All I Want for Christmas is not a hospital stay

Saturday the 24th Bryce started feeling a little sick- fever, chills, nausea, some vomiting. He threw up once about noon and went to bed to rest. Afraid it was sepsis, my brother came and gave him a blessing; After about two hours we noticed his fever spiked again back to 101.3, so he got out of bed, threw up again and then we headed to the ER, leaving the kids at home with my brother Jarom and his wife Randi.

They got us back and got an IV in; it took a while since they can't use his right arm for any pokes due to his fistula and that he was a little dehydrated. They took blood cultures and did a nose swab, hoping it was just the flu so we could go home for Christmas. They also gave him some fluids, Toradol (pain), Morphine (pain), Ativan (relax) and some ibuprofen and did a chest x-day. After a few hours the results of the nose swab came back positive for Corona virus, a nasty cold/flu hybrid that would knock him down for a few days with a cough that would last 2-3 weeks. They sent us home with some prescription strength cough medicine and some Ativan to help him rest and relax his breathing. 

We got home that night, did a quick Nativity reading with the kids, ate some dinner with friends, put the kids to bed and hooked him up to dialyze. His potassium was 7.6 (they like to keep it under 6) so the ER doc told us not to take and fluid off, just clean for that treatment. I set up for Christmas while he slept and dialyzed; when he finished we both went to bed.

Kids came in about 8:15 ready to open presents. I couldn't get much response from Bryce- he was having a hard time waking up or getting out of bed. After an hour (the kids couldn't wait any longer) I sat him up, gave him some Tylenol to help with his fever, got him dressed and helped him walk down the stairs. He sat in his chair and instantly fell asleep and slept thru the whole Christmas morning. After an hour I suggested he just go back up to bed since it was more comfortable to sleep. He went back to bed (we held off on opening more gifts) and slept for several hours. I came in about 4:30 to see if he was more alert after having gotten some sleep; he said he was awake enough he was going to take a shower and come down to finish opening presents. He almost made it thru all the gift opening before falling back asleep in the chair in the living room. Kids played, we visited with Jarom and Randi, made and ate dinner while he slept on.

About 9 he went up to bed, started setting up for dialysis and we started treatment about 10:15. Usually he has to hold still on his back or else the machine will alarm but he was too out of it to do that so the machine beeped incessantly until we finished at 3AM. I helped him out of bed and to the chair when we finished. When we took the needles out and taped up his arm he wasn't holding them very well so I sat with him until I was satisfied his sites had clotted. We went back to bed and he kept saying "It's satisfactory." I finally got up and turned the light on and his site on his arm was bleeding thru his bandage but he was too out of it to notice. There was blood all over his clothes and the sheets. I got him taped up and the bleeding under control (he was so disoriented I couldn't get him to hold still) and some of the bedding in the laundry. 

We slept in this morning and I woke to Pierce telling me Owen had made a mess with the play dough (because it's Owen!) so I headed downstairs to clean it up and get the kids fed some breakfast. I went back up about noon and noticed Bryce's breathing was labored. I woke him up and tried to get him to answer me- he couldn't say anything beyond "yes" or "no". We hadn't kept up with his Tylenol during the night so I could tell he was running a fever again and tried to get him to drink some water and take the pills but he couldn't get his lips around a straw to drink. I took his temp, it was 106 so I called his Dialysis Nurse- she said I either needed to call paramedics or get him to the hospital right away. I knew I wouldn't be able to get him to the car if he didn't wake up a bit. I said "Bryce, Shawnna said I either need to take you to the ER or call the paramedics. I don't think you can walk well enough, I'm going to call 911." He moaned and I took that as his okay to call. 

Paramedics came and checked him out, thought maybe it was pneumonia. Got him out of bed into a chair and down the stairs to the gurney and then into the ambulance. I called my brother to come stay with the kids, took a quick shower and got dressed and headed to the hospital to be with Bryce.

When I got here he was in the trauma unit of the ER (the nurses recognized us from Saturday) and they directed me to his room. The lab had gotten the results back from the blood cultures they took on Saturday- it came back positive for MRSA/staph. They had called Bryce three times this morning and left messages telling him the results and that he needed to come in but he had slept thru it and they didn't have my number (they do now). They got in a neck IV line right away and gave him fluids, drew more cultures and got antibiotics started right away. He has been moved to the NST ICU and is getting settled and worked on right now.

I am good, the kids are good; Bryce is in good hands, we are completely confident in his care here and that he will recover. Thank you so much for all the love, prayers and support! They help and sustain us thru these uncertain times. How thankful we are for the knowledge we have in eternal families and that Bryce will be ours forever. We are hopeful for his complete recovery and remain optimistic that his body will heal and become strong again.