Dominick in the Hospital

Boy this has been an emotional and difficult week. On Wednesday, the week we were at Bear Lake Dominick started to get sick. He was cold from playing in the Lake so we covered him with a blanket. With in the hour he had a fever of 103. We gave him Motrin and tried to make him comfortable. The next day we took him to an instacare and they said he had an ear ache. He wasn't walking but that morning he had a fever of 104.8 so we thought it was because he had such a high fever. After they gave us an antibiotic we took him back to the cabin and didn't worry anymore about it. We tried to get him outside as much as possible. Hoping that he would forget that he was sick and have a good time anyway.

We noticed after 2 days, (Saturday) that the fevers weren't going down and he wouldn't put any weight on his left leg. It hurt so bad he would cry anytime we made him walk. He was starting to get zits on his knee and the left knee seemed a little more swollen then the right. We decided to take him back to the doctor.

The Doctor took and x-ray of his knee and a culture of one of the zits and said he thought he saw fluid on his knee. He said for us to go to the emergency room at Logan regional. So we packed him up and went over to the Hospital. The took some blood tests and looked at the x-ray and decided they needed to tap his knee. They said they needed to get a sample of the fluid. So they tapped his knee and cultured the sample they got and put an IV in his arm and started him on an antibiotic that had to be given every 10 hours. They sent us home at 2:00 am only to come back by 10am. The drive to the cabin is about an hour so you can imagine the sleep we got that night.

We got up early Sunday to get back to the Hospital by 10am but once there Dominick spiked another fever and the Doctors got worried they were missing something. My gut was saying the same thing. I felt there was something more serious going on. I felt that he needed to be admitted. I didn't like that they sent us home the day before. I just felt that we were missing something. So I was glad when they said they were going to keep looking.

They decided to to an ultrasound of his hip. They thought they found fluid on his hip so they decided to tap his hip right there on the ultrasound table. It was painful for him. This time they couldn't give him something that would put him out so it was just a medication that would deaden the area and something that would calm him. He was such a trooper. He hurt but he made it through. Unfortunately they didn't get any fluid at all. The Doctor decided to do another ultrasound on the front of his hip. He found fluid again so he decided to tap the front of the hip. This time it hurt even more than the last time. He cried out and Shawn and I had to hold him down. This was so hard to watch and we both cried with him. I tried to sing primary songs in his ear but I couldn't get the words to come out. It is the hardest thing in the world to watch your child go through that much pain. This time they found fluid and at this point we asked to go to Primary Children's Hospital.

We packed him up and drove down to Primary Childrens Hospital. This is about an hour and a half drive. He slept the whole way. When we got there it didn't take too long before they had us back in a room where we waited for more tests to be run. Dominick at this point was very upset that he was still dealing with Doctors and that they kept "poking" him for more blood. They needed him to lay on the bed for the blood test which he really protested. He had decided at this point that the bed meant we were staying and he wasn't OK with this plan. We finally got him to do it and then I climb up and let him lay on me. It was at this point I noticed my back was bothering me.

Soon they came in and told us that Dominick needed surgery. They said he had some kind of infection in his hip and they needed to drain it out. They told us they were just waiting for an open operating room. Soon the time had come and I ran in to the bathroom really quick. It was then that I noticed the blood. I was bleeding. What an awful time to miscarry. I had to go back in and tell Shawn I needed to go to another hospital right at the same time my son was going in for surgery. I walked in crying. We looked up what hospital I could go to and I called my mom. I followed Dominick up to the operating room and said good bye. In my heart I said a quiet prayer for him. I was so scared to leave my little boy. I was crying more for that reason than anything else. His Doctor (Dr. Hennessey) sympathised with me. She said she has had 3 miscarriages this year. My heart goes out to her.

My Mom showed up and she and my Dad took me to LDS Hospital. There they did and ultra sound and found that the baby was only 13 weeks. I was supposed to be 17 weeks. They told me the baby had died 3 weeks before and my body was just now getting around to miscarrying. This is when they told me they needed to help me out and take me into an operating room. They said the baby was too big for me to do it myself. So off I went. The last thing I remember was Shawn calling to say that Dominick was out of surgery and he was OK. I burst into uncontrollable tears. My baby was OK. He was OK. The next think I know I am waking up in a hospital room. I slept most of the day. I talked to Shawn a few times and had a couple of visitors, but my main thought was get enough sleep and get up to my son. I did make it up there about 7pm Monday evening. He was asleep and looked so small in the bed. I only stayed an hour and then I went to my Grandma's to sleep.

When I got back to the Hospital the next day Dominick wasn't looking good. He was sleepy and very swollen. He was still running fevers. The Doctors were very concerned and over the next couple of days they watched him very close. It got to the point where they decided they needed to consider another surgery. His fevers where high enough they were putting cold wet cloths on his head. Most of the days run together at this point so I cant say which day they did what but they decided to do an MRI to see if they could see anything else that might be wrong. When it came back it showed an abscess in the bone. It was at this point that we found out the infection was Staph. The said they thought it entered in the knee. They needed to do another operation to get it out of the bone. So he went in again. They drilled 2 holes in his bone and drained out the infection. This seemed to do the trick. We started noticing a huge difference in him. He started talking more and smiling. I hadn't seen him smile in over a week. You don't realize how much you would miss that until you go through something like this where all you see is your child going through pain. I missed his smile. It made me tear up when he did. Each day got better. The doctors were concerned for a time about Pneumonia and an infection called Cdiff. He was put under a no contact rule. This meant he had to stay in his room until the tests came back. This was sad because they had a really great toy room we wanted to take him to. Unfortunately that was out until the test came back 2 days later. Dominick was doing better but he was so swollen. Everything was swollen. His eyes, stomach, everything. They did say this would go down as he started moving around. I really don't have any pictures of any of this because this is not something I want to see ever again. He was miserable and tired and sick of being sick. It was the hardest thing I have gone through ever. I do have pictures of him playing in the play room. We got permission on Sunday. We took him to the play room and outside to eat. We lost track of time and our nurse had to hunt us down for his antibiotic that he needed every 6 hours. OOPS! He was having such a great time being out of his room we just lost track of time.

They finally told us we could go home on Monday. This was a great day. I broke down at this point because the nightmare was finally over. I was finally able to not worry anymore. I had a happy cry on Shawn's shoulder. Dominick was so excited to leave. He kept saying "We go home now?" Waiting for the doctors to get paper work done was torturous. We finally got to go.

I have to say through all of this that I am so grateful for my friends and family. We had several people come to visit us. People we haven't seen since we moved. We had so much support from family taking our girls and watching them for us. We are truly grateful for all of the help, gifts, and love we received. I think I have to say my favorite moment was when my Grandfather would come he always brought a car for Dominick. He always made him smile because he always had a little car with him when he came. Dominick looked forward to his visits because of it.

I love my family. Thanks to all of you for all you did for me and my family. I have seen true and unconditional love this week. I learned a lot about support and the importance of it. I am grateful for that...however I hope to never go through this again.

Dominick is doing great. He still can't walk without help but he is doing better everyday. The walking will come. I love my little guy and I am so grateful he is still here and I can enjoy all of the years to come. I love you Dominick!