Asher's Exciting Week

What a crazy week we have had!

On Monday night, Asher started grunting and straining constantly. When he ate it was voraciously, like he was trying to stop something from hurting. He slept two hours at a time, waking up groaning more. We checked his temp and everything was reading normal. At 2 am I got up with him. He seemed to be in more discomfort, his straining and grunting were more urgent. When I checked his temp it had gone up nearly to 101. I woke Adam up and told him one of us needed to take him to the ER. He offered to go so I could get a little rest.

Asher was admitted to the hospital with a possible diagnosis of pneumonia. He was put on a 48 hour antibiotic. As lab results started coming in, it seemd he also or instead had a UTI (urinary tract infection). Each shift change a new doctor would come in and give us differing information. It was difficult to put the pieces together. I missed Children's as I got more and more confused with the information the doctors were sharing.

Asher stayed one night in the hospital. He was still in some discomfort and the middle of the night was very difficult for both of us. At one point I had finally gotten him asleep after nearly an hour of crying (so unlike him!) and I was able to lay him peacefully in his crib and sneak off to the bathroom. I wasn't gone more than 2 minutes, the whole time thinking ecstaticly about falling into bed and sleeping. When I walked in the door the shift nurse was just finishing putting the thermometer away and beating a hasty retreat out the door while Asher was stirring and thrashing in his bed. I had several choice words for that nurse in my head as I exhaustedly picked my baby up again. I am so grateful the hospital did not have a police against cosleeping This was the only way either of us got any sleep that night!

In the morning, I was awakened to the news that Asher had an ultrasound scheduled and the orderly was ready to take us down, now, like right now. That was fun. Thankfully I had slept in my clothes so I was ready to set off through the entire hospital to the correct room. The doctor had the results almost immediately, one blessing of a small hospital. The news wasn't great. Asher's left kidney was severly enlarged. They would like to transport us to Children's ASAP but the doctor wanted to contact Asher's urologist at Children's first before ordering it.

I started packing our bags and letting everyone know to pray. I didn't think we even had an option that we wouldn't be going though I felt really at ease about the whole thing, like it would all be okay.

About 10 minutes later the doctor returned and said, 'Well, Dr. Ali says it doesn't look that serious. He's able to look at Asher's kidney from when you were at Children's before and though it has gotten bigger, he isn't that worried about it. He says his office will set up an appointment with you within the week and I should let you go home. Would you like to go home?'

HA! I couldn't believe it! This is one of the nicest things to have happened in all our hospital stays. I was absolutely sure we were being transported and positive Asher had to stay in at least 24 more hours because of the antibiotics. Instead, we were being offered a ticket out the door! I let the doctor know we were ready to go home. :-)

So, he is doing well. He's on a round of antibiotics here. He started to smile and laugh again, we hadn't seen those precious smiles for a few days. He will meet with his urologist early next week. He will have a procedure done to check for blockages and other information. With that we will be able to see if he needs a simple procedure done or something more serious, ie surgery.

Thank you to all our friends and famiy who have been praying for us indefinitely and especially during this time. It's never easy to have a child in the hospital and when they are so little and so dependent it makes it a little harder still.

God is so good! We'll keep plugging along and enjoying the journey!