We never felt so helpless as we did back in July 2011 when Patrick began his given journey. As a baby, we never realized Patrick had any signs of being sick...we thought he had been very healthy.
Looking back at pictures of a beach trip a few weeks before in June we noticed he was really pale and just seemed like he had had some 'bug' but never knew that we were about to travel down a road that we didn't choose....
We got back from the beach and noticed he seemed to be feeling cruddy. Maybe the flu...fever, tired but no real complaints of pain. The days went on and then he started to have a steady fever of 102-103. I gave him some Tylenol and his fever spiked to 105. Of course this was on the weekend when our doctor's office was closed so we went to minor care ... here is the excerpt from the email I sent out which recapped the several days that followed, dated July 14, 2011:
We are still in Greenville and probably will be
through the weekend. The staff over here is absolutely wonderful and
loving. They understand and know just what we need or feel when we cannot
understand or even express ourselves.
This past Saturday Patrick (now 15 months)
started a pretty high fever....went into Sunday when I took him to minor care
and they rushed him by ambulance to Spartanburg Regional. We spent the rest
of the day into the night when they finally got the fever down. His blood
levels were low and wanted us to follow up with the pediatrician on
Monday. And so, I took the first appointment on Monday only to be told his
hemoglobin was low and his platelets were alarmingly low and expressed the
dire need to get to Greenville to where we have been since. We have been
through some extremely low lows here and through lots of prayer have seen God's
hand close doors to things we were so frightened to imagine. I literally
felt like someone came up behind me and swept my legs up from under
me....thinking now maybe that was God sweeping me up to hold me. From
that point on I do not remember breathing. Poor Patrick had been poked,
prodded, given blood, and had a bone marrow flow done thankfully to find
out he did not have leukemia...they have also done an ultrasound finding no
masses. This is when I began to exhale.
Poor Patrick was so pale and beaten and soon
after this he scrunched up his nose and smiled....melted my heart and thankful
God could spare him from such a tough struggle.
Unfortunately, there is still no sign of exactly
what is going on. Their best guess, and hope, is a virus but are sending
off many tests for autoimmune diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, and will continue
to track for a blood disorder that could be pretty tough. In this last
case, he too, would have a rough road possibly needing chemotherapy but as
today goes on it looks like we may be able to cross this one off the list as he
is fever free over 24 hours and blood levels are going back up. Depending
on some of the results of tests and his next few blood reports there is a
possibility they would do yet another bone marrow test but we are hoping we
won't even need to go there.
Please pray for my sweet little boy...he is
growing stronger every day...we are seeing more glimpses of our little monkey
every day as he seems to be doing better. Please pray for his strength
and healing. Growing up I remember we pray for God's will to be done but
a wise friend told me the other day it is ok to pray for what we want
.... God is good and he heard and hears our prayers.
I am forever grateful for all of your
prayers. Thank you also for those of you who have opened your hearts to
us and can never thank you enough for those who have been helping Brody, Regan
and Alexander! We truly feel God's arms wrapped around us!
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