The doctor is actually sounding quite positive. She thinks that his pneumonia has improved and that at this point his still high fever is unrelated to the pneumonia, but is instead caused by the allergic reaction. She also mentioned to me that his pretty much being out of it – he sleeps all day long, occasionally just barely waking up for a few minutes, but he pretty much doesn’t cry and, well, just doesn’t - is caused by the antihistamine that they have him on.
Well, at least lets just say that I’m trying hard to be convinced. But I guess I still can’t help but worry a bit. It’s hard to see a noisy, happy and extremely active baby turn into a sick little ragdoll.
It’s very difficult for me to not constantly second guess the doctors. I’ve seen too many misdiagnoses cases to be as unquestioningly trusting as I wish I could be… But I probably don’t give some of the doctors the credit that they deserve either.
He’s looked a bit like something between a clown and a little red nosed little raindeer for the last couple days, with his eyes swollen with great big red blotches around them as well as his nose. The rest of the hives haven't gone down yet, his back is pretty much one huge blotch. His eyes are completely bloodshot. And his stomach is hard and distended. Together with watery diarrhea. He hasn’t taken any milk for nearly two days…he does take some pedialyte though and, thankfully, is holding that down.
He couldn’t hold down his oral meds this morning. After two miserable attempts with all of them, they tried a third time with just gave one of them and he did keep that one down.
The doctor just came in and informed me that he’s anemic again – still related to his having been a preemie. His hemoglobin level is 9.2 and hematocrit 29. (HB 11-12 and HMC 31(?) is the normal range for a 9-month-old) He will have to have a another blood transfusion. Unfortunately, once again due to circumstances I am unable to give to him and am rather bummed about that. Although I have a compatible blood type, I’m on meds for pneumonia myself and am taking from the same drug group that he had a reaction to.
The doctor also mentioned the possibility of him having Thallasemia, but we won’t know for sure ‘til after he’s 1-year-old. I pray, pray, pray that that’s not the case.
They’re having a horrible time finding IV sites. Poor little man! The one in his one hand had infiltrated leaving him with a little club for a hand. They came in last night around 10 o’clock and must have spent nearly an hour poking him on every limb imaginable. He was so miserable. Finally they got one on his foot and I’m really hoping that this time it doesn’t get dislodged so quickly – so far so good, it’s stayed put all day!!
There was a young male nurse who did most of the poking, I’d been noticing that something about his countenance simply “looked” Karen and wondering if he possibly was (That may sound a bit strange seeing as the Karen and the Thai pretty much look alike, but anybody who knows the Karen would know what I mean.) Finally, when they were trying to communicate with me to no avail (most of the nurses speak little to no English, and, quite unfortunately, I speak about an equal amount of Thai!), I asked him if he spoke Karen and he said yes. I was pretty excited, I hadn’t been expected to find a Karen nurse here. They were all delighted to have found a way to communicate and through his translation asked me all kinds of questions…finally they trickled out but he sat down and stayed and just talked to me ‘til after midnight. That’s probably the longest most in-depth Karen conversation I’ve ever had with anyone. And just that in itself lifted my spirits tremendously! He wanted to know why I’m here…why I came…what I do…why it’s in my heart to do this… about my family…Jabez’ story…and on and on.
I’m finding that, if I have my hands open for them, that in each dark valley that I go through God hands me little bright spots. Little blessings. The small things. Little reminders of hope and joy. It’s in filling up gas containers and having the owner tell me that if she can do something for me she is happy as we do so much to help the Karen. I didn’t even know that she knew what we do… It’s in gentle nurses who go the extra mile. It's in someone who lends me an umbrella in a downpour. It’s in the ones who simply take time to love Jabe. It’s in knowing that God’s people are praying… It’s in letters and phone conversations with people who care enough to be there…
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