So How'd Your Week Go?

Here's a peek into our week:


Yes, two children checked into the hospital in one week - actually 3 days apart. Lucas was first. On Sunday (Feb. 1) we discovered a lump on him. On Monday the doctor said it was an abscess and put him on medicine to try and reduce the size. By Wednesday we realized it wasn't getting smaller. On Friday (Feb. 6) morning Lucas was checked into the hospital and was in surgery by noon. The abscess was removed and a drain was put in place. This week was filled with washing the area carefully with soap and water, putting gauze over it, and watching for a fever. We had an appointment today (Feb. 13) with the surgeon to have the drain removed. He said it appeared to be healing very nicely. Luke's face speaks volumes of his opinion of the whole ordeal:


3 days after Luke's surgery, Jared wanted in on the action! He came home from school on Thursday (Feb. 5) with a fever and aching legs. He threw up that night in bed - you can imagine the wonderful adventure that was as Dan and I were already preparing that night for Luke to go into surgery the next morning! On Friday he had a fever and a headache. On Saturday he said his neck was bothering him. By Sunday (Feb. 8) his neck was visibly stiff. We called the nurse hotline through Kaiser and they asked a few questions. When he couldn't put his chin to his chest she told us to bring him in. Dan took off with Jared and I stayed with our 2 other children since it was close to bedtime. Long story short they feared he had spinal meningitis. He had a few vials of blood taken from his hand, had an IV put into his arm, and had a spinal tap! After tests came back negative for meningitis, he was allowed to come home.


I suppose we should be grateful Liz doesn't have a matching bracelet too. Funny thing is, she's the only one who would appreciate a new bracelet to wear.