let's start at the very beginning...

I wish that the thing that was bringing me back to my neglected blog was the fun times we had over the holidays! We had a great Christmas and Dean was so fun this year, as he now finally understands the Christmas and Santa Claus concept! But our real adventure started Christmas day with a trip to urgent care for Dean's ears. He had a terrible ear infection and came out with a prescription for Amoxicillin. Fast forward 8 days and Dean wakes up itching himself all over. At first, I thought the little spots were Chicken Pox (just my luck, right?!) but then they progressively got worse. I wanted to wait to take him to the doctor since our old insurance ended January 1 and our new insurance started January 4 (at this point, it was January 3), but the spots were so bad and so itchy that I ended up taking Dean into the doctor anyway.

Remember the movie Hitch with Will Smith? That's what Dean's ear and hand looked like: one big swollen hive. I was totally freaked out, but the doctor decided that Dean was allergic to Amoxicillin and gave him some steroids that began to work very quickly.

Two days later, Dean had been playing in the backyard and he came inside and said that his knee hurt and he couldn't walk. He wasn't crying and kept changing his story so I wasn't sure if he fell or what. I figured he had popped his knee out so we took him to the myropracter right away to get him checked out. By this time, Dean couldn't be moved from one position and was peeing involuntarily. The myro said that his hip and pelvis and knee were all messed up and to take him to the ER right away to make sure there was no fracture.

We spent several hours at Banner Gateway, and even though his x-rays came back fine, Dean still couldn't walk. We ended up getting transferred to Cardon's Children and were admitted there.

Dean got his blood taken and had an IV inserted. By the time we got to our room it was about 2 am and Hudson and I were worried sick. There were a couple options of what Dean could have, but his symptoms and blood work were all telling a different story. Worst case scenario, he could have a septic hip (which is basically a nasty bacterial infection in the hip that would require surgery to remove all the fluid) or toxic synovitis which is a non-bacterial infection that sometimes settles in the hip joint. We were told that Dean would have to get an MRI in order to know for sure what we were dealing with.

The doctors decided (for whatever reason) that they did not want to sedate D for the MRI. This was very worrisome because if he freaked out we would have to come back and have him fast for 6 hours and then get another MRI appointment. This would set the whole process back almost a day. Amazingly, through many many prayers, Dean did awesome in the MRI. I told him it was a rocket ship and he thought he was going on a "mission to mars." Cute kid kept his sweet personality through the whole thing. He loved all the attention and I'm pretty sure he was all the nurses' favorite kid.

Once he was done with the MRI he miraculously started walking again! Very slowly, and with a limp, but we were ecstatic. We finally got the results of his tests back that evening and were able to go home because there was no sign of a bacterial infection!

The past week since we have been home has been an adjustment because there are still days when Dean wakes up and can't walk or is in a lot of pain. We still don't know if the hives and the infection were connected in some way or if he really is allergic to amoxicillin. We have also been doing blood work once a week to see if his levels have changed at all.

This whole experience has opened my eyes. Having a sick baby is terrifying and overwhelming; and we didn't even have to be in the hospital for that long! I have a newfound sympathy and respect for those whose children are chronically ill because feeling hopeless and not having answers is one of the scariest things I have ever been through. I hope I can be as good of a friend to those people as my friends have been to me through all this! Also, prayers work miracles!