Thursday night, Sammy developed a fever, a runny nose and a cough. The cough seemed to be the worst of it, as it really hurt him (because of his chest) every time he coughed. The runny nose continued, but Friday morning he woke with a 101-102 fever that just wouldn't respond to Tylenol or Motrin. He was miserable - up there with the worst we saw him in the hospital. He didn't want to do much of anything except rest on the couch. He's still quite traumatized from the events of the last two weeks, so taking his temperature or giving him medicine would turn into complete meltdowns.
After finally talking to his cardiologist around noon, we packed up Sammy and took him to his pediatrician. The main concerns were infection and pneumonia, both not common - but not uncommon - after surgery. Our pediatrician sent us on our way back to Children's. I had several meltdowns along the way - I knew this meant more xrays and bloodwork for Sammy, and my heart broke having to put him through that again.
He handled things fairly well considering, and we even saw some smiles out of him when he went out on the CHB playground pre-bloodwork. The xray came back clear (a-freakin'-men, as that probably would have meant pneumonia), but the bloodwork came back with an elevated white cell count. Since his incision sites look clear - no sign of irritation or infection - Dr. Brown chalked it up to an ill-timed upper respiratory infection and sent us home with amoxicillin. Sammy's fever seemed to have broken while we were there, and he was in MUCH better spirits (after a trip to the hospital - who would have thought?), so we went out to dinner to avoid rush hour trying to get back home.
Hopefully (knock on wood), things will settle down and we can get to getting Sammy back to feeling happy and safe and healthy. Then mama and daddy can work on relaxing a bit finally, too!
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So glad that he didn't have an infection at the incision site or pneumonia - that would have been WAY worse! Hope the amoxicillin is working wonderers and that Sammy is feeling much better.
Posted by: Jen Wright at June 2, 2008 11:29 AMJust checking in on you little guy to see how you are feeling? I hope you, mommy and daddy have been able to catch up on much needed rest.
Laura (Grace's mommy)
Posted by: Laura at June 3, 2008 8:47 AMPoor guy having to go through all this stuff. Hope little Sammy is doing better now. We're sending our love.
Posted by: Bethany at June 3, 2008 10:46 PM(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
Poor Sammy (and poor Mom and Dad, like you all haven't been through enough!).
I hope he is feeling better today!
Posted by: Allie at June 1, 2008 7:47 AM