The Craziest Day of My Life

Last Friday was the worst day ever. Micah woke up and was fussy and so sleepy all morning. About 12:00 I realized that he had a fever and anxiously waited for Nate to get home for lunch. When Nate got home we took his temp and it was 102. Nate also notice that his soft spot on his head was bulging like a goose egg. He said that fever, bulging anterior fontanel, and being lethargic were all classic signs of meningitis and that we should take him to the hospital to make sure.
***Side note. there are two types of meningitis: bacterial and viral. Viral, like any virus, your body will fight on its own. Bacterial, when it goes untreated, can lead to permanent damage to the brain or hearing loss.
The doctor at the hospital wanted to do all the tests to make sure they find out what is wrong with him. They take his blood, urine, do a cat scan of his head, and take several x-rays of his abdomen. All the tests came back negative which still leads them towards meningitis. They start an IV and give him the antibiotics. But they have to do a lumber puncture to confirm it's meningitis. The nurse cant hold Micah still enough for the doc to do the LP. They tell us that they have to sedate him. In about 30 seconds Micah goes from screaming, to sleeping, and then to not breathing.
I notice something is wrong when the doc tells the nurse to get more help. She runs out of the room and yells, "We need more nurses in here NOW." Meanwhile, Micah is just lying there limp. He is getting paler and then starts to turn blue. They "bag" him (plastic piece over his nose and mouth and then pump a bag to get air in him) and start chest compressions. Within another minute or so there are maybe 15 docs and nurses in the room all working on Micah. This is when I have to leave the room.
I went out into the waiting room with thoughts of, "My baby is going to die." "I cant plan a funeral for him." "Where would we even bury him." "I didn't get to hold him enough." an lots of other random thoughts. I assumed the worst, because they don't do chest compressions on someone who is living. After about an hour, I gain enough composure to go back in the room. Micah is doing a little better. He is starting to move around and all of his vitals are stable. They tells us that they have to transfer him to Phoenix Children's Hospital. We get a room in the PICU just in case he has any more side effects from the medicine.
I ride over with him. By the time we get to PCH, Micah has opened his eyes and even works up a little cry. His vitals are all normal and his temp and gone down some, so they can rule out bacterial meningitis. They decide not to do a LP, because if he does have meningitis then it is the viral kind and they can't treat it anyway. They do find out that he has influenza A, which can cause viral meningitis.
By Saturday morning he is doing so much better that they transfer us out of the PICU. They too of all of the monitors which made holding him a lot easier. We spent one more night in the hospital until they were sure that he was healthy. I included some of the pictures of Micah. We didn't take any of him with the tubes in his mouth and nose. They would be too sad to look at anyway.

Micah and his IV. Nate said that it looked like a cell phone antenna. Maddi said that he looked like Jack from Jack in the Box.


Micah is doing well. I think I have recovered from this also. The whole experience made me think of death in a very real way. I understand better that our lives could end at any minute. Thank you to all the family for your phone calls, thoughts, and your prayers.