On Thursday May 28th Tyson developed a fever and some grumpiness during the day we gave him some Tylenol and that seemed to help him. During the middle of the night his fever reached 103 degrees Fahrenheit. At that point we called our 24 hour doctor's office phone number and we were able to speak with a doctor. He told us to keep watching him and manage his temperature with Tylenol and Ibuprofen. At that point we didn't have any Ibuprofen (our town doesn't have anything that is 24 hour) so we gave him Tylenol and over the next two hours his temperature came down a few degrees.
Around 7 AM on Friday May 29th we went out and got him some Ibuprofen to give him as well. Around Noon on Friday Brandi decided to take him into his doctors office to see their PA who takes care of walk in patients. When she evaluated him he had his fever but no other symptoms. He had a really big piece of ear wax in one of his ears so she had a hard time viewing it but she didn't see any red flags. Latter that afternoon he started throwing up his food and having diarrhea. He was able to keep down a little bit of solids but not much formula that day. That night (between Friday and Saturday) he only slept for 3 or 4 hours and was very uncomfortable and moaning a lot.
On Saturday May 30th he still had a fever and we were still giving him both medicines. He was very uncomfortable and so I called back his doctors office and talked to the same PA who treated him the day before. She decided to call in a prescription for an anti nausea medication and an antibiotic for an ear infection. I picked up that medicine around 1 PM and gave it to him between 1:30 PM and 2 PM. After he had his anti nausea medication I tried to feed him some applesauce (his favorite) because he was acting hungry. I noticed that he wasn't swallowing it very well and couldn't swallow a bottle or pedialyte even though he wanted to. Around 3:30 to 4 PM his color started to go away, he was being really rigid, he wasn't sleeping at all, and he was acting like he was in a lot of pain. He would lay on my shoulder and rest but only for a minute or two. These were red flags to Brandi and Cameron. They called Grandma Donna to see what she thought of his symptoms and we all thought that if it was the ear infection he should be getting better by now and not worse.
Five minutes after talking to her we were in the car headed to the ER. When we arrived we waited for 15 or 20 minutes in the waiting room and then we were in an evaluation room for the doctor, nurse and paramedic intern to check him out. They started off by taking his vitals, getting an IV and antibiotics in him checking his ears (in his ear that had the ear wax he did see some inflammation) and taking some blood (which took a while because they had a hard time finding a vain so they did a foot poke). After about an hour the doctor was still looking at him and was feeling his neck and thought it was kind of stiff. They decided to do a lung bar puncture to "rule out" meningitis. That procedure took about 20 minutes while Cameron and Brandi were in the waiting room and ate some dinner.
When they arrived back in his room he was getting worse and he had some dark brown stuff coming out of his nose that was blood and mucus. At that point the ER doctor decided to transfer him to a bigger hospital. About 10 minutes latter the Paramedics had him in their ambulance and Brandi and Tyson were off with lights and sirens going. They were debating on flying him with a helicopter but decided that the ambulance would be faster since they would need to fill up the helicopter with gas. Cameron went back to our house and picked up an overnight bag and drove the car down to Idaho Falls.
On the ride down Tyson had the bloody mucus coming out of his nose a few times and they were sucking it out. At this point his heart rate was between 240 and 260 beets per minute and he also had a really high heart rate and respiratory rate. He was also very stiff and rigid. He was also moaning constantly and sounded like he was in so much pain and discomfort. He was awake but very lethargic and out of it. His IV also went bad on the ride down. The paramedics kept Brandi very informed since she was sitting up front in the ambulance.
When we arrived his face was all bloody from the mucus and they took us in to the ER and he was having seizure type behavior and having the same symptoms he was having in the ambulance. At this point Brandi was in shock herself and had a hard time being at Tyson's bed side. She also had several melt downs. Tyson's Doctor in the ER is the Father of a good friend Brandi had while in college.
After about 45 minutes they were finally able to find a new IV and started fluid and antibiotics again. During both ER visits he probably had all of his arms and legs poked 5 to 6 times each since they had a difficult time being able to get an IV into him since he was very dehydrated. While he was in the ER his pediatric doctor came down to see him and him and the ER Doctor received the report of his lung bar puncture from Rexburg which gave them the diagnosis of Bacterial Meningitis.
After they had an IV they cleaned him up a bit since he was having the bloody mucus coming out of his nose several times while in the ER. The nurses took him to get a CT scan and that turned out to be clean. We filled out some paperwork and they did a few finishing things with him and then we went up to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). At that point his Pediatric Doctor took over and the the PICU nurses transferred him to his new bed and got him all set up in his new room. At this point he put himself to sleep and he was beginning to stabilize.
Cameron and Brandi then talked to the doctor for about 30 minutes about his condition. Essentially he told us that he could make a full recover or this disease could take his life and everything between. He told us to expect some episodes or things happen to him and that their is a 50/50 chance that he could develop some time of delay, hearing loss, or brain damage from this disease but they wont know what it will be until he recovers more. The doctor also told us that they wanted to put a line into the femoral artery so that they could take blood and put his fluids and drugs into him easier without worrying about the line going bad.
With that procedure there was a possibility of complications but it was worth the risk. Around 1 AM on Sunday May 31st the doctor did the procedure as Cameron watched and Brandi was in the next room. The doctor originally told us that it usually takes about 45 minutes if everything is going right. About 20 minutes into the procedure Cameron came into get Brandi and she thought that something had gone wrong since it had not been 45 minutes. But the procedure was over and the doctor said that many people must be praying for Tyson since that was the easiest that procedure has gone for him ever.
From about 2 AM till 8 AM he was very stable and was able to rest while getting his Antibiotics, Tylenol and a few other drugs. The rest of the story will be in posts of each day. Thank you to all the friends and family who are loving and supporting us at this time!
This was our sweet Tyson at his Doctors appointment on Friday
Mommy at Tyson at home cuddling on Friday
This was late at night between Friday and Saturday. Grandma Kim wanted a picture of him to see what he looked like.
Tyson in the ER at Madison. He didn't like the stuff on his feet so he kept kicking it off
Tyson in the ER at Madison
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