It was so sweet and Luke was so excited just to hear his voice!! When we got home they just hugged on each other. I love these boys and I am so glad they have each other!!

This week was so hard and we couldn't have done it without the help of our family and friends. I feel so blessed to have family and close friends that love us and would do anything to help us. We feel very loved and it is a good feeling!

Now that we are home Joe has been sick and running a fever and I haven't felt so good either. Lord, please just give us all good health...I don't know that I can take much more...

**Update**

We went to the doctor today for a follow-up visit for Luke, and I just thought I would update everyone on how he is doing.  The doctor gave us a great report and said he obviously is looking much better, but his lungs sound much clearer as well.  The official radiology report came back about the xray of his lungs and it said he had pneumonia....glad we went ahead and started the antibiotics!  His body is clear of most of the hives except for a little on his legs.  We can actually go out in public without scaring people, yeah!!!  We talked some more about what might have made the hives appear and she said it could be a number of things with one of those things possibly being an allergic reaction to motrin.  The weekend before all of this happened he had a bad virus and high fever for 3 days so he got quite a bit of motrin.  The doctor said there is no way to tell for sure unless we give him motrin again and see how he responds (not my favorite idea) or we can run a test on him to see if he is allergic.  I plan on having them run the test when we go back for his 3 yr. well check.  Until then, we will just stay away from motrin!!  So....all and all....his body is doing great!!!  Now....his attitude....a different story!!!

I don't know if it is just the age or from being sick and getting away with a little more than usual, but he is giving me all kinds of grief!!  The second he doesn't get his way, about anything, he throws a HUGE fit.  One of many examples....he sat in time out yesterday screaming for an entire hour, before he would say "I'm sorry" to his brother for biting him.  We are back in a biting phase!   He is so strong willed and stubborn.  I have no idea where he got that from.....

I could go on and on with examples, but lets just say...please pray for my patience and pray for his attitude!!!!

What a Week!!

What started out like this....

A really bad cough and fever...

turned into this today!!!

So.....last weekend Luke started having a really bad cough and ran a fever all weekend.  We called the 24 hr nurse line and talked to them a couple times throughout the weekend to make sure we didn't need to take him in to be seen.  After talking through all of the symptoms, they said it sounded like he had croup and it would just kind of run its course and then be through....so that is what we thought it would do.....

By Monday he no longer had a fever, but still had a bad cough.  The nurse had said his barky, dry cough would eventually turn into a more congested cough and that is what happened so we thought he was getting better.

Throughout the week, Luke was still a little irritable but seemed to be getting better.  So we had a full weekend planned out and we had the boys running all weekend.  We spent the entire day in Atlanta Saturday for tailgating and then went to the Tech game that night. ( I will post pics of this later) Luke was ROUGH all day!! I was so frustrated because I didn't know why he was acting so irritable.  It got so bad that I had to leave the game early and take the boys back to the RV.  I just assumed Luke was tired and having a bad day.....

Sunday we woke up and decided just to take it easy since we had had such a long weekend.  By lunch time, Luke all of a sudden started breaking out into welps and hives all over his body. We again talked to the nurse and they said to give him benadryl and he would probably be fine....Well he wasn't.  He woke up this morning covered in hives....it was a VERY scary sight.  His face and hands were swollen and his whole body was red with welps.  Throughout my shaking and crying, I got an appt. and the Dr. saw him at 9:30 this morning.  2 hours later and I was told my baby had bronchitis or early pneumonia and the hives were a reaction to the viral infection he must have had the weekend before.  So they gave him a steroid shot and 2 medications...1 for the bronchitis and 1 for the hives rash.  Wow, I was not expecting all of that!! The Dr. said the rash could last for 2-4 weeks.....this is going to be a long month!!!  Hopefully all of this medicine kicks in soon and he will be looking and feeling better!!

(these pictures were a couple of hours after the steroid shot, he is already looking a little better!)

Isn't that pitiful!!

I was finally getting a little smile from him before naptime.....

Thank goodness Cade has not gotten sick through all of this and we will just pray that he doesn't!! For now, he is just being a very concerned brother. :)