Trying to Update

So, it has been a while since we updated the blog. We have had a little bit going on around here. The truth is, I have started to post several times, but haven't been able to figure out what I want to say. It has been quite the month for us and I am just amazed that we are all here and reasonably healthy. Yes, we all, except Dan and Kyler, have a cold now that we are trying to get over, but that is to be expected. This seems to happen to me after any stressful thing.

Everyone who attended my church services on Sunday has heard my feelings on the past few weeks. I needed to make sure that my ward family knew that I appreciated them for the care and concern and service they showed my family. I, along with many of my family have not had the best attitude for the last little while. I personally was losing faith in humanity in general. Too many things were NOT happening. The experience of watching the medical staff with Kyler and knowing that my family at home were being served by many was very much an attitude adjustment. It gave me peace to be able to stay with Kyler. Kyler's pediatrician, Douglas Hacking, came in on a Sunday when he was not working just to see Kyler. He said he just had to come and see him. This is why I love our pediatrician, not only is he an EXCELLENT doctor, he is very nice. We were very impressed with this. Also, the staff on the pediatrics unit at UVRMC was wonderful and I have to especially thank Margaret for helping us deal with some things. My brother Travis also works in the Pediatric unit quite often and having him there was very comforting to Kyler as he was a familiar face that was loving and caring. Kyler is very nervous, especially with doctors and hospitals, so the familiar face meant A LOT ! Also, I have to thank Aunt Di, for her generosity while we were there. I took a huge stress off of us. Also, thank you to all of the teachers and his wonderful counselor at school, Mrs. Casper, and Coach Blevins at MVHS.

OK, so, everyone wants to know what actually happened to Kyler, so here goes: Kyler was put on some medications at the beginning of January. We were given no warning of a bad side effect with any of them. Anyway, he had taken this medication for about 2 1/2 weeks during which time he seemed to not be himself at all and slowly but surely got sicker and sicker. We didn't realize he was sick for a while, we only noticed that he wasn't being himself. He came home one night after wrestling and said to me, "Mom, I can't eat", this is when I knew something was terribly wrong. The next morning he woke up and he was breathing hard and shaking and kept telling me he was going to fall down. At first I thought it was a cop out but soon he did fall and just looked terrible. I kept him home from school and made an appointment with the doc that prescribed the meds because I thought it was a reaction to medication. This doctor looked me in the face and said "Reactions to medications don't cause a fever. Call your pediatrician". I didn't really agree with her, but I did as she said, after all she's the doctor right? Dr. Hacking sent us for tests at the hospital and told us to return to his office the next morning. During this night, Kyler developed a high fever and what looked to be the start of a rash. He would not eat and was throwing up everything he drank. Thursday we saw one of the partners in the pediatricians office who looked at the test results and said that the rash was a concern, but all of the tests had come back normal. (Go figure, he is my son) Anyway, he said to return immediately if anything got worse but that he couldn't find anything so it may be a virus. The next Kyler woke up and he was so hot you could feel him from across the room, the whites of his eyes were very red and looked to be swollen, he was throwing up constantly, and the rash was so bad he looked like he had been in a tanning bed for days. I think I called the doctors office 6 times that day. The nurse kept telling me to give him flat Coke and that it was just a virus and would not make an appointment. Oh Man, LOOK LADY, HE WILL THROW IT UP!! AND THE MEDS TO KEEP THE FEVER DOWN AS WELL!! Finally on the last call, she made one and when we went there, she got a piece of my mind. He had lost 7 pounds in 24 hours and had a fever of 106. While we waited for Dr. Hacking, the other doc peeked his head in and said Kyler needed to be in the hospital and then Dr. Hacking agreed. I took Kyler to the hospital and he started having what was either a seizure or a very sever panic attack on our way in. They got him in there and brought down his fever. Dan and my brother Travis gave him a blessing and I think that gave him some peace.

So fast forward a day or two. The disease control doc was called in because the rash looked like Measles. Kyler has had all of his immunizations(He plays school sports, it's a requirement) so they thought it was a long shot, but were cautious. The CDC guy sad that this was a reaction to medication. He knew what meds and everything would cause this. Kyler was on 2 of them. We were also told that this syndrome is fatal when not caught in time, and that he was getting closer than is comfortable to that point. It took me a day or two to not go strangle the doc that told me this wasn't the problem and who had prescribed the medication and didn't warn us. I eventually realized that doctors make mistakes too. That's why they call it practicing medicine right? I am still leery to take him back there, but don't worry, I am past the strangling place :~). Basically what happens with this reaction is that it burns your body from the inside out. Kyler could not keep anything down because his insides were being burned and were all mangled up, and the high fever, and the dehydration. Basically like a burn victim. The rash is an outward showing of what is going on inside. The name of this syndrome is Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. You can google it if you want, I recommend not looking at the pictures. Kyler will have this for the rest of his life and every time he has a reaction the problem gets more severe. Hopefully this is never a problem again. He has was started on new medication before leaving the hospital and seems to be doing fine.

I thank everyone for their concern during this time. Kyler seems to be doing better and has a renewed vision of life. Hopefully the next post will be about something wonderful. It's about time don't ya think?

~ Christy