Stephen's Journey: Sickie

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Sickie

Stephen was admitted to the hospital last night 😢 30 minutes after I had put him to bed, he started throwing up and spiked a 103.7 fever. Which was shocking because he was running around and playing like crazy just prior to bedtime. We ended up bringing him to INOVA Fairfax instead of making the 2.5 hour trek to CHOP because he just seemed too sick. They are running all sorts of tests and giving him preventative IV antibiotics, but we are hoping he just picked up a virus somewhere. The worst part about it was he didn't get admitted until 4am (we arrived at the ER at 11:45 pm) so we're all a bit tired and cranky. But hoping to be home ASAP (probably tomorrow)!

Poor Stephen just doesn't know yet that Elmo and Thomas will be replaced shortly with college football 🏈😀

1 comment:

SpykeSeptember 7, 2013 at 4:29 PM
Maybe you can tell him that it is ELMO under the helmet?? Good luck with that one. Hugs to all of you and especially Stephen
Love
Nana and Papa Schwartz
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Our Crazy Kidney Life

As many of you already know, our son Stephen, was born with a very rare kidney disease called Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease (ARPKD). When the disease was discovered during my 27th week of pregnancy, Stephen was given a less than 1% chance of living more than a few hours past birth. He was to have such severely underdeveloped lungs that the doctors said he would likely not even take one breath. However, on January 4, 2011, we were granted our 1st miracle - and Stephen came into this world crying (and breathing!) and fighting for his life with fierce determination. At 6 days old he had BOTH of his kidneys removed and began peritoneal dialysis. Stephen came home from the hospital when he was 59 days old requiring 12 hours of dialysis every night as well as enteral (feeding tube) feeds during the day and overnight.

On May 9, 2013, we were granted our 2nd miracle, in the form of a new kidney from an extremely generous friend. Stephen received a kidney from a non-related living donor at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He spent 13 days in the hospital recovering from his big surgery and ever since has been living life the fullest! His life is still a delicate balance of medications and weekly lab work, but he's an extremely vibrant, loving, active 2.5 year old.

This blog is Stephen's journey told through my eyes (his mother's), thoughts, and emotions, with extreme highs and lows. But there's no way we would be where we are today without all of the support, thoughts and prayers from our family, friends, and readers! Thank you!!