Dear BOTL:
My beautiful wife gave birth to our third child, a handsome 8 pound 11 oz boy on 8/11. Few days later we were back home and thoroughly enjoying our time together as a family.
On Wednesday morning my wife starts saying how the baby seems tired. He stopped feeding shortly after that and was just not acting like himself (up until that point he had been our easiest baby in terms of feeding, disposition). Few hours pass, no change. He then starts to feel hot, but doesn't seem to have a fever.
My wife, God bless her, is insistent that something is wrong. Mind you we had just been to the pediatrician the day before and he appeared perfectly healthy. So she calls the doctors office and after dealing with several nurses who thought she was just an overly anxious parent, the doc got on the phone and agreed to see him right away just to make sure he was ok.
Upon examining my son the doc agrees he's concerned too and says he'd like us to consider going to the hospital to have some tests done. Before leaving he checks my sons temp again and he now has a fever....
Several hours later the ER docs sit down with my wife and I and explain that my son has bacterial meningitis and will have to stay in the hospital for several weeks to receive a slew of antibiotics.
It's been almost a week since then. My son has been further diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bacterial meningitis. As there's only ever been a handful of cases in infants, they're not sure about a lot of things (how he got it, if it is contagious, etc). However, the doctors / nurses we've met all seem confident that at the end of this roller coaster, my son will hopefully be completely cured and healthy.
Tonight has been especially difficult as they're running out of sites to stick IV's in my son and he had to be transported to another hospital in Philly to receive a PICC line (apparently it's an IV that is snaked through his body to be more secure and efficient with less chance of infection). He is going to have to go under general anesthesia tomorrow morning to have the line put in. We're told that if this procedure goes well he should be ok from here on out. On a positive note, his fevers have finally stopped (knock on wood) and he seems to be responding to the meds....watching your newborn deal with fevers of 103 and 104 degrees is not fun to say the least.
Any how, sorry for the long rant. I'm just stressed out and trying to juggle too many things at once I guess. My wife has been with him the whole time because he's breastfed -not to mention an army couldn't move her from his side! In the meantime I'm taking care of my 5 and 3 year old at night and at the hospital with my wife and son during the day.
If anyone who reads this wouldn't mind saying a prayer of sending some positive vibes our way, my family and I would greatly appreciate it. I can't stop thinking of how bad this could've been had my wife not been so insistent that something was wrong. It was very subtle and I can see how a lot of kids end up getting very sick, or worse, from this horrible infection. Again thanks for letting me vent, this was definitely needed.
Sincerely,
Justin
