I know that I often complain about weeks from hell, but this past week really was a week from hell. Our weekend started out nicely, with a trip to the pirate ship park for a picnic on Saturday. It was a nice time, until Carmie decided that she hurt her foot and couldn't walk, and so we all had to go home. Total drama queen. On Saturday afternoon I noticed that Arley was limping. I saw it again very obviously that night, and pointed it out to Jeff. On Sunday morning, he got up and was limping again, and pointed to the top of his right foot and said, "It hurts". So I took him up to Milton Hospital at 8 in the morning. The doctor couldn't find anything wrong with his foot, his ankle, leg or hip, so she called the paediatrician at Shoalhaven Hospital in Nowra, and he said to bring Arley up there, with an overnight bag. So, up we went, but the doctors up there also couldn't find anything wrong with his leg. They hooked Arley up to an IV and started giving him intravenous antibiotics in case it was a virus, or septic arthritis. Jeff had to leave to go up to Sydney for a course that he was doing, so Arley and I stayed on at the hospital. They did an ultrasound but found no fluid in his hips. They did an X-ray of his hips but it came up all clear. Then they did X-rays of his leg and foot, and they found something on his leg, but this turned out to be a vascular marking, which is not anything to worry about. What was worrying, was that when they got Arley to walk on Monday, he had also lost his balance. He had a limp and he was lurching all over the place. It was very frightening to see. On Tuesday morning when the doctors did their rounds, they told me that they had to rule out a brain tumour (!!), so they gave Arley an oral sedative at 1pm, and scheduled him for a CT scan at 1:30. They wheeled him to the Imaging rooms (he was very excited, he loved his 'rides in the bed', as it was the only time he left his room), but he didn't fall asleep, so he got taken back to the ward. Then half an hour later, he did fall asleep, so they wheeled him back, but when they lay him on the table for the CT scan, he woke up and freaked out. So, the techs told me that they wouldn't get a scan that day, as the doctors wouldn't give him any more sedative that late in the day. They took him back to his room, and he was very distressed. He had hardly eaten all day, so he was really pissed of, and they wouldn't give him any food because of the sedative. Anyway, an hour later, the doctor came in and told me that the main doctor did in fact want a CT scan that day, as Arley seemed to be deteriorating. When they told me that, I was done for. It was awful. So, they gave him an extra large dose of the oral sedative, and that was when we discovered that Arley was completely resistant to that medicine, and instead of sleeping, he went manic, and by manic, I mean completely batshit crazy. For the next several hours, he screamed and thrashed and hit and tried to pull his IV out, and then he would calm down for a couple of minutes, before he would start up again. He was standing up on the bed and throwing himself down, and flailing and kicking, all the while hooked up to a drip that he was getting tangled in. God, it was so awful. Finally close to 8 o'clock at night, they got him down off the bed and unattached the drip so he could calm down. I noticed that his limp was gone, but he was really wobbly on his feet. At 8:30 I put him back into bed, and after another 20 minutes of mania, he lay down to sleep. He was booked in the very next morning for a general anaesthetic, so he could get the CT scan. But when the doctors did their rounds, they got him down to walk again, and he was fine!! Just a little bit cautious. So, they released him! The whole time they were calling him the mystery boy, as they never got a diagnosis. Some of the nurses liked him, but mostly they stayed away, as every time a nurse came near him, he would scream at the top of his lungs and hit them. He was not happy being confined to a bed for almost 4 days, as he felt fine. It was a trial trying to entertain him, and I have to say, it was definitely a lesson in patience for me, and I am a different person because of it. Arley was such a beast, he even hit the glasses right off a nurse's face! But given the circumstances, I can't blame him, and he also did have times of real sweetness. Ugh, I am so glad it's over. I had to sleep on a pull out chair in a ward with crying babies, and all the while I was so worried about Arley, I was almost sick. Anyway, since then, Arley has had a check up with his doctors, and they still can't give me a diagnosis, but they want him to get more X-rays in January, as they have to rule out something called Perthes disease. This is a childhood hip disorder that does not sound like very much fun at all, but I'm trying not to even go there, not until I have to!
Carmie is holding up well. The whole time we were gone, she stayed at the farm at Lolo and Dida's house. She got spoiled rotten, but was still affected by it all, so I think she was a real trooper. I missed her terribly, and so did little Arley. We have a surprise in store for her tomorrow, but more on that next week!
Here is a video of Arley at the park, the day after he got out of hospital :)
At the park, before he got sick
Before his IV
