After wonderful visits with Grammy and PopPop and Grandma and Grandpa,we started trying to get used to being a family of five. In general, we were adjust prety well (aside from a real mess at mass) and I had even commented how going from one to two was much hard than going from two to three. Part of this, I attributed to the fact that Ryan is such a sweet, easy, laid-back baby. Sunday afternoon we were to face our first real test - Blair was off to Cincinnati for a court case and I was nervously left with three kids and a puppy. I anticipated some chaos while Blair was gone but in no way, did I ever anticipate what would happen next. Sunday afternoon, a good college friend of mine came to visit. During her visit, I noticed that Keira was running a fever and gave her some Tylenol. Her fever went down and she was back to her usual self. I surprised myself at how well I managed to get everyone to bed. Ar midnight, Ryan woke up for his first nighttime feeding. When I got him out of his bed, I noticed that he was pretty warm. I swaddle him up at night and thought that he was mostlikely hot from being wrapped up but luckily, I stripped him down and took his temperature - 102.3. The peditricians tell you to call for fevers over 100.4 at Ryan's age so I can them right away. The response from the pediatrician was one of great concern and he told me to take Ryan to the emergency room at the hospital where he was born (best qualified hospital for his age). I called Carmen, our nanny, at 12:45 am and she was an angel racing over to our house to stay with Keira and Colin.
Luckily, the emergency room wasn't too crowded and we go seen almost right away. The nurse had me strip Ryan and put him in an infant hospital gown. It was so sad seeing this tiny baby in a minuature hospital gown on a huge hospital bed. The doctors told me that they needed to run a full "septic work-up" on Ryan - consisting of blood work, urine tests, and a spinal tap. It was truly heartbreaking to watch Ryan suffer through being poked and proded. About an hour after the tests were completed, the doctor came in to inform me that Ryan's spinal tab tested positive for meningitis. He called our pediatrician and we were admitted to the hospital for at least 48 hours while we waited to blood and urine cultures to determine if it was viral or bacterial meningitis. As Ryan and I got settled into his room, we were informed that we were being put "in isolation" and unable to leave the room. All hospital staff entering the room wore masks, disposable gowns and gloves - it was like a television show and added extra fear to the situation. The hospital staff and our pediatricians have been fantastic at helping to ease these fears. Test results started coming in a pointing towards viral meningitis (great news!). Ryan tested positive for enterovirus which explains the meningtitis. Most likely, he picked up the virus from someone else in the family.
This afternoon, the final test results came in and we were able to rule out bacterial meningtis. The viral meningitis now just needs to run its course. Our pediatricians consulted with the pediatric infectious disease specialist and we were informed that we need to remain in the hospital until Ryan has gone 48 hours without a fever (he continues to struggle to break the fever). This is just precautionary for the risk of him having a seizure. Luckily, we can at least stop the IV antibiotics. Now, we just wait and hold our breathe every three hours when the nurse comes to take Ryan's tempature. I really hope that we can be home by the weekend.
As for the rest of the family, everyone is holding up as well as can be expected. My parents dropped everything and came down early Monday to help with Keira and Colin. While I know that Keira and Colin miss Ryan and I, they are having a great time with Grammy and PopPop (which means one less worry for me!). Blair was able to move up his flight from Tuesday morning to Monday night and has been terrific at juggling helping Keira and Colin at home while coming into the hospital for a few hours a day so I can shower and try ot get some rest. The night in the ER really goofed up Ryan's sense of day and night so he has been up most night and sleeping during the day. The first few days, he only seemed to be comforted if I was holding him so I've been going on little to no sleep. Luckily, Ryan seems to be improving, is less fussy, and getting better at sleeping in his little crib so hopefully, I'll manage some sleep between temperature checks.
I'll try to update as we get more information and to keep eeryone up to date on Ryan's situation. Thanks so much for all of your prayers!
