Wednesday morning, July 16th came with the busyness of Christina and I trying to get everything together to leave for Las Vegas to attend The Little Gym Reunion, an annual gathering of owners of The Little Gym franchises from all over the country. That morning Matthew woke up with a funny rash on his hands, feet and some other joints. It wasn't itchy and didn't seem to bother him, so we decided to go ahead with our plans. We scheduled a doctor's appointment later that day that Grandma Jorg would be able to take him to.
The rash seemed to be the result of a virus that he contracted which would take a couple of days to get over. So Grandma took him home and took good care of him. Over the next three days Matthew ran a moderate fever of 100-101 degrees and had a few stomach issues, but all in all was in good spirits and was a pretty easy kid for being sick.
We returned home on Saturday July 19th and Matthew was still running his fever. On Sunday afternoon things changed and Matthews fever began to really spike. With a fever over 104 and very achy muscles, Christina loaded Matthew in the car and headed for the Emergency room. After a couple hours of waiting the doctors informed here that there was a virus like this that was going around and that he should get over it within a week. Keep him comfortable and treat the fever with ibuprofen.
By Thursday, July 24th, the fever was still hitting 104-105 every day and Matthew was still getting a very stiff and achy back. Christina took him to his Pediatrician that day and his Dr. decided to have him admitted to the hospital. The doctor was concerned about the possibility of meningitis because of his back and shoulder aches and high fevers. A lumbar puncture (spinal tap) was scheduled for that evening.
Matthew was hooked up to an I.V. and had some prelimenary blood work done. The L.P. was a scary procedure for him and us, but he made it through like a champ and the results came back very clear. There was no virus or bacteria in his spinal column. A battery of other blood tests were performed over the next few days and nothing was found except that his iron counts were a little low (the result of 6 major blood draws in five days perhaps?)
The first day Matthew spent in isolation because of the fear that he was dealing with a virus that is contagious. During this time he watched lots of tv and played with all the new toys he was getting from his visitors. After he was taken out of isolation he liked spending time on the hospital playground or taking a walk to the cafeteria, but even these short spurts of activity would wipe him out very quickly.
On Saturday, July 26th, Matthew was released from the hospital to go home. He was still running the fever at 104 to 105 for a few hours each day. He had been seen by his pediatrician sevreal times while in the hospital, along with the pediatric resident and a contagious disease specialist from the University of Arizona. Upon his release he would be subject to a few more blood tests and was being reffered to a rheumatologist to determine whether or not what he was dealing with could be Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. More on this later.
1 comment:
Hi Dave and Christina: thanks for this summary, it helps to know "the whole picture." I know God is in control, but at times like this its hard to keep that in perspective. I think God must have some wonderful plans for Matthew, as he's been through more suffering at his age than most kids in their entire growing-up! We are praying for you.
--Phil and Polly
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