Swelling Decreased

The swelling on James' neck has decreased significantly. The doctor agreed today when we had his check-up. We will continue to keep an eye on it but are very happy with the progress.

The doctor said it could take several weeks now for the swelling to decrease but we won't see him until next week.

Big sigh of relief. Those infectious diseases doctors really scared and impressed me at the same time. A good friend here remarked that they are like Dr. House from the TV show. Exactly.

We're Home!

Happy dance here! We're home now, showered and given orders to take the same antibiotics as before.

Thanks to everyone for your support and for those who visited Landon in the hospital too. He was so excited to get visitors.

We hopefully won't have to go in again but if he does not respond to these antibiotics within 48 hours we may have to again. Ugh. Please pray for James that he the mass on his neck significantly decreases within the next couple days.

Good Morning from the Hospital

We are sitting here watching morning cartoons. James is on par for spilling his juice all over his bed. Good thing they will change it soon.

James' neck is still swollen and I don't think it has reduced much in size. But it seems not as tender to the touch, and he can turn his head to look to the right, which is much better than before. At one point it was as if he had a neck brace on.

Talked with James' pediatrician just now. He says he will keep us until after the 12 o'clock antibiotic and then probably be released. So that means we'll be home by 5. It takes a while for the whole release procedure.

Thanks to all of you, our support here in Baltimore, and those who we can't see but are saying prayers for us and checking in. Although it hasn't been a serious illness...

Okay, I knew once I wrote this last line, I was asking for it. James' pediatrician just called again. He's speaking with the head of infectious diseases here at Hopkins, someone who trained him. They recommended the same oral antibiotic we had used with no progress last week. So they will take a look at him today and see what they think before releasing him.

Now my only concern is that since we are at a research hospital that they are using him as research and they won't just wait to see if it will go down on its own. I guess they take everything seriously. Big breath.

Stay tuned...

The Hospital Really is Like the Airport

And the room is like an airplane. You're contained and the sleeping is not great. James and I stayed last night and he awoke early this morning saying, "'Morning mom!". He's loving all the attention.

We really aren't supposed to use cell phones but they said they would be lenient. Lee will be coming again tonight after work with more supplies for us. We do think we'll be staying another night (Wed. night). They are giving him IV antibiotics every 6 hours. We have had many visits from doctors, including one from his pediatrician's office already this morning. I really feel like he is in the best care.

His pediatrician made a surprise visit last night, as they moved us from the Pediatric Emergency to the 6th floor where we are now. He's always lively and SO good with James. We are very fortunate.

James is not acting any different - still bouncing around this morning, jumping on his bed, talking potty talk, and spilling his hot chocolate.

He is enjoying all the attention still and thinks it's great to have breakfast in bed.

If you live close by and you'd like to visit, I know James would LOVE to have visitors! We are on the 6th floor of the children's ward at Hopkins. One of the numbers I have for the "unit" is 410-955-5250.

It's all an adventure but luckily he is acting normal and feeling relatively good. Although it doesn't make me want to take any long airline flights anytime soon.

Update for James

This blog posting is being written by a sub writer (Lee). I just got back from the hospital and the "mass" as the doctors call it is still there but the good news is, that after the CT scan and another blood test there is no change is diagnosis. The lymph node is just infected. Now the the doctors are going to play some antibiotics bingo to try and figure out which one is going to make the most impact on the infection. Of course it could have been caused by a virus in which case (we were told and confirm by the excellent web resource WEBMD) that the mass would go away over time. James and mom are going to stay overnight at the hospital and come home tomorrow but the fact that the diagnosis is the same a extremely good and I feel I can breathe a little easier now.

I have to say I have not been at the doctors 1/4 as much as my wife and son but I am already annoyed by the various doctors asking the same questions. Why can't one of them write it down and make it available to every department and doctor? It seems that the doctors from various floors are in their own unions and need to try to figure out the puzzle on their own or their union membership will be revoked. It's pretty interesting though as I have done a lot of research on-line so all the questions tie back to causes of why lymph nodes may become infected. One doctor asked if we had recently had someone stay with use that had recently been released from prison. She explained that she was checking for exposure to tuberculosis so that sounds like plausible question and given the city that we live in maybe not such a crazy question. I will say that the hospital staff has been great. Every person that I have had interaction with seems very qualified. I can see why this hospital is arguably the best in the USA.

I am sure that the normal writer will be back for the next post.