My Easter horror story.

Here is the view from where I'm sitting right right now.



Crazy huh? Theo became very sick yesterday. Scary sick.

He had been running fevers off and on for a couple of days. A dose of ibuprofen and he would be good to go for the rest of the day...sometimes well into the night! Yesterday was different.

James and I were at church for all three services so grandma sat at home with Theo for us. When we got home, she told us that he had slept until 11am and then didn't want to eat when he got up. She was rocking him when I walked in. He looked odd, but I couldn't put my finger on what was different.

There was no time to get an Easter dinner on the table in time for our hungry crew, so we went ahead and took Theo and the rest of the kids out for Chinese! Nice Easter dinner, huh?

I held Theo for a while and he was heavy and floppy in my arms. But, when he saw my plate of food he sprang to life just long enough to grab some mushroom beef and stuff it in his mouth! I decided to put him into a highchair so that I could sit less than three feet away from the table to eat.

Theo kept slumping over sideways in the highchair. I would straighten him out and he's start crumpling over again. Occasionally his eyes would roll back. He didn't look good at all. Not only did he not look good, he looked different in a way that I couldn't quite figure out. His face. Hmmm.

He was so limp in my arms when I lifted him out of the highchair to go home that I asked James if we should take him to the doctor. He was breathing strange, too...a couple of regular breaths and then he would stop...and then come up for air a few seconds later. Why does stuff like this always happen on a weekend?

As soon as we got the crew back home, I put a call into our doctor's nurse line. She recommended that I take him to be seen. So I put Theo into a nicer, cleaner pair of jammies and headed out to the minor emergency office, all the while wondering what they would think of this 24 pound almost-five year old child with Down Syndrome.

Can you guess? Yep, the minor emergency office was closed for Easter. Dang. I would have to go to the hospital ER and pay a $200 co-pay. Ouch, right? But, for Theo it's nothing. :) The cool thing was that the ER was dead and we got right in. I was acquainted with the ER physician, that was also nice.

Looking at Theo lying on the big white cot I suddenly noticed the delicate line of his jawbone. He looked different.

He was hooked up to an O2 sat monitor and I was shocked to see him in the upper 80's. Not cool. I asked the nurse to start him on oxygen right away. She agreed with me. I went to the waiting area while they started an IV, drew blood and did a chest x-ray. I've seen enough medical procedures and I don't have anything left to prove. I can't stand to see him hurting. As it turned out, one of the blood samples clotted too quickly and had to be redrawn. I stayed in the room this time and he only grunted a bit while the vampire rooted around for a vein. Poor sweetie.

This is getting long, but I don't want to forget these things. After Theo's IV was started and he had a couple bags of fluid pumped into him he started to perk up. Then it dawned on me...his face. It was pink and plump again. I could no longer see the obvious line of his jawbone. That bony jaw was looked like it did when we brought him home in emaciated condition.

Theo weighed 22 pounds yesterday at the ER. He was 25 pounds in Kansas City two weeks ago. That just goes to show how fast a little guy like Theo can go downhill. He was in shock when we arrived at the ER. I'm more frightened now than I was at that moment, now that I understand what I was seeing and couldn't process.

Here's the best news of the day, and I firmly believe it is because of all the prayers on his behalf: Theo is doing great!!

He's been moved out of ICU to the pediatric floor. He's not hooked up to a bazillion monitors and oxygen anymore. He's just been snoozing hard. God willing, his bloodwork improves some more tomorrow and we can go home in the afternoon. Please let it be so!!

Look at my peaceful little angel.



Thanks for your prayers and encouragement. I love you. Yeah, you.