Familiar Shadows

Monday morning Joshua woke up feeling like something was wrong. I took his temp throughout the morning and it read as normal. He had lab work done on Sunday and nothing alarming had shown up. His counts were low but not low enough to need a transfusion. He had already commented on Sunday that he was getting, “that feeling again”. He was talking about the feeling he usually gets before he begins to fever.

Monday afternoon, I ran out to do an errand and he texted me, “I am not feeling good, feeling really bad”. Sarah was with him and called to say his temp was up to 100.2. I jumped in the car and headed home. When I arrived home, Josh was, once again, curled up in a fetal position on his futon, under a pile of blankets, shivering. I called his BSA Dr who instructed us to get him right in.

Sarah and I began our, “quickly get Josh to the hospital”, drill. We have learned, by this time, to remain packed. Sarah called Brian to tell him what was happening. I threw a few additional things in suitcases for Brian and I, and she packed all of Josh’s “necessities”, his computer, phone, chargers and hats. We quickly loaded up the car.

Josh was already unable to walk on his own so we had to wait until Brian got home and we loaded him in the car. The road to Amarillo always seems longer than usual as we race to BSA. I monitored his temp along the way. It was quickly elevating and reached 104.6. Even though it was high, Brian and I knew we had been here before and knew The Lord had seen us through it.

When we reached BSA, Josh was too week to walk so we loaded him into a wheel chair and got him to the second floor where they had a room, on the main pediatric floor, already prepared for him. They immediately got fluids going in him and hooked him up to monitors. Brain and I felt relieved to know he was getting the care he needed. We begin to relax in the familiar setting with the friendly staff that had become like family.

Then things seemed to quickly worsen, his blood pressure began to drop as his heart rate accelerated. At 2 am, they moved him to the ICU so he could be more closely monitored. The Dr said he was already beginning to go into shock. They were concerned, once again of him becoming septic and for additional strain being place on his, already compromised, heart.

All of the old fears and memories flooded back. I feared that we could have come so far only to loose him. I had to remind myself of all that the Lord had brought us through and that I knew we could trust Him with our son’s life. Once again, I was overcome His unexplainable peace.

The next day, they were able to get his system regulated through medication and he began to quickly improve. They moved him back out to the main floor and we began to talk about getting him home.

Yesterday, the Dr said we would probably get to go home today. He was just waiting for one more result to come from the lab. Brian had a meeting last night he wanted to be at so he headed home with the plan to come back the next day and bring us home.

After he left, the results came back from the lab. The bacteria had continued to grow even though they had hit him hard with antibiotics. The thought of going home soon began to diminish.

Josh fevered through the night and into the early morning. They took more blood samples for more tests. We met with the Dr who explained that they would need use additional antibiotics in hopes of wiping out the bacteria. They are also preparing to transfuse him with platelets again later today.

So here we are, just waiting out the storm, knowing that, as always, our Lord has a plan. Josh, for the most part is in a pretty good mood. He has a fairly steady line of visitors that mask up and check in on him. We would all rather be home but we know we are where the Lord has us for now. We know He has a reason, even if it is merely to remind us that He walks the valleys with us.