Half Tonight; the Other Half Tomorrow

I can't believe I haven't been here since the 11th. I've actually lost track of time these past few days, and it started last Friday. When Ty got off the bus on Thursday he was complaining that his knee hurt him so we wrapped it and iced it figuring it would be fine the next day. He got up, said he felt okay and I sent him of to school. Two hours later he called me from school saying he could barely move his leg so the nurse wanted me to pick him up. Before I left the house I called his PCP to make an appointment and it all started there.

We saw a nurse practitioner who took all our information - he'd been ill two weeks prior with a fever of 102* for about four days, and was fine after that. His brother and sister had the same virus so I didn't think anything of it. Every few days or so Ty would say he didn't feel well and would have a fever of just over 100* but a few hours later would say he felt fine. No big deal. Then his knee came into play so it needed to be checked.

The nurse practitioner was having trouble coming up with a diagnosis so she consulted a doctor who advised they take blood work and that we get an x-ray. We headed home after the x-ray but when she called me with the blood results it showed an inflammation so she sent us to the ER for further testing and a consult with the on-call orthopedist. She thought his knee may be septic from the virus he'd had so off we went.

We sat in the ER from 7:00 that night until 3:00 the following morning only to be told that his blood work did show an inflammation but he wasn't showing any signs of a septic knee. He was having trouble moving it but he could move it, and it wasn't swollen, red or hot; the ortho chalked it up to an MCL strain and sent us home after giving Ty a knee immobilizer and me specific instructions on what to look for in case he got worse. If he did I was to return to the ER; if he didn't we were to follow-up with his PCP on Monday morning, and with the ortho later in the week.

Ty was fine all weekend long, no fevers, no pain, no nothing to indicate he had a problem at all. He was supposed to have gone to his dad's house that weekend but chose not to go; Zach and Dolly did go so it was just Ty and me all weekend. Zach and Dolly came home on Sunday and went to school on Monday. I made Ty an appointment with a doctor at the PCP's office for that morning.

He showered and started to complain that his knee was starting to hurt again. We figured it was from him actually using it since Friday since he still had no fever or swelling. By the time we reached the PCP, however, he had a fever of 100.9* and his knee was swollen and had a visible cyst in the back of his leg. Needless to say the doctor definitely thought it was infected and sent us back to the ER. We stopped back by our house to grab his overnight bag that was still packed from Friday's visit. He was supposed to take it to his dad's but we took it with us just in case they admitted him. Since we'd gotten home so late and were both so exhausted the bag stayed untouched in the living room all weekend.

Anyway, I grabbed the bag and my laptop and we headed back to the ER in downtown Kansas City and started another adventure that I'll finish tomorrow night. I'm way too exhausted to finish it now since I've only had about 18 hours of sleep between Sunday and tonight. I'm hoping I'll get some decent sleep tonight so I'll be rested and in a much better mood tomorrow. For now I'll leave you with this part of the story and just say goodnight, happy dreams.

Until next time...peace to all.