A Hospital Visit and Other "Fun" Stuff

We officially had our first ER visit resulting in a 3 night hospital stay with Jarek. At the end of last month, on a Thursday, we noticed a blistered rash starting on his legs where his eczema is the worst. When it continued to get worse, we took him to the doctor that day where they sent us home with medicated lotion saying it was just his eczema. Well, it continued to get worse instead of better the next few days. And i mean worse. It was all over his body. I felt like something was really wrong but wasn't sure what to do. On Saturday, we went to urgent care because I was having symptoms of strep. The doctor happened to glance over at Jarek and was shocked by what he saw. He took a closer look and assured us that it wasn't eczema and recommended he see a dermatologist and take him to the ER if things got worse. After we got home we noticed it was bothering Jarek more than normal and the nagging feeling I had that something was really wrong wouldn't go away. After much discussion and prayer, Chad and I decided to take him to the ER. And so started the hardest week of my life.

Chad took Jarek to the hospital. I stayed home because of my strep and because Hadi is strictly breastfed. The doctors' best guess was that it was a strain of the herpes virus so they got Jarek on IV antiviral and checked him in for the night to keep an eye on him. He ended up staying 2 more nights. They were the hardest 3 days for me. I could hardly be with Jarek because of my strep and then because I had to stay home with Hadi, not wanting her at the hospital. On top of that, I developed a rash, what we thought was hives due to an allergic reaction to my antibiotic. That combined with my sore throat made me miserable. We finally got to take Jarek home on Tuesday. We took another trip to urgent care to see if they could do anything about my rash. That night Chad and I only got 2-3 hours of sleep because my rash was keeping me up and then Hadi kept us up. Then a few other things prevented us from finally getting over the hump until Thursday. But we finally got there! And we survived!

While it was the hardest week of my life I will forever be grateful for what it taught me. It was an incredibly humbling week. We got so much help from family and ward members. Lots of prayers were said in our behalf and I felt the strength of every single one of them. The Lord was keeping a very watchful eye on us. I haven't felt that that strongly in a long time. My eyes were opened to all the things I wasn't doing to have that Spirit with me all the time. It has made me a better person as I have prayed and read my scriptures more meaningfully since then. We were incredibly blessed by the Lord. He used so many people to help us feel loved and watched out for. For that I will forever be grateful.

And now for the final update on Jarek. We still do not have a definite answer as to what caused the rash. The culture they took to test for the heroes virus came back negative. My bet is one hand, foot, mouth disease. The rash I had turned out not to be hives and there's a good chance it could have been that. Also, we realize now, after knowing more about it, that Hadi had mild symptoms of it as well at the time. Whatever it was, it was not fun. Jarek was a champ through it all though. He got quite the reputation among the nurses for his good nature. He stayed his happy self through it all. He was a wonderful example to me of the best way to handle less than perfect situations. We sure love our little buddy!