Trip to the Hospital

This is one trip we will not soon forget!
On Friday, May 16 I picked Shane up from school and he was complaining of a headache and he was running a fever. I gave him some tylenol when we got home and he seemed to feel a bit better. Saturday his fever was still there - but I just gave him more tylenol and ibuprofen (alternating). We went out on a little adventure and he seemed to be fine. However by Sunday he was pretty miserable with a high fever of 103 and he basically layed on the couch the entire day. On Monday morning his temp was closer to 105 and I took him to our local Dr. She thought it looked like he may have menegitis - and we needed to go to the KinderKlinik in Heidelberg. I made some quick phone calls and got a friend to pick up the girls from Kindergarten and another friend to watch Silas. I was very nervous, as I had never been to the hospital here before and didn't know what to expect. Well after a few tests, spinal tap, blood work, chest x-ray and HOURS of waiting....we found out the good news was he did not have menegits. The bad news was that he had bacterial pneumonia. He was going to have to be in the hospital for IV antibiotics for a few days.

Shane in his little room the first day. We spent hours here waiting and waiting. At this point I was thinking we were still going to go home that night....little did I know we'd be there for 7 days!!!! This was one sick little boy! On Tuesday mommy brought the laptop computer so Shane could watch some DVDs. I also brought books and some activities and even those beloved spelling words!

On Tuesday afternoon we were moved to a larger room with a balcony view!!! Daily we had visits from a little bird that would come right into the room. I tried to get a picture of that - but always missed her.

Along with the IV antibiotics Shane had to do breathing treatments 4 times per day. He also got to go to the spielzimmer (playroom) and pick out a few toys to take back to his room. We played a game where Moles tried to go down holes to get to a golden shovel over and over. Shane fixed
a dragon puzzle a few times, and also got a box of legos to build with. Once we got to the bigger room we (parents) were fortunate enough to get to sleep on a fold-up cot. The final night we were there we had to share a room with another little girl with pneumonia. It was a bit tight - but her family was really nice and they spoke English and helped me with my German.

It was a rough week going back and forth to the hospital and doing the switch-er-oo...this is what we named the switching of parents - one parent was at the hospital with Shane and the other was home with the other 3 kids. We'd switch on and off every day. So one night I'd be at the hospital then the next night I'd be at home and Jer would be at the hospital. We were fortunate enough to have friends step up to help out with the kids during the days when Jer had to be at work. Sunday (May 25) we were finally able to come HOME! Shane was very weak and complained of headaches from lying down so much. Fortunately by Monday he was doing so much better - and I had to make him take it easy! He is doing great now, and Friday morning I'll take him back in for a followup. Hopefully he will be back to school next week too!