Apr 17th, 2008
Hanging in there

Sorry is has been so long without an update. We have had a rough time with Holden and his illnesses. I will give a brief run down here for those of you that don’t know all the stuff we have been through lately.
Holden started getting lots of colds, but mostly fevers, around Christmas. Since Christmas he has had about 7-8 fevers. Most of the time it was with ear infections, but he also had one very weird rash (with a scary rash called petechiae). His fever would sometimes go up to 105 and last a 2-3 days, but most of the time they weren’t as high and didn’t last as long. In between all the fevers, and even while he had them he was still a pretty happy and playful guy. Because of all the ear infections we decided to get the tube surgery. His doctor said he as a 10 out of 10 for ear problems - constant fluid and infections for months. Oh, and in the middle of all of this I found a weird lump on his thigh that we needed to get checked out.
So a couple weeks ago we got the surgery and it went great. That was a Monday. On Wednesday he had an ultrasound of the lump on his leg and the doctors all agreed it didn’t look like anything to worry about, it was all in the fat layer. They thought it might be a hematoma or fat deposit and we should just watch for a month.
Then on that Friday he got another fever. It seemed low at first so I didn’t treat it. Eventually it got higher and I gave him Tylenol, but it didn’t seem to help very much. He was not acting like himself at all so I decided to take him to the doctor. While I was waiting in the waiting room Holden started to have a seizure - even now it is hard for me to type about this it was so scary. He just started shaking and I knew it was a seizure. I ran into the back and the nurses got the doctor. He just laid there on the table for about 2 minutes jerking, turning a little blue. The doctor was calm, I was shaking and crying. Eventually he stopped and was just kind of out of it for about 10 minutes. When he came too he was SO upset. He had a fever of 104.5 in his ear so I am guessing his actual temperature was probably more like 105.5 or 106. They gave him Motrin and we waited there for awhile. The doctor said it was a febrile seizure due to his fever and they are fairly common (1 in 20 children will get one) and kids usually out grow them by they time they are 5 (4 years from now!!!). He has a 30% chance of having another one next time he gets a fever so you can imagine my fear of fevers right now.
Anyway, that night we went to the ER. By the time we got there his fever was down and he was feeling a bit better. They ran a whole bunch of blood tests and everything came back fine. It was a very long day. The next day Holden was acting like nothing ever happened.
So that was about 2 weeks ago. I am still kind of a worried mess. I seriously kiss Holden about a 100 times a day to see if he is hot. Plus with everything he has been through I was convinced he had some other illness. His doctor just thinks he had a really rough winter, plus the very bad ears. We have done lots of tests and everything came back OK, but it has hard been hard to get over. The good thing is that he is totally on target development wise, walks all over, climbs, is growing and is generally very happy. Although I have to say that he has become VERY demanding lately and if you don’t get what he wants right away he lets you know how mad his is…especially on the toys/Colin front.
I have always enjoyed being a mother, it has been hard at times, but nothing has been like these past few months. The amount I worry about my kids is overwhelming sometimes (OK, I know that I am a worrier anyway.) All I want is for them to both be healthy. I know Holden will get another fever, probably soon with his history, but man I could use a break.
Alright, now that I have given the run down on the illnesses - here are some good bits:
Tidbits:
Poor little Holden. Way to hang in there, Jess.
Hey Jess- sorry to hear about all the health problems w/ Holden!
The dinner time story was funny…that’s exactly how Andrew was. I always liked everything (veggies etc) and he only liked dessert. So after every single bite he would ask “have I eaten enough for dessert?”
Looking forward to seeing you next month