More hospital visits

but first I should tell you all that we had a wonderful visit with Mom last weekend. We even ended up with 2 mom's here since Mark's mom wanted to surprise him for his birthday and came to visit for the weekend. The kids loved having 2 grammas here for the weekend. Saturday evening, we went out to Berlin Raceway in Marne and watched some school bus races. There were other super stock races too but the highlight that took us there that night was the school bus races. It was really fun to watch. I think Mom took some pics and if she sends them to me, I'll try to post them. In a way, I guess you could say we had Mother's Day a week early. Of course, then we didn't bother with much of one this weekend and here's why:
Friday about dinner time, Joshua started complaining of a headache. When it didn't settle down shortly, I gave him some tylenol. He sort of laid around a bit Friday evening but we were all watching a video so it didn't seem strange. Then at bedtime, he complained more. I gave him some motrin and put him to bed. He was still crying almost an hour later that his head hurt so I took him to the ER. It was busy there so it took 4 hours for them to say he was simply dehydrated and send us home. We slept downstairs the rest of the night and I pushed him to drink every time he stirred. Saturday, he seemed to be improving so we thought they might have been right. Then around 1 p.m. he started having a fever and it went over 103 very quickly. While I was waiting for phone calls from the nurse at our dr.'s office, he vomited and that made up our minds that we were headed back to the ER which we did around 2. This time they did a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) and determined it was meningitis. All signs were pointing at viral (aseptic) meningitis but the cultures to determine that for sure take 48 hours to develop. As a precaution, they admitted him (us) and started him on IV antibiotics. They were also able to give him better pain medication to keep the headaches and fever under control.
The plans for Saturday had included a Gaither Homecoming concert that Mark's Mom had gotten us 4 tickets to. We felt Joshua too young to go but knew the other 2 would really enjoy it. When Joshua became sick and had to be admitted, we didn't want the tickets to go to waste. Mark took Rachel, Stephen, and a good friend from church to the concert. They did really enjoy it! Rachel was able to meet and get autographs from 4 Signature Sound members (only not meeting Ernie Haase). Stephen was also excited that he got to meet Ben Speer. They all stopped by the hospital to see Joshua and I afterwards. They even brought Joshua 2 Gaither's Pond DVD's.
Sunday, Mark took Rachel & Stephen to church before coming to spend the afternoon at the hospital. He brought me up clean clothes and other items I needed to spend another day & night at the hospital. They also brought my mother's day presents including a painted flower pot that Joshua made at school and had a flower planted in. He was really glad about that because he was upset thinking he wouldn't get to give it to me on Mother's Day. This was the first year that I can remember in the 12 years of being a mom that I didn't get a picture of the family done at church so that was a bit disappointing but Mark asked the photographer to bring her camera next weekend to get one for us.
Mark & I had to go over what needed done to be ready for the week and I sent them home mid-afternoon to work on some things before evening service. They came back for a visit afterwards and then one of our pastors came too. It turned out to be a second late night for Rachel & Stephen.
Yesterday, we had to wait for the results of the tests to come back at 4:30 before we could be released but as soon as they came I was ready to go. Mark and the kids came and got us and then we had to grab a quick dinner and I took Rachel and Stephen out to watch Stephen's spring program for school. Mark had some other things to do at home so he took his turn staying with Joshua who actually fell asleep on the couch as soon as we got home from the hospital and slept till 10:30 last night.
Stephen was really dragging after his concert and complaining of a headache. We had to stop by the store and get some stuff before coming home and he just was wiped out. By the time we did get home, he had a fever and said that it hurt to put his head to his chest (oh, boy, here we go again). I called the dr. afterhour care for advice and they said that he needed to be seen so back to the ER we went at 11:00 last night. It took till 1:30 for them to tell us that they thought it was just a virus and not the meningitis that Joshua had. My main concern was pain management and had been hoping that they wouldn't hospitalize him even if it was meningitis since Joshua's was not bacterial anyway.
So today I am home with both boys. Joshua is doing rather well, still some headache though. Stephen is rather miserable. He has been sneezing for over an hour straight. He has taken a claritin but it is slow in taking effect. He doesn't have a fever at this point yet but it is early in the day. We will have to see how he does at night. I did get a list of just how much of both tylenol and ibuprofen he can take at a time to help him with that. I'm even keeping a list of exactly who is taking what medicine when because keeping it straight for 2 is hard enough when you are thinking clearly but I am basically on fumes today with lack of sleep. Mark is too but he gets to go through it at work. Sometimes I think that would be easier because around here I have chairs and beds that would be so easy to curl up in but he doesn't and also has people needing his input and needing him to keep on tasks.
I just keep thanking God for his timing in all this. If this had happened a week earlier, Mark would have been out of town, Mom would have been here (she doesn't need exposed to viruses), Joshua would have missed Awana awards, and I had to spend a lot of time the first part of last week putting together the picnic for the last night of Awana and would have not been able to do.
We basically have a couple of down days right now anyway and the next big thing is Thursday. Rachel & I are going to Mackinac Island with the other 6th graders from school. Well, Mark has requested the day off so he will be here with any boys not able to go to school. If they both make it, he then has lunch duty and carpooling to deal with as well as a kindergarten ice cream social in the evening. Our biggest question there is getting Rachel & I back and forth to/from school at strange times but there are others that live nearby that can probably help.
Needing help with transportation should tell you that the van is down again. It worked for all of a day before having more trouble with getting fuel and for some reason (I wonder why...haha) we haven't had time to look into it.
So that has been our weekend around here. The picture of Rachel as Carrier of the Month finally came out in the Advance last week. We thought she was getting it for April but I guess it was for May. I'm going to try and get it scanned in later and posted but will have to get some other things caught up around here first.