Monday

Sunday consisted of meeting with lots of different doctors, starting his IVIG and antibiotic treatments and trying to catch up on sleep.  They started Walter off with some Ibuprofen and Benadryl to help prevent a reaction to the IVIG treatment.   They must have had some funky Benadryl because he took it and then immediately threw it and everything else he'd eaten up...so he had to start over.  Nurse Lisa knew exactly what to do and brought in a rocket popsicle to help get and keep the Benadryl down.  We were transferred to the fourth floor in the late afternoon after his IV had been started.  My sisters came to visit later that night and brought dinner and some treats for us. 

 

When Walter woke up Monday morning, he looked like a new person.  It was amazing how much better he looked compared to the night before - his rash was much almost gone and his eyes were much less red.

 

Nate catching up on the latest "news" in People.  

I'm sure he thought it was almost as interesting as American Rifleman.

Watching a little TV.  When I look at these pictures now, I can see that he still looks sick but at the time this was a huge improvement.

 Walter and Dad resting.

 



He perked up a little after breakfast and remembered the Mimis delivered a Lego Star Wars set the night before.  When they were constantly drawing blood and doing IV stuff on Saturday night/Sunday morning, we told him he could get a new Lego set when all this was over (he quickly requested Jabba the Hut's Palace!).  He enjoyed playing with Legos until the doctors came through to check on him. 

 

He had an ultrasound downstairs around 11:00 and then an echo at 1:00.

 



He ate a little chicken noodle soup before his echo...

 

...and after his echo, decided he wasn't quite done with the lunch.

Nate and I were well taken care of by family and friends who offered to bring us meals at the hospital. Our dear friend Mary (and daughter, Clara) swung by the ER entrance to drop off lunch for us on this day.

 

Children's Hospital has wonderful volunteers.  The chaplain visited and then "My Little Green Friends" stopped by to ask if Walter would like to plant something - he chose broccoli.  These two men were so kind.

 Hearing the options ("my brother doesn't really like salad," "we don't eat radishes at our house...")

 

Adding soil to the bowl.

Planting the tiny seeds.

Using a syringe to water the seeds.

Holding on to his broccoli.  This may have been the highlight of the hospital visit for him.  Even at home, he's very attentive to his 4 broccoli sprouts. 

Next up, Zuri and her owner visited. 

 

All tired out.

 We spent a little time in the playroom that afternoon.  Walter got to feed the fish and ride in a toy police car (and write a few tickets for Dad).  The director showed us where we could wash our clothes, check out games, and borrow movies.  After Walter's nap and dinner, we popped in a movie (Homeward Bound) and played Uno, the Cars' version.  He liked the Cars' version so much that he didn't want to discard any cards - he just kept drawing new ones to add to his hand!  Grandma L even snuck in a quick visit right before visiting hours were over while she picked up our clean laundry that needed to be dried - so many people taking care of us!

All Over Again...

Last week was an interesting and exhausting one for our family.  I noticed Walter had a fever after BSF, which stayed high through the night even with Tylenol and Motrin.  He was having abdominal pain in the morning and still had the fever so we headed to urgent care.  They put him on an antibiotic after a throat culture was positive for strep.  When Nate heard about the diagnosis and prescription he said, "Why did they have to put him on amoxicillin?  That's what they put him on last time he had strep, it didn't seem to work, and then he ended up with Kawasaki.  This makes me nervous."

 

Forty-eight hours later, we were back at Urgent Care switching antibiotics and doing lab work.  And a few hours after that, we were at the ER, pretty sure that Walter was dealing with Kawasaki Disease - again.

 

The ER wasn't so sure and wanted to send us home, but when the lab results were much worse than they were that morning, they told us they were sending us by ambulance to one of the children's hospitals in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

 

Waiting in the ER - definitely not feeling well, but managed a smile for Dad.

At this point his eyes were red, he had a "strawberry tongue," his lips were swollen and cracking, he had a lump on his neck, and a rash that started as one spot on his finger now covered his upper body, hands and feet.

Getting ready for the ambulance ride - so sweet and so sick.  Poor little guy.

We weren't sure what was ahead so before we started the trip, Nate and I prayed together, asking the Lord to continue to protect Walter, provide safe travel, put wise and loving doctors, nurses and paramedics in out path, and that He would supply us with His peace.



 

I wasn't sure that he would remember the ambulance ride, so I took a few pictures for him.  Nate followed in our car and met up with Grandma L and Mimi Erin to finish the drive to Children's in St. Paul.  Walter and I arrived at the hospital around 1:30 a.m..

 

It's all a blur, but we ended up in a short stay room at some point in the early morning hours.  It was nice to have Grandma and Mimi with us.  We really liked the Infectious Disease doctor who saw Walter.  He was pretty sure it was Kawasaki again and it was eventually decided that W should start the IVIG treatment on Sunday sometime and wait to start the high aspirin doses until his liver enzyme levels came down.

 

Waiting for the IVIG treatment.

 

Two of his symptoms:

The rash on his back.

Strawberry Tongue

 

In all of these things, we were so thankful to see how God was caring and providing for us:

The Urgent Care doctor was a friend of Nate's dad and very thorough.

Our ER nurse was the mother of one of my former students and went to bat for us.

The ambulance paramedic is married to the son of long time family friends.

The ER doctor knew the infectious disease doctor on call at Children's St. Paul personally, and thought he would provide the best care for Walter.

We had amazing nurses caring for Walter  - every single one of them! 

That's just the beginning of His provision.

Spring Video

We had a few warmer days at the end of March while we were at Grandma and Grandpa L's house for BSF.  The boys happily pulled on their rain boots and ran out to play in the melting snow.  Henry tried to make a snow dam and Walter dropped mini pine cones in the water so he could stomp them.  I was also trying to get a recording of Walter saying, "girl" - it sounds a lot like "squirrel."

The Big Move

After talking about it for awhile, Henry and Walter are now sharing a bedroom.  They each wanted to keep their old beds and Walter wanted to stay in his bedroom.  We moved Henry's bed and dresser into Walter's room and most of the toys are in Henry's room.  We added a single bed with a trundle so that Henry's old room can be used by guests or if one of the boys is sick.  It's been a good move so far.  Of course, all of this was done the weekend that Nate wasn't feeling well - and I think it may have set him back a few days in feeling better - but he never once complained about my ill-timed plan.  What a guy.

 

Henry's Room as the new play/guest room

The room they share.

Toilet Paper

Apparently, toilet paper is a lot of fun - Walter and Henry found a few rolls and poceeded to rip and toss pieces of it all over the dinning room and family toom (I started taking pictures midway through the clean-up).  There may have even been a short chase around the table, with me trying to grab the offenders...but I was laughing so hard I had to give up. 

 Cleaning up

Getting Out the Bikes

Winter just seems to keep going and going and going.  H & W were begging to get their bikes out over the last month.  A few weekends ago Nate was sick and I needed to get the rest of us out of the house and doing something...we trekked through the fresh snow, out to the shed and dug out the bikes.  Most of the new snow melted off the roads right away so we did some riding next door in the church parking lot.  It felt great to get rid of some extra energy even if we had to wear gloves and winter coats. 

 

 

Drawing

This picture keeps getting flipped - in your brain, rotate it counter-clockwise once.  This a drawing Henry made of his room (and a mouse).

 

He made his door (complete with panels), his rug, dresser and lamp.  I was impressed!