Back in the Hospital

It turns out that I spoke too soon on Thursday morning when I said Jake was back to normal. Thursday morning we played and he was in great spirits until about 9:30 when he lay down on the couch and got really still. I let him watch an episode of "The Cat in the Hat" and then he still didn't get up so I felt of his forehead and he was suddenly very hot. His temp was 101 so I called the cardiologist and she called back within about 30 minutes and since he didn't have any others symptoms but a fever and was complaining of chest pains, she asked us to come to TCH immediately. She said I could either get there within the hour or she could call an ambulance. I quickly called my friend Claudia who met us to get Grace and we got there within an hour.

She had called ahead at the ER for us so we didn't have to wait but got a room immediately. A cardiologist came right in who coincidentally had seen Jake during surgery last month so she had a baseline to judge his heart murmur and EKG report. His temp got up to 102.5 under his arm and he was just exhausted so she ordered blood work and an xray. The xray was good--no fluid around his heart, but the blood work showed an increase in the white blood cell count which landed us here for the weekend. His fever spiked again Thursday night so they started him on two IV antibiotics and took a blood culture to the lab to watch for 48 hours. If it grows something then it is bacterial and we'll stay longer, but if it doesn't grow, it's viral and I think we can go home on Sunday. So far it looks viral, but his temperature continues to come up after the tylenol wears off each dose.

He's fairly mad about all of this and tell all of the nurses that he's really sad although right now he's happily watching Thomas and eating french fries :) Each dose of medicine is a battle, but other than that he's been such a trooper again. We're just down from our room after surgery and see all of the familiar faces again.

Poor Grace is being shipped around, but will stay with JoJo for the weekend so she'll like that. I'm so glad she's such an outgoing child who likes people :)

And I have to confess that I did not have a quiet and gentle spirit today (my favorite Bible verse from I Peter). There was a sign on the elevator that the Texans quarterback, Matt Schaub was here signing autographs from 10-12 in the radio station on the 16th floor. Jake's nurse said he could go since he's not on any monitors, just an IV. We went up about five after 11 and he wasn't there. The volunteer said he had gone to the 12th floor to see him there so we went down to that floor's playroom to meet him. We got there and the nurse said only 12th floor kids could meet him. I asked why since the sign didn't indicate that and she said it was a miscommunication. I then sarcastically said, "I guess he doesn't like heart kids." Schaub's PR people were all standing there and had shocked looks on their faces and said, "Of course he does, just a minute," and seconds later he appeared to take a picture with Jake. I felt horrible because I wasn't trying to be rude, I just said what was in my head without thinking...I could use a sensor every once in awhile :)

We won't see another doctor until the morning so we'll see what they say in the morning...in the meantime, we'll watching a lot of Thomas and hopefully I'll be a little nicer this evening!