A Hospital Stay

I didn’t mean to leave on a cliff hanger. 

We picked Tessa up from the pound the day after I wrote the the last blog.  My son was complaining about not feeling well and I just kind of ignored it and told him to eat better because we were eating so much wonderful but bad for you foods from Christmas to New Years.  Finally the day after we picked Tessa up, I called Nurse Advice Line and asked if they felt we would be safe to wait until Monday to take him to the Dr.  They suggested we go to Urgent Care just to be safe, after a few minutes at Urgent Care we were sent to Children’s Hospital and stayed there for the next 5 days.  Teen Son was diagnosed with Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis or ADEM.  It is a rare, 7 kids in 1,000,000, auto immune issue that causes lesions on the spine and brain.  We were lucky and we caught it early many kids with ADEM show up at the hospital looking like they have had a stroke or partially paralyzed.  Teen Son was to get IV steroids for 5 days and then he would go home and slowly taper down the amount of steroids for the next 4 weeks.  Most children have a full recovery after 1 to 6 months we are blessed he has a disease with a high cure rate and blessed to live so close to Children’s Hospital.  Honestly when you are at Children’s Hospital and your child can walk and talk to you, you feel blessed. 

We came up with a routine: Darling Husband would meet the youngest 2 kids getting home from school and they would take care of the animals in the evening.  After Teen Son was given his last dosage of steroids I would go home and take care of the animals before school and get the youngest 2 kids to school.  Then I would go to the hospital and spend the rest of the day there. 

During this time Tessa was feeling neglected so she started jumping the fence it’s a 5 to 6 foot fence depending on where it is but I got a call from a neighbor who watched her jump telling me she could have cleared it if it was higher.  Then Luca started following Tessa, great now we have 2 escape artists!