Bennett visits the hospital

The last few weeks around our house have been rough ones....The boys have been sick continuously with frequent visits to the walk in clinic for bronchitis and ear infections.  Gavin seems to be able to fight off the illnesses and get better but not Bennett.  For a week he had a fever of over 100 degrees and bad diarrhea, so Sunday night I had, had it!  I took him down to emergency at 7pm thinking we would see a Dr in a very timely manner and be home before the sun came up.  Well that wasn't the case, we only waited 5 minutes in the waiting room before we were taken back to see a Dr., within an hour a pediatrician has been paged, Bennett had blood tests a chest x-ray done and by 11 pm we were admitted.  

Both Bennett and I were surprised to be spending the night in the hospital, let alone being kept for a few days which turned into almost a week.  Bennett's fever kept spiking and every test they did on him came back negative but his blood test were showing his little body was fighting something unknown.  Because he has diarrhea so bad, they thought he could be contagious, poor Bennett was on isolation which meant he couldn't leave his room.  

Here are a few pictures of how our week in the peds unit looked like...

Day 1 - Once Bennett realized this would be our home for a few days he settled in, which took a lot of convincing, he just wanted to go home (and so did I)

Gavin came to visit which was wonderful, he got to play with all the toys that Bennett wasn't allowed to.  My mom came up and picked up Gavin and took him back to Hanna so we could focus on taking care of Bennett, it was a win win for Gavin!

By Tuesday Bennett seems to be doing better so Dr. Bester gave us a day pass to go home and sleep in our own beds.  When we returned to the hospital on Wednesday morning Bennett was not doing so good, his temp was up and he was lethargic.  Dr. Bester thought we should give him an IV for hydration and medication.  Wow, was that a heart breaker for both Bennett and I.  THREE tries at getting the IV in was about all I could take and not to mention poor Bennett who by the third try was so hysterical he had beads of sweat dripping down his face.  To finish it off they took his blood AND did an nose and throat swab, honestly probably one of the most helpless moments of my parenting life.  We were both exhausted!  Yet still no diagnosis of what Bennett had.

By the next day we had settled in, watched movie upon movie and found interesting ways to entertain ourselves!  We had nicknamed Bennett's IV stand Olie Polie who became a pain when Bennett had to use the bathroom quickly!

Because Bennett was on isolation he couldn't have many visitor but Grandpa Wecker stopped by after golfing one day.

One evening Bennett had hit his threshold and needed to get out of his room for a walk, thankfully the wonderful nurses on that evening we more than accommodating. 

Friday morning Dr. Bester gave us another day pass to go home and come back the next day for a final assessment and to hopefully be discharged.  Bennett couldn't wait to blow this pop stand!

Saturday morning when we returned Bennett was kinda excited, first to play with all the toys he wasn't allowed to before and of course to be discharged.  He got the green light from Dr. Bester who gave Bennett amazing care while he was in the hospital.  We found out that the unknown illness was Salmonella poisoning, which could be from fruit, veggies or anything really.  We will never know where he got it from or  if his body was just so worn down for being sick the past few weeks and he couldn't fight it off.

Before we left the unit, Bennett wanted to give his Get well balloon to someone else who was sick, now that we didn't need it anymore.  The nurse suggested a five year old girl who was in the same room that we had stayed in.  I'm tearing up just remember how happy the little girl and her family were.... A typical act of kindness from the sweetest boy I know!!