Scary!

Life is so fragile. It can really be taken at any time. No one ever thinks it will happen to them!

We spend so much time worrying about and being frustrated by things that are utterly and totally meaningless!!

We had a small reminder of that the last few days. Sweet, sweet Caleb.

Friday night Caleb just stopped playing and just put his head on the table to rest. Chris went and got him ready for bed and noticed he had a fever. He complained that his head hurt. No alarms going off in my head yet.

Saturday the fever continued and by mid-afternoon he had a crazy crazy rash. It spread all over his body. He complained that his head hurt. Strange--but still no alarms going off for me. I was just wishing it wasn't the weekend!! Why oh why must they always get sick on the weekend when the doctor offices are closed?!?!

Sunday morning, he woke up and his rash and fever were gone. I questioned my decision to stay home from church. But Carson was running a fever and I had a cold myself. By early afternoon, Caleb's fever came back. And then the rash. In full force. Again, Caleb complained that his head hurt. I asked him to show me where and he pointed all over his head and his neck too. I thought maybe he had a sore throat or something. By early Sunday evening I was getting a bit worried. Chris walked in the door and took one look at Caleb and said we were going to the ER. I convinced him to slow down and call the free nurses hotline to see if we should really be worried. Haha. As soon as we were telling the nurse the symptoms over the phone, the alarm FINALLY went off in my head! Oh my gosh!! He is having head and neck pain!! And fever!!! HELLO?!?! The nurse kindly but emphatically said to get him to the hospital NOW! I tried to wake Caleb up as he had fallen asleep about an hour before. I tried to explain to him what we were doing but he really wouldn't wake up and was not very responsive which only added to my panic. Although I know he was somewhat with it because he later opened his eyes long enough to say, "No shots!!" and go back to his delirium. :)

If you ever want fast service at the ER, just drop the buzz words "head and neck pain" and "fever." Dang.

They ran a bunch of tests to try to rule out other things. All came back negative. He had to have a spinal tap to confirm what the doctor already heavily suspected--meningitis.

Funny side note--during the spinal tap Caleb had to be sedated. One of the monitors on Caleb's thumb had a red glowing light that as he was coming out of the sedation, he thought was pretty cool. Chris had a good ol' time with him. They had the same conversation over and over and over again. It was rather hilarious. "Caleb, your thumb is red (because of the light from the heart monitor on the end of his finger)." "Oh wow!!! Why does it do that? Wow!!" 10 second pause.... "Hey Caleb, your thumb is red...."

Another funny story--after Caleb finished the spinal tap and had come out of the sedation, they brought in a little bag with several little presents. He was so excited when he pulled out this little car and exclaimed, "It must be my lucky day!!!" Again, we found it hilarious. Perhaps the staff in the ER thought we were strange finding so many things hilarious. But anybody that can believe it to be their lucky day after going through all that craziness and still laying flat on their back in the ER recovering from a spinal tap is my little hero!! He is just such a sweet kid. He smiled through his whole hospital stay even though it was scary and new and crazy and painful.

The spinal tap results came back and confirmed that he had meningitis. Now to fully understand my mommy worry--the only thing I knew about meningitis was that it had taken an old friend of mine in her 20's who had been perfectly healthy just a day or so earlier. And that the ER doctor basically told us this is very serious. Yikes!

We quickly learned that we were hoping and praying for viral meningitis and not bacterial meningitis. Caleb was showing a few signs of both so it was impossible for the doctor to guess. Not that guessing matters except to put my mind at ease!! We had to wait for the cultures to come back. We would know preliminary news at 24 hours and definitive at 48 hours. Praying for viral. Praying for viral.... Bacterial is just straight up bad!!

The next day we found out it was viral meningitis. Serious...but not as serious as it could have been!!!

Bottom line...we were released from the hospital and are now at home dealing with it.

Caleb has been a trooper. He has had a lot of head, neck, back and stomach pain. Especially after he thinks he is feeling better and starts playing for awhile. I cannot stand to see him in pain...it just breaks my heart. So we have been watching a lot of tv and movies. Bleh. :) But Caleb is in heaven about that part. :) Caleb basically has zero immune system right now so we cannot go anywhere and have to be ultra careful about not having anyone sick come to see him. And yet, overall...I am just so happy that things are not worse than they are. My hope is that things just improve from here on out.

I brought Carson in yesterday because he too had been running a fever since Saturday. Just an ear infection. Phew! Never thought I would be so happy for an ear infection! :)

We are so thankful for priesthood blessings and the prayers of many and their healing power. We are so so thankful for such loving and supportive friends and family. We have learned so much about being charitable and giving service. It is just not possible to put into words the gratitude that I feel....

We are also thankful for lessons learned. Another life event that just has an amazing ability to zero in our focus on what is truly important in life.