Celebrating the Season

We have had a wonderful past week. Mason was in a fantastic mood and has been sleeping pretty good throughout the night, falling asleep at 7 pm and sleeping until 4 or 5 in the morning. This morning, he must have been tuckered out from his Monday afternoon with the Lemke kids because he slept until 6:30 am.

Christmas was safe, fun and mostly healthy...like I had prayed for. Mason has been very healthy but I had the opportunity to enjoy the flu for the 4 days I had off of work. Luckily, it came and went pretty fast and our entire house is well again.

Mason enjoyed opening his presents, especially the tearing paper part. He got a sled from Gramma and Grampa Mrdutt and some John Deere toys from Gramma Duck and Papa Rooster (did you see I finally got your name right?). He also received a Handy Manny seat/stroller from Aunt Katie/Uncle Ben, a Betta fish and tank from Uncle Matt/soon-to-be auntie Anna and a driving toy and truck from Aunt Michelle/Uncle Buck. He received many other toys from our extended family resulting in a very packed house!!! Our little house is too small. :) I guess our new house will need to have a play room!!! He has so many new toys that each time we give him a different one its as if he is seeing it for the first time! He's been a movin' and a shakin' around the house...pushing around in his walker opening drawers, throwing toys on the floor and pulling ornaments off the tree. It's so flippin' cute. He's been extremely active which has really helped him to sleep better.

Chris received a Wii for Christmas although I consider it more of a family gift. He threatened me a few weeks back that I shouldn't buy him anything but it had already been purchased. Oops.

I received a toilet for Christmas...or at least that's what I like to say. Our upstairs pooper has been having issues shutting off and started leaking on Saturday so Chris finally gave in and bought a new one. Thanks to Jim and Chris and their fantastic installation- we now have a reliable toilet upstairs! It's very nice, I must say. A lovely pearly white color with a fantastic fit. :)

Chris and I are back to work this week but it's a short week. We have a few invites for New Year's but I am looking forward to sticking around home for a low-key dinner and night with my two boys.

As I sit and ponder how fantastic this last week has been, it's a good reminder of how fortunate we are to have stable jobs, a warm home, food on the table and a few extra bucks to spend how we wish. There are many families out there struggling to keep the lights on, the gas bill paid and their children fed. I pray that they find the strength to endure these hard times. I couldn't imagine waking up without being able to provide basic needs for my family.

As I look forward to 2010 - a new year, a new decade, I have come up with a few New Year's resolutions:

• Take better care of myself. Drink more water, eat healthier and try to get a good night's sleep.
• Don't let things that don't effect me bother me. Let's face it - I have plenty enough to worry about.
• Be more demanding and involved when it comes to Mason's care - whether its his therapies, clinic visits or (dare I say it) hospital stays.
  
• Save money.
• Love more. Hug more. Smile more. Kiss (my hubby) more.
• Enjoy every day....even the hard ones.
  

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and are planning for a wonderful 2010!

I can't think of a title

Our little Macemeister is such a sweetheart. He got Mommy and Daddy the BEST Christmas present ever....3 nights in a row without waking up. We're crossing our fingers that tonight will be the 4th. :)

Mason went in for his follow-up appointment after his hospital stay last week. Dr. Shepherd just asked about his temperament, checked his lungs (he was a little wheezy) and checked his ears. He has BAD ear infections in both ears. What is so puzzling about Mason is that you would NEVER know he is uncomfortable...he's been in an absolutely fantastic mood for the past 3 days. It's frustrating though, because now he is back on Amoxicillin, which gives him diarrhea. Mason - where's the gift receipt for this present to Mommy and Daddy?

Mason has another follow-up appointment on January 6th, the day before we head to the cities for Matt and Anna's wedding. Hopefully we get an all-clear because I don't want to put diarrhea pants in a tux. :)

We're looking forward to the next 3 days of Christmas festivities! Tomorrow is the Konkol celebration at Gramma Ducks and Grampa Roosters. Friday is at Gramma and Grampa Henrichs and Saturday Chris and I are hosting our small Mrdutt get-together. Let the merriment begin!

We have an answer!!!

I got a call from one of the residents at St. Joseph's this afternoon. Something actually showed up positive on Mason's labs - adenovirus. Basically, he had an upper respiratory infection from this virus which caused his fevers, diarrhea and croupy type cough! We actually found out what he had!!!

What is weird about the whole thing is that Mason started with seizures and then proceeded to follow with fever. I'm sure he already had the infection starting when the seizures started but the fevers caused the seizures to keep coming. I really want to get through the rest of this flu season with a healthy son so we will take extra precautions to keep him safe....wash his bedding more often, be careful where we set down his food/silverware, etc.

Mason has been so happy to be home today. He's been very playful but you can tell he's still lagging a bit because he gets tired out pretty quickly.

A story I don't think I shared with many yet...

This morning, Mason and I were sitting by the fish tank outside of his hospital room. Down the hall came a Child Life Specialist with a big bag full of toys. She wanted to make sure that Mason got a toy from Santa before he left the hospital. So she pulled out a big duck blanket, then a toy that he ripped open, then a teddy bear, and then another toy. I was in complete shock. I couldn't believe that she kept giving Mason toys! There were still 4 unopened gifts in his bag. She left the bag with us and said that we could take them home to open. I couldn't believe the generosity!!! Chris and I haven't had time to shop for Mason so we hadn't purchased anything for Christmas!!! We are leaving the unopened gifts for Christmas day, because it will truly be a surprise for Mason and us. After the holidays, we really need to do an audit of Mason's toys and we plan to donate many of them to kids that have none.

It was so great to see a smile on his face as he opened the gifts...which gets me very excited for Christmas day!!!

We're going home!!!

Mason had a fairly good night...he didn't sleep much (perhaps all the naps yesterday threw him off) but he seems to be in a pretty good mood. They will do rounds at 9 am ish and we should be in the process of going home (which takes 3-4 hours).

Yay Mace! It's going to be a nice relaxing weekend!!!

Mason doesn't want to sleep!!!

Mason doesn't want to give in for the night...quite the little crabster. He's interested in anything that doesn't have to do with sleep...visiting the fish tank, walking around, watching his movie with the farm animals...anything.

We are going to try and get him settled...in the meantime we are watching Grey's.

It's the last night in the hospital!!!

What Fish Tank

Mace got a visitor today. MICKEY MOUSE. and Pappa Randy and Grandma Duck.... I know he sees them too. He has taken another long nap, which aloud me to watch the Hangover with my Mom. Very interesting movie to watch with your mom. I highly recommend. The X-Ray results came back normal, so baring no fever spike we'll go home tomorrow.

~Dutt

Darn Fish Tank

So we have officially moved our room outside to the fish tank. We can tell that he has been in a hospital for a couple of days because the muscles in his legs have really tightened up. We'll need to get him in the stander and have his brace on at night for a couple of weeks.

They did a couple of X-rays to look closer at his lungs and we don't have those results yet. His WBC is normal, his inflammation has gone down a ton, and his hemoglobin has gone back up. Those are all great signs. Since we have taken him off the antibiotic we plan to stay another night to make sure a fever does not spike up. If we went home and he had a fever we would have to come right back here anyways. He he does spike a fever they'll sedate Mace and do an esophageal echo and a cat scan of his whole body to look for hiding pockets of bacteria or viruses. If he is sadated they'll do an MRI at the same time.

Thats all for now, I hope know one from my insurance company is reading this. If so i'm sure their blood pressure is going up. :)

~Dutt

A Great Night

Mace had a great night once we finally got him to sleep. He has officially been fever free for a whole day. Right now he is sucking down some pedisure through a bottle, and snuggeling with grandma. He woke up around 2:30 and 5:30, which are typical times for mace. They tried to take some blood this morning but were not able to get enough. They'll be coming back later to try again. Up to this point they have been great at finding enough blood.

Mace is probably wondering what he has to do to get back out to the fish tank.

Thats all for now

~Dutt

Mace and the fish tank

So Mace was doing so good we decided to see if he wanted to walk out to the fish tank outside our room. To this point Mace was unaware of everything outside our room. There is a huge fish tank and Christmas trees. So Mace's temp was getting close to 100 when we decided to let him play out by the fish tank. This was fine and dandy until Daddy decided it was time to snuggle and settle down for bed. Well Mace had other ideas he started to scream and stretch towards the door and the fish tank outside. The last thing I wanted was a screaming baby that was now over tired, with a rising temp. Well thanks to Grandmas Barb's help we were able to settle him down and he finally crashed hard. His temp is now back to down to the low 98's.

Hopefully the night is uneventful.
Good night everyone.

~Dutt

He's fighting the urge to sleep!

Mason is doing great...and is fighting the urge to sleep! We have him disconnected from his pulse-ox so we can enjoy some play time!

I am heading home to get some sleep in my OWN bed!!! I have a busy day of work tomorrow, so I'm going to miss my little guy. I'm sure Daddy will be providing plenty of updates.

Hoping for a great night of sleep for all!!!

We're bound and determined!!!

Mason is doing better. He has been awake for awhile now, and isn't too crabby. Dr. Dyke came to visit and we talked about alot of things.

He reassured us that Mason's heart is very strong and we shouldn't be worried when his heart rate is in the 200's.

We talked about the recurrence of these fevers...and the way they have been reappearing every 3 weeks now. He thinks its possible that we are masking an infection with the antibiotics he has been placed on each time. He is going to speak with the residents to try and convince them to take him off the antibiotics.

Care plan:
We will stop antibiotics to see if the fevers return. If they do not - GREAT. However, if they do, Dr. Dyke would want them to do another blood culture and do a echo by sticking a tube down his throat and looking at his heart "from the inside" for potential endocarditis. If nothing is found with the heart, they will call for a full CT scan to look for anything infectious. He would need to be sedated for the echo, so we would possibly discuss with Dr. Koehn to see if we could get an MRI at the same time. *Craziness*

He is also going to call Dr. Brad Sullivan. He is an infectious disease doctor with 30 years experience. We will just see if he has any thoughts...

So it will be an interesting night. I can't figure out what I want more - no fevers so we can go home on Friday or fevers so we can figure out what the heck this is!!!

Mason is better...

Mason seems to be doing better today. He's sleepy, but hasn't had a fever since 6:00 am this morning. He sounds a little congesty...but not bad.

Fr. Gerry was here yesterday to do the Anointing of the Sick with Mason. It was nice to have a visitor, and especially great for him to share that special sacrament with us.

All the prayers and God's healing must be working!

Today's Results

The chest x-ray and urine test were both negative. Blood work will be done tomorrow.

They notified Dr. Dyke that we were here with fever so he may stop by this afternoon.

Chest Xray and Urine Test Complete

They took his urine and did the chest x-ray, in one.

They came in to do his chest xray and he ws totally soaked. They had applied a bag to his "you know what" to collect a urine sample and when they came in, not only was that full, but the entire crib as well.

Waiting to hear the results of both.

Haven't heard from cardiology either...

Today's Plan

We are going to stop the Diazepam when Mason spikes a fever to see what happens (cross your fingers - no seizures!) The Diazepam is causing him to be very lethargic.

They did rounds...so they are going to repeat a urine test and a chest x-ray today. The only thing that has remained high with all his blood tests is his CRP (I have no idea what that stands for). This means that he has some sort of inflammation. Because of it being Day 6 with fevers and inflammation still high, they now need to consult cardiology. We aren't sure if it will be Dr. Dyke that comes to see him or someone else...but they may do an echo.

Tomorrow they are going to do a blood draw for another blood count to check WBC, etc.

Dr. Koehn also stopped by. She is the one that made the decision to stop the diazepam. That means his only anti-seizure drugs are the Tegretol (Carbamazepine) & Keppra. She also said that we are going to hold off on the EEG and MRI until he is healthy. The MRI will be one month out (exactly 1 1/2 years since his last one) and the EEG will likely be in the next few weeks. If we were to do the EEG now, all it would show is that he is on meds that are affecting his brain electricity.

So more tests...and waiting...

Floating Temp

Mason slept from 10:30 pm - 3:30 am. At 3:30 he started to fuss a bit so Barb had them come in and take his temp. It has been floating around from 99.0 - 100.8 for the last 2 1/2 hours. They check it every half hour because they won't give ibuprofen until it reaches 101.

She fed him Pediasure at 4:00 am and he fell back asleep. He's been sleeping off and on until now.

They will be in shortly for his 6:00 am temp check, so hopefully its back down.

Sleeping Soundly

Mason has been sleeping since 10:30. His fever broke while I was holding him so my entire left side is soaked.

The nurses were just in and his temp is down to 97.1. His heart rate is 106 - the lowest it's been all night. It was scaring us getting up into the 210's earlier tonight.

We're trying to get some shut-eye. I've got to say...some nurses need a lesson in tip-toeing.

Fever going up again

His fever was 99.4 at 6:45, and 100.8 at 7:00. They can't give him anything until it hits 101. He's sleeping, but not a deep sleep because he wakes up often.

I need to check his temp soon, I'm sure it won't take long to go up to 101.

Mason is Playful

Mason is the most alert that he has been in the last 5 days. He is watching a movie now.

We've been pushing the liquids because he was a tad dehydrated. His fever is still lingering in the low-grade 99ish level.

They think he may have croup...he had some noisy breathing and a barky cough. They would give us steroids for that, but are waiting until tonight to see how it sounds.

P.S. Gramma Barb is back...and she's doing fine. Some minor car damage that is being repaired.

Fever came down, breathing still labored

Mason is awake, trying to play...but he's lethargic. The seizure drug is to blame.

So far, from a neurologic perspective, he's doing okay...but still got a temp that is rising and falling.

Every single test, including his poop test is negative.

We are out of isolation. Luckily, this isolation period only lasted an hour.

Updates Across the Board

We just received word that Gramma Barb was in a car accident. She is okay. She was on her way back to Eau Claire for a 2:30 appointment and got in an accident near Owen Withee (Hwy 29). No other details yet but we will update everyone when we hear more.

Mason's fever is back, it was 102.3 at 12:15 pm. They gave him more Ibuprofen, Diazepam and his first shot of antibiotics. He is having fever chills and labored breathing.

Oh, and we are in isolation again. Since he is having the poop test done, we shouldn't leave until we get results on that. Oh, and back to the masks.

Prayers please.

Bathtub Pictures!

So I forgot to tell you all about the call I got yesterday!

I got a call from Reliant Rehab. They are the company that is supposed to get us the bath seat and the stroller. Medicaid has approved the purchase of both, but before billing at Reliant can place the order, they need an approval or denial letter from Chris's private insurance. The lady at Reliant has tried contacting our private insurance and hasn't heard from them since Oct. 1.

Well, I left a strongly worded voicemail with our private insurance yesterday to get things moving. I haven't heard back so I will be calling again today. I don't even care if they deny paying it, because once that denial letter is filed, Reliant can get the billing going and order our items.

Today we decided Mason needed a bath...REALLY bad. He hasn't had a bath in 5 days. The nurse brought in a bath seat which is almost identical to the bath seat that we are ordering. Mason loved his bath and spent a little time splashing around!


Nothing is better than the live version. Pardon my super high squeeky voice.




P.S. Mason is sleeping again.

Update after Rounds

So 5 docs came in for rounds...here's an update.

At this point, EVERYTHING has come back negative.

After 5 days of fever (today is day 5) they start to consider inflammatory diseases. At that point, they would involve Dr. Dyke because of the concerns with the heart.

Mason has had diarrhea so they are going to test his stool (ewww, I feel sorry for that lab tech).

They also noticed a red right ear (ear infection) so they are starting him on an antibiotic for 2 times daily for the next 10 days. Since he already has diarrhea and antibiotics CAUSE diarrhea, they are also going to put him on a probiotic. Probiotics counteract the diarrhea. It is unlikely that the ear infection was there the whole time, but rather came about after all this other stuff.

They may book a time on Thursday or Friday for an MRI and hope that we can do it after discharge as an outpatient. An EEG will be done today or tomorrow.

So bring on MORE DRUGS! Ugh.

Sleepy Mace

Mace is dog tired now at 6:45 and his temp is 98.5. The Ibuprofane has worked. They drew blood for another test to check his levels. That's all for now. Back to sleep for everyone in this room.

~Dutt

F*@K !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At 10:30 he his temp was 98.4. AT 11:30 it was 101.9. Mason then slept and at 2:30 his temp was 98.4. At 5:30 it's 102.6. I'm running out of words to describe how pissed I'm getting. The second blood culture came back, and you guessed it negative. At rounds today we're going to suggest possibly transferring to a children's hospital. Grandma has been great, and I have been able to get some sleep. I'm hoping if I sleep long enough I'll wake up and everything will be better. It's so upsetting because last night we thought we were rounding a corner. We even got Mason to laugh a little.

I'll update when we know more.

~Dutt

We thought he was down for the night...

Mason fell asleep at 6:00 and we thought he might be down for the night...

Not so!

Thanks Paula for the drums!


Fever hasn't come back since 4pm...not sure what tomorrow holds. Trying to decide if Mom is going to go home for the night or not...

Our current state of mind...

Dr. Koehn's Visit

They gave him Ibuprofen and his temp is back down to normal...

They took blood for another blood culture (since his temp came back) at 4:30.

Dr. Koehn visited at 5:00. We are discussing a possible EEG tomorrow or Wednesday and if he gets better, doing a brain MRI as an outpatient. Mason would need to be sedated and they can't sedate him unless he's healthy. Mason's first brain MRI was in July of 2008, and it is necessary to have 1 1/2 - 2 years in between studies. The brain grows so slow that you need to have a big gap in between studies for comparison. Or at least that's what I'm told.

I asked about flashing lights. I know...weird question...but I had read that flashing lights can cause a seizure. Not so...at least not with the type of seizures that Mason has.

The bottom-line is: We don't know shit. However, they may decide to test his shit. That's the only thing they haven't tested.

P.S. - We are losing it. LOL

Mom is back (and so is the fever)

So they wanted to keep him off the ibuprofen and tylenol to see if the fever came back...and it did...it's 102.1.

His H1N1, RSV and regular flu all came back negative. Good...but still leaves us with questions. Now we don't have to wear the masks!!!

Today is turning out to be a crappy day. On my way back to Marshfield, my driver's side windshield wiper flew off and got ran over by oncoming traffic. It's not a good winter day to lose a windshield wiper...

Ugh...ready for some good news...or at least a little laugh. Anyone got some jokes?

Wakie Wakie Mace

Well it's noon and Mace has woken up. He woke up pretty happy but within 15 minuets you could tell there is still something making him feel uneasy. When you look into his eyes you can tell he is not normal. The Micky Mouse DVD's give him a smile for couple of seconds. We tried feeding him so baby food but he wasn't in the mood. We're waiting for some pedisure without fiber to give to him. We'll give him that instead of milk to help keep his calorie intake up. I just hope and pray that his fever does not return. I have a gut feeling that it will. I hope Mace proves me wrong. Just got word that Doc. Keohn will be able to see us after 3:0o today so hopfully we have some test results to go over with her.

Thats all for now.

~Dutt

Back at the Fort

Well I'm back at the hospital fort and Mace is still sleeping since Grandma Duck arrived. His temp as stayed down and his pulse is down to 115 range instead of the 150-170 he was at last night. Thats a good sign. They plan to take him off Tylenol and Ibuprofen this afternoon to see if his fever comes back. If it does they'll take more blood immediately to try to find out what is doing this. I'll be going back to Portage County around 1:oo for an interesting Court Case. Hopefully his head brain doc will be here before I leave.

Besides that we'll let him sleep. It's giving his body a chance to get used to the barage (sp?) of new meds.

~Dutt

No fever since midnight

Mason's temp is gone...he's a little irritable...so he's still receiving ibuprofen and tylenol. When he was awake this morning, he was out of it, but it's probably because he's getting used to his new meds. He's on so many meds, it's ridiculous - Tegretol, Keppra, Baclofen, Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Diazepam & Prevacid.

It's a good thing they keep track and bring the drugs in when he's due because we don't have a clue.

Gramma Duck is here with Mason...I am heading into work for a bit to evaluate my workload for the week, and Chris should be back here at the hospital by 10:00/10:30 am.

The roads are icky, so a part of me wants to just hang tight...

We'll post later when some of the results come back.

So So Night

The good news is we have been able to keep Mace's fever down since midnight. So he was able to sleep semi ok. That means that Mom and Dad were able to get a couple of hours each. We did notice that Mace was still a little restless trying to sleep. He would violently arch his back a couple times in a row then try to nestle in to sleep. Five minuets would go by and he would arch again. We do not know what is causing this and this is new for Mace. We hope he is not reacting to a new drug. We'll see what the day brings. I'm going into work for a Board of Adjustment meeting then I'll be back to hopefully get some answers from the multiple test their running.

Be back in a bit little buddy.
~Dutt

I'm all out of clever titles

It's amazing how fast Mason's fever takes over when the meds wear off. His temp was up to 101.4 again so he received ibuprofen. Daddy also gave him milk to help calm his tummy for the night.

He's uneasy, lots of jerks in trying to fall back asleep. He had a good wet diaper (that's for you Barb!) so he's still getting plenty of liquids.

Daddy has been super and let me get 2 hours of sleep already. I'm not exactly sure why he's sucking up and being so nice. :)

Iron Chef is on T.V. so it's distracting me from going back to sleep. That...and the uneasy baby in the room.

We're doing okay...

Oh how I miss you Mr. Sleep

Mason is sleeping, as of 8:00 pm. They gave him the Diazepam and we're pretty sure it knocked him out. His heart rate and temp was starting to climb again so he received tylenol at 7:40 pm.

Chris and I really need to catch some shut-eye since Mason is sleeping, but we know they will be in at 9:00 with more meds & some milk for Mace, so we're hesitant to even lay down yet.

Mason feels pretty cool at this point, only has a low-grade temp so we're hoping it stays down...

We'll have more test results tomorrow (H1N1 & blood culture).

Nighty night for now!

It's Baaaaack

Mason woke up at 4:00 from a good 2 1/2 hour nap...he started getting fever chills again and his temp was 102. We have all the doctors stunned...even on fever reducers this fever is popping up.

It's gonna be a long night. Gramma Duck is coming here tomorrow morning to watch Mason so Chris and I can get to work to check in on a few things. Chris is coming back mid-day and I am coming back late afternoon to relieve Gramma Duck. Chris then needs to head back late afternoon for a meeting. Then, depending on how things are going...Gramma Barb may come back tomorrow night.

It's hard to have only one person here with Mason at a time because he takes so much cuddling and you really can't put him down for a bathroom break or anything. 2 people minimum is really necessary to keep him happy.

We are determined to get some answers...

Grrrrrrrr ,, Pissed off Daddy

Well his fever is back. It went up from 99 to 102 in a half hour. So he is back on the ib profin. I agree with my wife.... THIS SUCKS. We still have no idea whats causing this. He is showing no signs of a cold, flu, ear ache, head ache, or any other aches I can't think of. The WBC if normal so that makes this even more confusing. One of these test has to come back positive our we're going to go nuts. Kinda sucks that we're hoping for a positive result, but at least then we know what we're fighting.
Mace is now back asleep so we can semi enjoy the packer game. If anyone is in Marshfield can you bring me some Jack, I think i'm going to need some.

~Dutt

RSV and H1N1 test

This totally sucks. They are going to swab him for RSV and H1N1 meaning that we now have to wear masks and are quarantined to the room again. This sucks.

It is unlikely that he has either, but Mason has surprised us before. I think they (nurses and docs) know how unlikely it is too. But it's protocol.

Did I mention this SUCKS?

They are holding off before giving him more ibuprofen because his temp is down...they want to see if his fever broke or if we're just masking it. No other symptoms yet.

Talked with the neurologist on call. She is pretty certain that these seizures came from his fever...but again, no idea what is causing the fever. I can't believe that they can't figure this out. They can't blame it on an ear infection this time because they had an attending doctor check his ears and she said they look fine.

Dr. Koehn is on hospital duty starting tomorrow so we hope to see her and talk about his new anti-seizure plan with the Keppra instead of the Tegretol.

We are all going to watch the game here. Chris and I are heading home after the game and will be packing for a few more nights, just in case. Don't have a clue what the plan for the week is, but I have to say how appreciative I am of all the help that has been offered and given thus far.

Attached is a picture of our little Macemeister. He's a tad crabby, but still managed a smile for the camera:

Fever still up

Mason's tests all came back fine. This is a big puzzle for everyone.

We can't get Mason's fever to come down. It's staying in the 101 - 102 range and then peaks before meds are due. They are going to check it every 2 hours. He just had a rectal temp of 101.6.

He is starting to get maxed out on his daily intake of Tylenol. We need to get this temp down soon...or we are going to have a bear of a son when only Ibuprofen is given.

We all had a crazy night with not much sleep but we're doing okay.

New Anti-Seizure Med

They put Mason on a new anti-seizure med...Keppra. He has been on Tegretol (Carbamazepine) since June of 2008...and with seizures popping up continuously this fall now, the on-call neurologist thinks that perhaps it isn't being as effective as it once was. The most likely side effect of Keppra is irritability...which is definitely not something we want...but we will watch him to see how he does on it. He is still getting the valium suspension drug every 8 hours and tylenol/ibuprofen regimen every 3 hours. The ibuprofen seems to be the one controlling his fever the best...as when it is time for the new dose...his fever starts climbing again.

Test results thus far:
WBC - Normal. This is extremely puzzling because his WBC shot up so high about 6 weeks ago and they attributed it to seizures. The seizures this time around are much more intense and haven't caused his WBC to budge at all. Also, whatever is causing his fever is probably viral and usually WBC would be up with that...right?

Tegretol level in blood - This could take a few days...but won't matter much now that they are switching him to Keppra.

Chest x-ray - haven't heard anything yet. We assume its fine but will check with docs in morning.

Urine test - no results yet.

The way his fever has been climbing back up every 5 hours...its not likely we'll be going home Sunday. In the morning I will need to make preparations for work and work out a schedule with Chris for being here with Mason. It's hard being stuck at a hospital without the same conveniences of home...but this is the best place we could be right now for our little tyke. I've got to say too: Gramma Barb is the most patient, loving Gramma that Mason could have. Chris and I will never be thankful enough for all her help in situations like this. Her nursing background is super helpful, especially when my/Chris's brains seem to stop working in high-stress situations.

We're all laying down to rest again...Gramma Barb is holding Mason, who slept for 1 1/2 hours, was up for just as long, is now sleeping again...

Sleepy angel

Mason has been sleeping since 7 pm. His temp is back down to normal and he hasn't had any more seizures. The Diastat must have worked.

Mason is going to get some milk and meds...so hopefully that's enough to keep him content for the night.

We're praying for a peaceful night.

Whew...catching our breath.

For the last post, yes, I mean Mason...not Chris. Wow - had a *blonde* moment. No offense blondes.

Mason had a seizure at 5:30 pm that lasted 90 seconds and a seizure at 6:00 pm that lasted 60 seconds. The nurses witnessed both episodes. They gave him a tylenol supository to bring his fever down (102.7 at 5:45 pm) and just gave him Diastat to stop these fevers. He is trying to poop out the Diastat but we are pinching his butt cheeks because the Diastat needs 5 minutes in there to absorb.

Mason isn't eating at this point...hasn't eaten since this morning because he didn't have an appetite and now we can't give anything for fear of him aspirating into his lungs.

We are hoping this Diastat allows him to rest a bit...he's had a crazy afternoon. We are in room 341 at St. Joes...but if you want info...send Chris or I an email...so we don't wake up Mason.

3 tests...and an overnight stay...

Chris had a urine test, blood test and chest x-ray in the last 2 hours. He's very tired, but it's hard to sleep in these rooms with all the interruptions and the bright lights. Plus, he's probably hungry...

They are going to admit us tonight to monitor him and see if we can get some answers. We told them our frustration with having this occur every 3 weeks...for the past 9 weeks we have been at this hospital 3 times.

Mason is settling in now...I am going to grab a bite to eat and prepare for our night at the hospital...

Mace Meister is sleeping...

Mason is asleep in the bed here in the ER. His temp rectally was 100.6 and he hasn't had a seizure since 10 am. They checked his ears and the right one was a little pink and the left one had too much wax to see.

The ER doctor is calling the on-call peds doctor and the on-call peds neurologist and we are looking at a potential blood test, urine test and chest xray. We aren't sure if the peds doctors will agree but the 104.7 temp is something that they aren't treating lightly.

We'll update more when we know more...

All I want for Christmas is some answers

Mason had a rough night. He fell asleep last night at about 6:00 pm and over the course the of night, had a few seizures. At 8 am, he had a teeny-meeny seizure that lasted about 10 seconds and Gramma Barb said "Enough of this, he's getting the carbamazepine suspension". He received that at 8 am. (.3 mL). At 10 am, he had a seizure that lasted 2 minutes...his longest seizure to date. Gramma Barb gave him Tylenol to try and bring his fever down, and at 10:30, he registered an axillary temp of 104.7. (Forgive the details...its the only way I can go back for reference).

She called Chris and I...I called the nurse line at Marshfield Clinic - and we are now in transit to the ER in Marshfield. We have a concern with the seizures but we need to find out where this high temp is coming from...the nurse mentioned a few possibilities - urinary tract infection, ear infection, possibly swine flu.

So I am at home, making plans to potentially be "admitted" over at Marshfield today. Chris and Barb are on their way from the farm and are meeting me with Mason in Marshfield. It's a 2 hour drive, so I hope its going okay. Matt - I am soooo sorry to pull away your bro for your bachelor party today...we promise to make it up to you...

I am trying to call everyone with updates...but everytime things like this come up...I realize just how HUGE our family and friend network is...so I apologize if you get first-hand knowledge from the blog. Honestly though, this is probably the quickest way to get an update.

So HI HO, HI HO, It's off to Marshfield I go....

I'll post when I get a moment to breathe and collect...

Gray Hair #367

Mason is such a stink-pot. I'm starting to think he has an agenda. He knows Mom and Dad are going to be at a work party tonight and he wants to make sure that he is the 1st thing on our mind.

Grampa Randy and Gramma Duck dropped Mason off with Gramma Barb at 3:30 today. Shortly thereafter, on the way back to the farm, Mason had a seizure that lasted 35 seconds.

Mason - I'm very sorry that I'm not with you right now, but you are in the best of hands with Gramma/Nurse Barb. Don't have any more seizures and scare us, okay?

We'll keep everyone updated...

Mason's Newest Skill

Mason has been taking off developmentally as of late. He's been walking like crazy, has really done great with grabbing toys, and has started to show a lot of curiosity in exploring his surroundings. His fine motor skills could still use some work, but he's been doing new things that have really excited all his family and his therapists. His favorite habit when he's in his walker or high chair with toys is to push them off the edge and give us a funny look like "Are you going to pick that up for me now?"

Last night his curiosity got the best of him...and he learned how to open kitchen drawers.

It is so adorable, because he would get so excited pulling the drawer open and then shutting it again. You just have to see it:



I have a feeling this new skill is going to cause us trouble down the road...
*Smiles*

Are you sure he's only part Polish?

For those of you that haven't yet heard this story...it's better late than never.

This weekend, my Dad, Chris, Matt & Jim all decided to take down the garage at our property (the only thing left after our "house burning" from 2 months ago).

Chris was inside of the garage cutting the stringers so the boards could be saved.

Well, talk about wrong place at the wrong time...the roof and one wall collapsed, on top of Chris. One wall also pushed Jim out of the way...throwing him a good 10 feet. Both of them blacked out for a moment and both of them are very sore even 3 days later.

The girls were not at the house at the time this happened, with the exception of Anna, Michelle and Haley (Mic and Haley seeing it happen from Mom and Dad's place) who then ran over to help. Matt and my Dad lifted the wall/roof off of Chris, who's first comment was "Thank goodness the girls weren't here"...and he's right...I would have flipped out.

We are very thankful to have Chris and Jim with us today...as it could have been much worse. The boys will never live this down...and I am still shocked at how it even happened in the first place.

Christmas Home Preparations

We all have stockings. Even Addy.
I'm looking for a brown one though, with a doggie bone on it. :)

Our gorgeous nativity set. I got this as a gift from Barb a few years back and it's my favorite thing to set up every holiday.

This is the first year we have put up decorations outside...and all I got done was the two arbor vitae's in the front. If I get motivated...I'd like to do more...

Did I mention that Mason LOVES christmas lights? :)

Preparing for Christmas

Today we bought our Christmas tree. This is what I consider the start to my official Christmas season, and it will only get better from here. I love love love this holiday.

I am especially excited about Christmas this year because I think Mason will understand it more than last year. Watching his reactions to the sounds and lights of this season will be extra special this Christmas. We have been through many ups and downs with him this year, but overall the year was definitely better than his 1st year. He's growing up so fast...so for the next month....I'm going to soak it all up.

Tonight the house will be transformed. I am determined to get ALL of our Christmas decorations up tonight (inside, not out). Chris is helping me although he swears he's Mr. Grinch himself.

YAY for the Holidays!

Fire Down Below!

Poor Mason is experiencing some issues with his behind...and apparently the antibiotics are to blame. He only has 3 more days on them, so things should return to normal. He had a fairly decent night of sleep, slept until 2 am, fussed a bit, but then went back to sleep until 5 am. He's now down for a nap this morning.

I can officially say that it's been 53 hours since his last seizure!!! His last seizure was Thursday morning at 4 am ish. He has been in a fairly good mood lately, so we are glad to see a happy boy this weekend.

Katie, Mom and I are heading to Eau Claire today. I am going to order my bridesmaid dress for Katie's wedding and we will be looking at mother of the bride dresses. The boys are out hunting again and I hope Chris sees and shoots a nice big buck today.

It's gorgeous outside! I'm going to crank up some Trans-Siberian Orchestra and jam!!!

A Great Thanksgiving!

Today was a great day. Mason started out a bit crabby this morning, but after a great 2 hour nap this afternoon, woke up in a terrific mood.

As far as the turkey bake-off, I think we can officially call it a tie. I was told that mine was more moist (probably because I brined it), but Chris's had a unique applewood smoke flavor (he did it on the weber with apple cider and wood chips). It was fun competing with my hubby. We both talked a lot of "game" today but we are both very proud of eachother.

We also had sweet potatoes with apricots (YUM), Apple Stuffing (YUM), Mashed Potatoes and Scalloped Potatoes (YUM), 2 kinds of cranberries, green bean casserole, mandarin orange jello, rolls, corn, shrimp appetizer, spinach dip appetizer, and 4 different types of pies (ALL YUM). Oh, and did I mention a great sweet red wine? Afterwards everyone went into a coma and fell asleep in the living room...I will have to see if I can get those pics from Mom to post,

Tonight I plan to be in bed early, because I plan to get up at 2:30 to get ready for Black Friday shopping. My sisters and I have done it many years in a row now, and as crazy as it is, we love it. It helps me get into the Christmas spirit.

This weekend we head west to the Mrdutt Farm to shop, bake, watch the boys shoot deer, and get our Christmas tree on Sunday (YAY)! A busy fantastic weekend!

I hope you all had a great holiday.

Turkey Day 2009

We are so grateful to have a happy boy this morning. Last night left little to be desired. Mason fell asleep at 8:30 last night and was very twitchy all night. He would fall fast asleep and all of a sudden he would arch back and kick and wake up. We aren't sure if this was seizure related or not.

At 4:30 am, he had a mini-seizure, it was only about 15-20 seconds long. We decided to give him a little of the suspension drug rather than waiting for another one, hoping it would help him sleep. Plus, Mommy and Daddy were really craving at least an hour of uninterrupted sleep.

He did not have another seizure as of 8:00 this morning. He is in a very good mood and ate a great breakfast. We're hopeful that his great mood will continue throughout the day.

Mason is taking a bath and then will sit down to enjoy the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, while Mommy and Daddy get busy with the cleaning and cooking. Then we will have everyone over for the Packer game, and hoping to plan our dinner to fall during half-time. :) GO PACK!

Happy Thanksgiving Day all!

Denial, Anger, Defeat (Warning: Post contains massive amounts of sarcasm)

I've gone through all the emotions today. When I went to work this morning I was crabby and couldn't believe we were dealing with this again. Then it turned to anger...pissed off at the entire medical community and their failure to communicate with understanding. Finally, about 5 minutes ago, I reached defeat when I woke up from a nap and realized I have an insane to-do list and don't want to deal with any of it.

Today was one of those days I wish I could start over...

I called Dr. Koehn at 8 am with a few questions...1) why did the increase in the drug not prevent the 3 seizures we had that morning, 2) should I give him the Diastat as soon as the pharmacy has it available and 3) is this something that we are going to have to deal with FOREVER? I mean C'MON - isn't there anything that works? PLUS - these seizures came without a fever trigger...so what the heck triggered these?

I also called the pharmacy and they had the Diastat available so I ran there, picked it up, realized the script on the drug was not what I expected...dropped it off at Grammas, and went back to work, since we weren't sure if we should give it to him or not.

The script reads: "Use 5 MGs rectally as directed for seizures greater than 5 minutes in duration or more than 2 in one hour".

Okay - seriously...Mason's history of seizures has NEVER shown a seizure more than 5 minutes or had 2+ in one hour.

Finally, 3 hours later, Dr. Koehn's nurse called me back. I started crying on the phone with her, mostly out of desperation because my questions were not getting answered. Since Dr. Koehn was in her office, and I was probably scaring the crap out of the nurse with my emotional rantings, she put me through to Dr. Koehn directly. Below is our conversation addressing my concerns, not necessarily in the order above, but discussed nevertheless:

Question 2 - Dr. K: No, you should not give the Diastat...it is intented for seizures longer than 5 minutes or 2 seizures in an hour. Me: - what good does this do us? Dr K:Well, you could go back to the Lorazepam. Me: Are you speaking of the Lorazepam that was the potential cause of his intense 3 day unconsolable irritability? - No, not happening. Dr. K: Well, there is a 3rd option...there is a suspension Diazepam, the same drug used in the Diastat, that can be given through his G-tube when he has 2 or more seizures within 24 hours. Me: Seriously? How come you didn't tell me about this YESTERDAY? You know, when you saw us in the ER? *Words modified for drama*

Question 1 - Dr. K: His anti-seizure med can take up to 5 days for his body to have a new level that can fight off his breakthrough seizures. Me: 5 days???!!! WTF? Again, how come you did not tell me this yesterday? *Again, I changed words for emphasis, I am smart enough to know to not swear at a doctor*

Question 3 - Me: If Mason did not have a fever, why is he still getting these breakthrough seizures? Dr. K: Well, he is coming down with something, so perhaps any illness will cause a breakthrough seizure. Me: What illness? Dr. K: Oh you know, his ear infection. Me: What ear infection? You mean the slight redness in his right ear that wasn't even diagnosed by the ER doctor as an infection, but perhaps the start of one, so he started us on antibiotics just to be safe? Dr. K: Yes. Perhaps his ear infection caused the seizure. Me: SO, what you are telling me is even a slight redness in his ear, something we would never be aware of, can cause a breakthrough seizure? So, if he accidentally pricks his finger, do you think that would cause one? How about a headache, something else we would not be able to diagnose? UGH. I think this was another moment when defeat set it.

I learned today that I can NEVER assume. Never ever ever. I also realized that I need to have Mason's complete medical history with dates, times, amounts and everything else that could be considered relevant, easily accessible in my memory. Even in a moment consumed by stress, worry, anxiety and doubt...

The cherry to top my day off was when I realized that I forgot to pick up Mason's diazepam suspension drug before driving all the way to Gramma's to get him. Thankfully I have a very patient son and puppy, who didn't mind the extra drive up to Wausau before going home.


Hey Chris - You wanna make me a Brandy Old-Fashioned?! PUHLEASE?!

*Praying for a seizure-free night*

Rough morning

Mason had a seizure at 6:10 this morning, but it only lasted about 30 seconds. He was quite irritable this morning, so I think he just wants to cuddle and nap with Gramma today. I have a few errands and calls to make this morning to figure what the heck we're going to do.

Chris and I are functioning at about 3 hours sleep each, so bear with us if you try to communicate with us today and all we do is look through you with a blank stare.

Hope today is better.

Seizure #2 of the night

Another seizure at 2:55 am, lasted 60 seconds. Planning to call Dr. Koehn at 8 am and run to Weston to pick up the Diastat, in case they keep coming.
Dear Lord, please help our son.

Was this a bad dream?

Mason had a little seizure at 12:10 am tonight. Chris decided to sleep with him in our bed, just so he was there in case we felt him jolt up and have one. Chris called my name and I got there just as he was coming out of it, in his aura like state. It only lasted about 20-30 seconds and wasn't as violent as some have been. He seemed very sleepy afterwards, like usual, but who isn't at 12:10 am?

There was no fever or anything else to prompt this one either. We hope this one is the only one tonight, as I did not pick up his diastat yet...the pharmacy did not have the drug until Wednesday. We don't want to have to use the diastat...as it is a type of valium that puts him to sleep and really isn't a drug that we could use consistently.

Guess the increase in the drug isn't preventing these after all...Good thing Dr. Koehn is on call Thurs-Sun!

The Best Therapy

Mason got back to Gramma's house at about 11:30 and ate a really good lunch. With his lunch he got his next dose of Tegretol. We aren't sure if it was the super exhausting morning, his increase in meds, or a combination of both, but he then proceeded to sleep for the next 4 hours (noon - 4). Chris came home with him at 4:30, he ate supper at 5:00, with his next Tegretol dose, and was sleeping by 6:30. His sleep has been a little restless so far but he hasn't woken up.

He was a tad irritable while he was awake tonight, but you could still manage to get a smile out of him if you played the peek-a-boo game. I also tested him to see if he would take a few steps for me, and he did. ( I think I was secretly nervous about him being without oxygen and somehow losing that developmental milestone).

Chris and I are getting our house prepared for our Thanksgiving guests...all 8 of them. :) We were expecting about 8 more, but the Lemke household has been taken over by the swine flu and other family members have made different plans. Nevertheless, we are excited about having some guests and about our turkey bake-off. (Chris is starting to talk smack and it's making me grumpy. Too bad he doesn't know about all the tricks I've got up my sleeve).
Lemkes - I have arranged for personal delivery of my wonderful roasted turkey (trust me, its better than the grilled) on Thursday so you can all sit tight and get well and still enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner. If you're lucky...it will be just enough trytophan to put the kids into a nice, deep, healing sleep.

It's time for Chris and I to call it a night. We're both nervous about it, worried that something is going to happen during the night (as it most commonly does). We're going to pray that the night is calm and uneventful. *Sigh*

Thank you to everyone that has taken some time to pray for Mason today. It makes our job as parents so much easier, knowing that others are doing some of the praying for us. We never thought that parenthood would be this difficult, but it has truly taught us to cherish and be thankful for the good times. As much as our son worries us, he brings joy to our lives ten-fold. Keeping this blog and talking to family and friends is the best therapy we could ever have. Mason is so lucky to have all of you.

~Hugs & Kisses~

Sorry to keep you all worried...

8:10 this morning...Mason had another seizure and stopped breathing for about 30 seconds. His lips turned blue. Grandpa walked in the house and called 9-1-1 and a first responder was there within minutes. The ambulance was there within 20 minutes. I was on the phone with Grandpa, and Daddy and we told them we wanted Mason only to go to Marshfield, no where else. On my way to Marshfield I called Dr. Koehn's nurse to update them on the episode so when we arrived at the ER, Dr. Koehn stopped by less than 30 minutes later.

His oxygen stats are fine. No more seizures. No fever. Essentially, we have no idea why this happened. We are increasing his seizure meds again (3 x daily vs. 2 x daily) and putting him on a different drug in case he get seizures. We think that his intense irritability a few weeks ago was caused by the Lorazepam so they are giving us Diastat. So many meds, I can't even figure out how to spell 'em.

Dr. Koehn asked us if we wanted to spend the day here or go home and she highly encouraged us to spend the day at home and monitor him, because there is so much sickness going around the hospital. So Daddy is going to drive Grandma Duck home (who got her first ride in an ambulance today) so that she can color her hair to cover up all the grays she just got. :)

Dr. Koehn also explained that his seizures could cause his WBC to increase which could have been the reason for his high WBC test 2 weeks ago (Nov. 7th).

Oh, by the way, Mason has some slight redness in his right ear (was his left ear 2 weeks ago) so they are going to give Omoxicilin (sp?) to try and take care of that.

We should be leaving here by 11:30/noon, but we know how long a discharge can take. Can't wait to see how much that ambulance ride is going to cost! UGH!


We are hopeful for a healthy thanksgiving.

Our Weekend Recap 2

Meanwhile, in the house, Mason was amazing us with a new trick he just learned. We were able to catch it later that night on video, but if you can believe it, he did 10X this much earlier in the day!!!

I got in lots of cuddling with my little boy and so did the doggies:


It was a great weekend. We are very excited about Mason's new skill and where it will take him. We can't wait to show Leslie tomorrow in therapy!!! (I just hope he does it for her).

This week brings upon us more new adventures. This is my first year cooking a turkey. I went to our local Piggly Wiggly tonight to get my turkey to make sure it had proper time to thaw this week. They did not have an 18 pounder like I was hoping so instead I purchased 2 - 10 pounders. When I brought them to the car (where Chris and Mason were snuggling) we both got the same idea. Let's have a TURKEY BAKE-OFF! I will be making a traditional turkey in the oven. Chris will be making a turkey on the grill. We'll see who has the better turkey! Should be interesting! I am sure I will have plenty to blog about!!!

Hope everyone has a great week preparing for Thanksgiving. Chris and I have so much to be thankful for, & we are excited to share this holiday with our family and friends!

Our Weekend Recap

Chris didn't shoot any deer...but had fun making his audition tapes for the Outdoor Channel:



He could use a camera guy. :)

Hey ya'll...did you see the 30 pointer?

Tomorrow Chris and I are heading out to the Mrdutt farm for what is now my umpteenth time at joining the boys for Opening Deer Weekend. It is one of my favorite weekends of the year because the girls hang out in the house and bake cookies, play with the kiddos and take a few shopping trips (ya know - girly stuff). We await a gun shot, or a phone call from the boys about a deer that they shot. My job is to drive the truck back to the deer to pick it up and haul it back to the house until they take it in to get registered. My job is pretty simple and I enjoy my role in the whole thing. My sister, being the vet she is, likes to get there fast so she can do the "gutting" and evaluate everything about the inside of the deer that she can. GROSS. She even spends a few hours in the blind with her sweetie pie, which I think is something Ben enjoys until Katie has an opinion about how (and when) he should shoot.

Last year, it went a little bit like this in their blind:

Katie - Hey - there's a deer!
Ben - Yes, I saw it 10 minutes ago, while you were sleeping. It's too small.
Katie - No it's not...shoot it.
Ben - No, it's too small.
Katie - Shoot it, darn it. It's right there, its a easy shot.
Ben - Seriously Katie, it's really small.
Katie - So what. Shoot it. You're just afraid you'll miss.
Ben - Do you promise to leave me alone then? Fine! *Bang*
Katie - You missed it!
Ben - No I didn't...do you see anything moving?
Katie - Let's go see!
Ben - No, give it a minute.
Katie - No, let's go! Let's go get it.

They walk up to the deer. It's a tiny spiker.

Ben - See, I told you it was small.
Katie - Whatever.

(This is probably not how the conversation went at all...but this is how I remember it.)

Someday I plan to take hunter's safety so I can go hunting with the boys. The problem is, I have never even shot a gun. Not even once. It scares the crap out of me. Plus, I don't like venison. Chris asked me once why I would want to go hunting if I don't like venison and I simply said "I won't shoot anything that won't go on the wall". So maybe next year, or the one after that. I almost did it last year, until I found out that the Nabozny boy was taking it too (I am intimidated by 12 year olds). Someday.

So it begins, the umpteenth year of deer hunting. I hope my hubby shoots something, something with a big rack...because I know that would make him happy. I hope all the boys fill their tags because that means more crazy driving through the hills for me.

Watch out deer...cuz Ben, Chris, Mark (& Jim?) are gonna find you.

Weekend Recap

This was a busy weekend! Chris and the boys cut wood around the farm and the girls went to Menomonie for Anna's shower. Mason was a big hit with all the ladies, so we were glad to see him in such a good mood after last week's events. The shower was a good time with great food, great company, and lots of cute little Dehmer kids running around.







Of course there were games...Anna was asked 20 questions about Matt and had to chew a piece of gum for every one she got wrong. (She ate 13 pieces). This wasn't as bad as me, though...when I played the game at my bridal shower I ate 18 pieces. :)

I headed home to catch up with some coworkers for my boss's 30th birthday. It was a great time, but it's probably good that my camera was not with me...apparently I did a rendition of Beyonce's "If you like it then you should have put a ring on it" video. LOL

Back to reality...

I got a call this morning that Mason was running a temp last night and this morning. It's right around 101 so I am praying that we can control this one and avoid any seizures. We are going with our fever plan of Ibuprofen every 6 hours until he is fever-free for 24 straight hours. He also has a runny nose so hopefully it is just a little cold. Poor bugger...just when the good gets going the going gets tough.

Praying for an uneventful week and a healthy home...

Back to the Mrdutt normal

Chris and I went back to work today and Mason went to Auntie Michelle's. Mason is back to his normal tempered, well-eating self. Mom is still avoiding all the germs between home and work, and Dad is still a little weak from his flu. I told him he needs to go to the walk-in tomorrow if his lungs still feel heavy because I'm fearful of pneumonia. Daddy never takes pills but I saw him swallow a few ibuprofen tonight, which means somethings up.

We are getting geared up for a busy November and December. This coming weekend is Anna's bridal shower in Menomonie along with the guy's annual woodcutting weekend. The following weekend is deer opener, which is always exciting in and of itself. I told Chris I didn't want the hassle of meat cutting in the house again so I think I've convinced him to take it in for processing. There is nothing grosser (is that a word?) to me than dried up deer blood on my kitchen counters. YUCK.

Then we have Thanksgiving...and then it's DECEMBER! Where did fall go?

Home sweet home

We are home and the whole family is doing better. Chris's fever is gone and he's starting to regain some strength. Mason is very cheery and hasn't had diarrhea since early this morning. Mom was just happy to take a long shower after being at the hospital for 2 days.

Thank you, everyone, for all your thoughts and prayers. Our happy Mason is baaaack!

We still don't know that caused the fever and got his whole thing started. At this point...we're just going to take precautions to make sure it doesn't happen again.

One more shot, one more drug

Mason will be getting the flu shot before we leave today...since he hasn't gotten the regular flu shot yet. It can take an hour or two before that it sent up from pharmacy.

They are putting him back on Prevacid, just in case his pain was coming from some reflux. He will have to stay on that until his follow-up appointment.

Mason's Lorazepam dose will also be increased in case he has more seizures in the future. It will be nice to have a "newer" prescription on hand since the old drug we had at home was almost 18 months old.

We will be scheduling a follow-up visit for Friday to make sure that Mason's irritability and stomach issues are in check. (It's been a while now since his last diarrhea so we hope he's done!)

I have to head down to the pharmacy to pick up the two new drugs...and then wait until discharge so we should be home by this afternoon!

One last test

Mason had a finger stick today. They are going to test his tegretol level and have someone from neurology come chit-chat with us before we head home.

Mason had a great night of sleep. He woke up twice, but had a little pedialyte and went back to sleep. He still has loose stools, so we are continuing with bananas, rice, and pedialyte.

I'm slowly starting to pack up and hope that we can leave before noon. Crossing my fingers!!!

Sunday night updates

Mason has had 5 diarrhea diapers so far...it just keeps on comin'! He finally fell asleep at 7:30 pm, which is pretty typical for him. I ran into Dr. Pulvermacher in the hall...Mason will have a blood draw prior to 8 am tomorrow (before his Tegretol dose) to test his Tegretol level in his blood and make sure it is within the therapeutic level. We will also get a visit from someone in Neurology tomorrow (hopefully Dr. Koehn!) to come up with a new plan for Mason when he gets a fever, because the Lorazepam did not stop his seizures and we could not get the fever to go down. We will do anything to prevent additional seizures.

I'm excited to get some sleep but even more excited to get home tomorrow and get a real shower. Let's be real people...I stink. :)

uh oh...tell me it aint so...and some good news.

Mason has diarrhea...3 times now. Don't know why. Sorry to be descriptive, but it's super watery and messy. We're going to try a dinner of bananas and rice to try and bind him up a bit...Mason is usually the opposite, constipated, and now we have the other problem!


HOWEVER - Mason DOES NOT have H1N1! Barb and I are super excited about this because now it means that our door can be open (it is like 300 degrees in here!) and we can take mason out to walk around if he gets crabby. Our night nurse came by and ripped off the "quarantine" sign in a very dramatic fashion, and I was super excited. (It wasn't really a quarantine sign but I think it made people scared of our room).

So here we are, at step 1. Don't know why he had fevers. Don't know exactly why he had such a high WBC and have no clue why he has diarrhea. For crying out loud.

Mason is pretty happy though, a million times better than he was yesterday.

Here til Monday

We are going to stay at the hospital until Monday morning, just as a precaution. Mason is napping now, hopefully for awhile so I can catch a nap. :) Gramma is out running errands to get a few things so we can catch a shower. (NEVER FORGET DEODORANT)

Chris is home, still pretty sick and sad that Mason can't come home today.

Mason will have blood drawn later today to test his blood level for the Tegretol and hopefully we can get in touch with our neurologist before we leave tomorrow.

Still waiting on the H1N1 results...would be nice to know a yes or no because we have to walk around with masks on, which is very attractive, let me tell ya.

I'm going to sneak in a nap since Mason is sleeping. :)

A Happy Boy

A little ibuprofen and some milk and this kid is as good as new...we should be heading home today. The blood results were fine, his WBC was back down. His urine didn't show anything. Still waiting on the H1N1 results but they will probably call us if that is what he had. That is the only thing they did not rule out.

So he's a happy boy...just hanging waiting for the okay to head out of here...

A little crabby

Mason is acting a little crabby again...so we called for some milk and some ibuprofen to see if it's hunger or pain. they haven't done rounds yet with the docs either so we're waiting for them to come in and evaluate.

Not sure what the days plans are...just trying to keep mason happy.

All our wishes came true!

Mason woke up at 6:15 with a big smile on his face. We still don't know what caused his fever or irritability. Don't know today's plans yet...but I'm sure we're going home.

He made it until 3:00

Mason woke up at 3, pretty fussy. We changed him and moved him around a bit to make him more comfortable and he managed to settle in again. However, during the midst of it, we called for them to give him Lorazepam to relax him. The nurse came in with it and we decided to try and hold off a bit before giving it...to see if we could settle him without it..we'll see how long our patience lasts.

A funny for the night

So we had to check to see when Mason peed so that they could come collect the sample...

Well the lab lady came to get blood (mason did awesome and so did the mosquito lady at getting blood)...and just then Gramma goes "OH! Mason peed". And he did...ALL over her.

So as I am trying to hold back my laughter and help her clean up...Mason starts farting and Gramma says "Hurry, before he poops on me!"

So Chris...if you are reading this...make sure you bring along your mom's bag tomorrow. :)



Whew...I'm still giggling about it.

No spinal tap for now

Dr. does not suspect meningitis, so we don't have to do the spinal tap. mason is getting pediasure through his g-tube, to get him some calories since he has not been eating that great the last couple days (mostly milk and pedialyte). This pediasure has fiber in it as well, since mason has not pooped since thursday. The doctor could feel little hard poop pebbles in mason's belly. Weird, huh?

Still waiting to hear back on the H1N1 swab and still waiting for Mason to pee into his little pee bag so they can test his urine.

Watching taylor swift on SNL...funny.

3 tests

Mason had a urine bag placed so once we collect enough urine they will test for a urinary infection. They also swabbed him for the H1N1 virus. They are talking about doing a spinal tap so we can't give him any food or liquids because he would need to be sedated for that. Gramma Mrdutt and I agree that I will not be in the room if they end up doing that...I'm getting queezy even thinking about it.

I can't sleep - too anxious about hearing about the results.

We decided that if Mason comes back positive for the H1N1 that it will only be Barb and I here with him...just to make sure no one is infected.

Will update more later...

Room 344

So listen to this crazy story.

The on-call doctor in Wausau said that Dr. Shepherd wanted us to come to Marshfield if Mason needed to be admitted. So instead of letting us drive to Marshfield and go to the E.R. to be admitted, we had to drive to St. Clares to be seen and then they wanted to send Mason to Marshfield via ambulance transport.

When we arrived at St. Clares they weren't really sure why we were there. Either were we. They checked him over, asked the same questions I have been answering all of Mason's life, and called Marshfield to see what the plan was. Luckily, the E.R. doc convinced some Marshfield doc that Mason could be directly admitted in Marshfield without going through the E.R. So we got to drive him over here (after wasting over an hour driving to Wausau). STUPID!

So we are checked into room 344 at St. Joes. Mason is finally sleeping, not super contently, but sleeping regardless. They will likely attach a urine bag tonight to collect a urine sample and will likely try and get some more blood to run a blood count (to compare to yesterday's test with the high WBC). So we're letting him sleep for now until they come up with a plan between all the docs on what they are planning to do.

Gramma and I are staying the night...Daddy is heading home because he is feeling pretty crappy himself. Likely H1N1...but he's okay with that since he was anti-vaccine. (He just wanted to catch it and get it over with).

I'm a little worried that they aren't going to find anything out and that we were overreacting and Mason was "testy" for no reason. I'm sort of feeling like a bad parent...I just feel so hopeless.

P.S. because it is flu season, visitors are highly discouraged and no one under the age of 18 is allowed to visit. Feel free to leave a comment here, or send Chris or I a text, or email. We will try and keep family up-to-date if we hear anything or learn anything.

Heading to St. Joes

Mason is still crying...doesn't even have a voice anymore he's been so stressed. I called the nurse line again and we may have to take him to the ER shortly. He's clearly in pain...doesn't want to be cuddled and you can't even hold him in our lap because he stretches out and arches his back, making it impossible to hold onto him. The only rest he has gotten is when he exhausts himself to sleep.

I had enough again so I called the on-call doc in wausau again. Since we don't think we can go through another night like this, we are going to head to Marshfield and have him admitted. At least there they can do some more tests and give him some pain meds to relax. He's just so uncomfortable and the mommy/daddy/gramma powers aren't working anymore.

Say a prayer for our little bugger. :)

Home from the walk-in

The walk-in clinic was an interesting experience. Mason was crying so they put us in the back until the nurse was ready. When we got into the room they gave him the antibiotic shot and we waited 20 minutes to make sure he didn't get a rash.

He slept through the shot (that's how tired he is from crying) and is still sleeping now so we are all going to catch some ZZZ's.

P.S. If you have a fever when you go to the walk-in - PUT ON A MASK. If you have a cough when you go to the walk-in - PUT ON A MASK. If you feel the urge to cough when you are wearing your mask...COUGH INTO THE MASK. DO NOT pull down the mask to cough. Duh people...

Rough night

Mason had a really rough night last night. If he wasn't sleeping he was crying. His voice is starting to go from all the crying he was doing. The poor guy is so tuckered out.

We are continuing on our regimen of his seizure meds and Ibuprofen every 6 hours. It's really not helping with the pain.

We are calling the on-call doctor today to see if we can find out anything from the blood culture. Because of his irritability, we will probably have to go to the walk-in to see if they can give him anything to help ease his pain.

Luckily though, he has not had a fever since yesterday morning. No seizures either.

Hoping today is a better day for him...

Now we wait

So the appointment up in Wausau was a whirlwind. We went to the lab to have blood drawn and the nurse caught her finger on the cord when the blood was coming out...blood went spraying everywhere so they had to remove the needle and try the other arm. The other arm clotted and they ended up doing a finger stick. 30 minutes later and 30 straight minutes of crying...we went down to 1st floor to see Dr. Shepherd.

When she sat down with us we talked about the temp and the seizures. The temp was relatively normal when we got there but he was starting to heat up again. 4 seizures in 24 hours was a lot...so we need to keep his temp down and prevent any future ones.

Just as she started looking up the lab results on her little laptop thingy, a nurse came in with a message from the lab. Mason's white blood cell count was 38,000. Normal is 15,000. Obviously, this got us and Dr. Shepherd very worried so we called for a blood culture. He needed additional blood taken (clean blood) for a culture to be done.

Mason's blood draw for the culture took awhile. He was very dehydrated at this point, so we had to take a break to give him some Pedialyte and hope his veins opened up a bit. Dr. Shepherd was the one to collect the blood and she found a vein on Mason's head above his left ear. Poor kid...he was poked over 10 times today.

There are a couple possibilities...his blood is clearly fighting something. She said it is possible that his seizures could have caused his WBC to go up. Another possibility is a blood infection. The culture takes up to 72 hours to have results, but most of the types of infections she is worried about should show up within 24 hours...

Some blood infections (staff or strep) could be very dangerous for Mason because it could have been caused from or could affect his heart. If either of these bacteria come back positive, Mason will need a heart echo to check on his heart repairs (patches on the VSD/ASD and his mitral valve).

If there are no bacteria in the culture after 72 hours...we don't know much - other than he had a fever which caused seizures....so we still wouldn't know what caused the fever.

Mason also has a minor ear infection which they treated with a round of antibiotics.

SO - we are back home. Mason is sleeping after 3 straight hours of crying at the clinic. Our main goal is to keep his fever down and prevent seizures.

I will call the on-call doc tomorrow for his blood culture results. If he develops a weird rash, or has a bad seizure, we will take him to the hospital...

Gramma Mrdutt is coming to help us out, to help with the Mason "rotation". Mason is only comforted when we walk around with him and we are all starting to develop bad backs. :) It's always wonderful to have a nurse around to bounce ideas off of, because sometimes I think I'm just a worrisome parent.

Thank goodness for nurses and doctors. If we would have stayed home today, who knows what could have developed or what we might not be aware of...

Mothers - NEVER question your instinct. :)

Good night all....sweet dreams to everyone, especially Mason.

The fever has broken!!!

Mason's fever is just about back to normal. No seizures since 7:15 this morning...and his nap has now reached 3 hours, 15 minutes. (thank you lorazepam!)

I'm hoping this means everything is on the up and up.

Got a call at Noon from Gloria Josephson - the occupational therapist at Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield. Mason's kid kart is officially on order, and we're hoping to get the leg reaction portion covered by a non-profit, otherwise its a whopping $1000 out of our wallets. We should have it by Christmas.

Mason is very irritable as of 1:10 this afternoon. We are heading up to Marshfield Clinic - Wausau Center to get his tegretol level checked and to see Dr. Shepherd to have her to a quick check to see what could be wrong. Sure...now that we're going to be seen by a doc...his fever is down. We'll update when we get home.

Continue to do what you are doing...

That's what the professionals say. That seems so elementary.

Sometimes when you call the doc, aren't you just hoping for some new, innovative advice or explanation for why your son is having a fever with no other symptoms, along with seizures even though we are giving him Lorazepam which is supposed to basically put him to sleep?

Can you tell I'm barely surviving on 3 hours of sleep? :)

So here we are...on the Tylenol/Ibuprofen regimen every 3 hours...pushing the liquids...trying to get him to poop (hasn't had a good poop since yesterday so we think he's a tad constipated).

His temp was 99.6 under the arm so it is down a bit...a glimmer of hope.

Going to run to the grocery store to stock up on OJ, chicken noodle soup and lots of yummies to keep hubby and I happy this weekend. We both have headaches and are convinced that "the swine" is slowly taking over our bodies.

Waiting to hear from doc

Fever still up around 102.8...called Dr. Koehn at 8:00 am this morning but haven't heard back yet about what she would like us to do...need to get this fever down or these seizures aren't going to stop.

He's pretty irritable...very tired but seems in pain and can't sleep. Kinda like Mom. :)


He had his 3rd seizure around 7:15 this morning, the most violent one I have seen. His twitch was very strong and the aura afterwards was longer than normal. He is also experiencing body shivers, so we aren't sure if they are seizure related or fever related.

All he wants is to be carried around...but Gramma Duck and I are trying to get him to lay down to sleep...

DARN it!

Another seizure at 11:40 pm tonight. Gave him the .1 mL of Lorazepam. He started having all over body shivers which lasted about 15 minutes...couldn't tell if they were body shivers because his fever was finally starting to "break" or if they were little tremors from his muscles after the seizure.

Now his Lorazepam will be given every 8 hours.

I am calling Dr. Koehn in the morning to see what the course of treatment is..hopefully there are definitely no more seizures with the other med.

Fever is at 100.2...so coming down...

Trying to get few hours of shut-eye.

Cross your fingers...

It's going to be a long night...

Mason has a fever of 102.4. He has been fighting off a fever all day and we have continued to give him Ibuprofen to try and bring it down. At 7:43 pm, Mason had a seizure.

I called Dr. Koehn's nurse line because I was concerned that he had this seizure even though we had increased his seizure med only about 2 months ago. She explained that a fever reduces the effectiveness of his med and a seizure breakthrough is more likely. Even though we gave him his dose of Ibuprofen at 6:00 pm, his temp has not come down.

What's weird is that Mason's seizure has come with NO other symptoms. His mood was fairly pleasant today he just seemed tired. Can teething cause a 102.4 temp for this long?

If Mason has another seizure tonight, we need to give him his Lorazepam medicine, which we were hoping to never have to give him because it basically puts him to sleep. Only .1 mL puts him out for quite awhile. He then needs to get his Lorazepam every 8 hours for the next 48 hours.

So cross your fingers and say a prayer for his temp to come down and for no more seizures tonight!!! Seizures are not fun.

Chris's First Buffelhead

Crazy Hair

Mason had his hair cut this week as it was starting to get a little out of hand.

BEFORE



AFTER





Don't these two look alike? :)
P.S. This was before Chris's haircut...I made him chop it all off too...