For those of you who follow me or MrsOzz on Facebook you know that we have had a rough week. For the rest of you here is the scoop. Caden went to his immunologist on Monday. While there the doctor noticed signs of an ear infection and sinusitis. Caden is normally on a maintenance dose of antibiotic due to his immune system status but these symptoms justified bumping Caden up to a full dose of a stronger antibiotic. That was started on Monday evening. As of Thursday Caden’s fevers had not got any better and in fact had got much worse. Three days on a strong antibiotic and seeing worse symptoms is an automatic trip to the doctor. We decided that the 104.6 fever justified a trip to ER.
As with most of our trips to the ER this one was good timing. Caden tested positive for influenza type A and showed a small amount of fluid in his lower left lung. He ear was still actively draining too. The antibiotic dose was left in place and Caden was also given tamaflu. A culture of his sinus drainage was sent off to verify the strain of flu. Given the fact that a lot of H1N1 has been showing up in the MUSC ER they were confident that Caden’s would be positive as well.
Today the fevers have lingered in the 104 plus range and Caden has been blowing clots of blood out of his nose. The blood thing just started today and sort of freaked us out at first. It was coming out in clots about the size of a marble. A good bit has been collecting in the back of his throat as well causing a lot of suctioning since Caden is not able to swallow and clear any of it from his throat area. We had just seen the pediatrician a few hours before this bleeding started so I called them back. The doc said it was just a dryness and a humidifier would help. Caden has been much more grumpy and his eyes are puffy and red. He has not slept much…us neither…in the last few nights. I think it catching up with him on top of just feeling bad due to the flu. I cannot remember the last time he looked this rough. He is obviously very uncomfortable. My primary prayer request is for Caden’s healing and comfort.
I decided to stay home to assist Sherry today for a few reasons. To summarize let me just say that Murphy showed up at our house this week with an attitude. That is the Murphy from Murphy’s Law that Dave Ramsey talks about all the time. Murphy came in an took our entire emergency savings fund and then some this week. I am still trying to figure out how I am going to cover everything. First the A/C went out in my car. I went to pick it up and paid the $500 tab only to find a mile down the road that the A/C was not fixed after all. I went back and took the mechanic for a ride and now it looks like we are in for at least another $350 on the car. On top of the car thing I had some dental work done about two weeks ago that involved a very large filling being put in very near to the nerve. The nerve has not forgiven the me and the dentist and now the nerve is insisting on moving out. Yes…That means a root canal is in the near future. The dental insurance I have with the government is one of the worse plans I have ever had and it cover almost nothing causing me to fork out over $600 out of pocket for this root canal. If you are keeping up with the numbers then you know what adds up to $1450. We are on baby step 2 which means we only keep about $1000 in savings and pile the rest of our excess cash on debt. By the way, we have only one payment left on our minivan and we will be down to one credit card and a small student loan to pay off. Those two items will be paid off shortly after the first of the year if I can manage to evict Murphy.
So all of this post so far and a few other things adds up to a ton of stress for Sherry. She has been cooped up in this house most of the week with no way to go. I used to van to get to a from work while my little Jetta was taking a siesta at the repair shop. I have not been a ray of sunshine either due to the tooth ache. I have been eating more Vicodin than peppermint Lifesavers in the past two days and I will not be able to see the endodonist until Wednesday of next week. On top of all this Sherry is bummed that this flu illness has put the brakes on Josiah’s birthday party for tomorrow. All of the boys were so excited to be celebrating JJ’s second birthday this weekend with a few friends and family.
Pray requests:
- Healing for Caden
- Protection over the health of the remainder of the family
- Sherry to have a peace of mind
- Comfort and healing for me
- Financial blessings
- A sense of understanding and compasion for JJ and Riley towards Caden