With babies fevers come and go pretty often. Last December while Jenn was dealing with a little cold of her own, Augustin seemed to come down with the same bug. Nothing that seemed serious- just a cough and some congestion and a fever. We took him to the doctor, kept him on Tylenol and after a couple of days he seemed to be getting better and we headed to St Pete to spend time with Jenn’s mom.
The next morning when Gustin woke up the left side of his neck was swollen. Really swollen. The kind of swollen that looked wrong. My mother-in-law, Carol, works at All Children’s Hospital in St Pete so she called a doctor she was friends with at the hospital for recommendations for a local pediatrician. After a few minutes with an wonderful pediatrician (Dr Donna Sperber) we headed to the hospital.
Gustin was a miserable kid. We were pretty concerned because Dr Sperber sent us to the hospital over concerns of meningitis. After an hour in hospital the doctor had ruled out both cancer and meningitis. In fact, the first thing he said after bring the ct scan results in the room was, “It’s not cancer.” It’s a weird feeling of relief to hear that when it wasn’t even a possibility we’d thought of.
Instead he had an infection in his lymph nodes. Still a scary experience but much less serious (and more certainly treatable) than some of the alternatives. For two nights he stayed in the hospital. Jenn stayed with him while the kids and I crashed with my mother-in-law. During the days Jenn and I would trade off, and for two days we had our regular family dinners in the hospital. Because Carol has worked there so long we’d been to the hospital many times to meet her for lunch. Being there with a kid in a room was a much different experience.
After a week on antibiotics the swelling was almost gone. His spirits perked back up before that and after a month his neck was fully back to normal. We were lucky on a number of counts, not the least of which was having this happen in St Pete. All Children’s is a fantastic hospital and the care we received from their staff was extraordinary. Jenn’s mom only lives ten minutes away too, which is far superior to the 45-minute drive we would’ve had to the Orlando children’s hospitals. Tending to four children can be tricky business, but with Carol’s help and our proximity to the hospital I can’t imagine how a serious illness and weekend hospital stay could’ve been easier.
