Exhausted

Yesterday morning (friday) we brought JP up to primary children's hospital at 8:30 am for a check up. He had not eaten much on Wednesday - a graham cracker for breakfast and a small bowl of cereal for dinner - and he went to bed Wednesday night at 9 pm. Thursday morning we needed to take uncle Matt to the airport and I had a hard time waking him up to go. He did not want to eat or go potty or get dressed. I got the kids in the car and we stopped by Josh's work on our way. I mentioned that JP wasn't acting like he felt well and josh looked over at him and said, "wow - he looks like crap!" I told him I was pretty sure we would end up at the hospital but at that point we did not have a fever or any other real symptom to go off of. As I drove to the airport, JP fell asleep. On our drive home, he started screaming about his tummy hurting. I sat in the front seat and cried the whole way home. It's heartbreaking to not be able to hold your child when you know they don't feel well. I drove as fast as I could get away with and once we were home he was crying about his tummy hurting still and I asked if he needed to poop. I got him on the potty and he sobbed, begging me to just hold him. He only peed and asked if he could snuggle in my bed. I put him in my bed and that's where he stayed until 3 pm. 

Ever since JP was diagnosed, he has not taken naps. He absolutely refuses. If he dozes off in the car and I ask if he had a good rest, his response is always "I wasn't resting!" He is so funny about it. He never wants us to think he naps. That being said, sleeping from 9 pm Wed night to 3 pm Thursday was very strange. I called clinic Thursday morning and by he time they called back he had slept for almost 18 hours! Freaky. They made us an appt for Friday morning and JP stayed awake until about 9 pm Thursday night before crashing again. 

Friday morning we got to clinic about 8:45 (Megan Standard Time haha) and they did a CBC and chemistry draw to see how he was. They immediately started fluids and decided we would do an X-ray of his tummy. We could tell he was a little bit constipated, but even if that explained the tummy pain it sure didn't explain the exhaustion. They drew more labs and sent us for an ultrasound. We looked mostly at his gallbladder thinking maybe he had gallstones but the only thing the radiologist saw was a little sludge, but she said with him not eating for a couple days that did not seem out of place. We drew more labs and they administered IV fluids with some glucose in hopes of him perking up. During all of this he would wake up, pay attention for a minute, maybe play with some toys for a few minutes and then fall back asleep. He napped in my arms, in Josh's arms, sitting alone in a chair, basically wherever he was he fell asleep. Very strange. All his labs were coming back in the normal ranges so try decided to run a CT scan since that's basically the only thing we hadn't checked. They also ordered up some glucose to infuse. They figured if we got the glucose in him and his levels were normal and he didn't wake up, they would admit him. It could have easily explained the exhaustion if his blood sugar levels were low, which they were. He started the day at 50, after the glucose IV fluids he was at 60 and after the glucose infusion he was 168. Anything above 60 is in the normal range so he seemed fine in the blood sugar level, yet he was still sound asleep. The phlebotomist even poked his finger to test his blood sugar and he didn't even stir. They decided it was time to admit and we did. Of course as soon as we canceled his star raising party at make a wish he woke right up and entertained everyone. Lol! He stayed awake for 4 hours before crashing again at 10 pm. That meant since Wednesday night when he went to bed, he had been asleep for about 36 of the last 48 hours. That's crazy. 

At midnight friday night he fevered to 38.4 Celsius which is 101.something. Not good. That means there is an infection somewhere that his body is trying to fight. They gave him some Tylenol and checked back in a half hour and it was down to 37.3 which is much better. In the meantime, his heart rate jumped into the 140's sending me into a panic attack as I was just starting to drift off to sleep. Turns out he was angry at one of the monitors they have on him and it wasn't a real jump in heart rate, just a situational jump. That is good. And now it's almost 2 am and I can't sleep. I jump at every little noise he makes. It didn't help that I heard the life flight helicopter land on the roof either, reminding me just how blessed we are that he is healthy enough that we came in on our own time not by emergency methods. He may have cancer but it could be worse. Tonight I am snuggling in his hospital bed trying to get a little sleep while praying he wakes up in the morning alert and not drowsy anymore. Here's to a better day tomorrow!