A trend that has to stop.

Yesterday we had quite a scare with Carter, and I will start off the post by saying, "Everything is fine, Carter is fine (minus a few missed zzzz and some bruising from tests), Mom and Dad are still recovering"

Yesterday I got a call in the early afternoon from Carter's primary daycare provider, Ruth, telling me that when Carter was in a different daycare last week (a friend of Ruth's) he was exposed to meningococcal meningitis. The little girl who had it was quite sick at the Children's Hospital downtown in the ICU. The floor dropped out from underneath me. "What does this mean?" Ruth explained that Carter will likely have to go to the doctor and get tested, and may be put on antibiotics. She also gave me the phone number for someone at the Minnesota Department of Health (who I called and she told me to follow through with the same course of action).

I got an appointment for Carter at the end of the day, and proceded to call Matt. Luckily, I was at home, and I could turn into a sloppy mess. Matt was at work and did not have that luxury.

At Carter's appointment in the afternoon with the nurse practitioner, it was discovered Carter was running an internal fever of 102. We were then told we had to go to Children's Hospital Emergency downtown. Of course, the time currently was 5:30, so we couln't get there near as fast as we wanted (which I think if we could have accomplished, instantly would have been preferable).

At the hospital, Carter, Matt and I were placed immediately in a negative isolation room, and any staff that entered had to wear a mask. (info on negative isolation rooms, fyi) I think the mask people really freaked Carter out, especailly since they were obsessed with sticking things into him, and most of his holes.

By the time the night was finished, Carter had blood drawn (2x), once from the finger, and once from a line inserted into his hand (which they later used to administer the antibiotic), had many internal rectal temperatures taken, and just generally poked and prodded.

Carter's case caused quite a kerfufle. Several ER docs had several meetings about what what the next best course of action. The Infectious Disease Doctor made the final decision, but that took most of the evening.

Because they were talking most of the night about giving Carter a spinal tap, he was not allowed to eat anything. Once they decided a spinal was not required, and to just administer the antibiotic, Carter got to eat some milk, and they even coughed up some applesauce for his trouble.

Now? After his follow up appointment today, the little boy sleeps. He had a wonderful lunch outside in the wind and sun (ohhhh, how exciting that was, indeed!) And I have time to reflect on how lucky we are to have such a wonderful son.

More than ever, we're just thankful that we have a healthy and happy little boy, who for all he went through last night and all he couldn't possibly understand, is still in wonderful spirits today.