Please Pray for Paul
“Mom, I hope you won’t think I’m criticizing my room at home, but this room is really cool! It has its own bathroom, there are hot air balloons on the wall, and you can order food. It’s kind of like a sleepover with really nice people!”
This was Paul’s assessment of his hospital room after spending about 24 hours in the ped ward. Many of you know that our six year old was admitted to the hospital yesterday with a virulent infection in his arm. It had started with a simple abrasion to his elbow almost a week previously, which suddenly became seriously infected, red, swollen. After being treated at the doctor’s office Tuesday morning the infection did not recede, but grew alarmingly throughout the day, so our pediatrician decided he must be admitted. Paul’s main concern at that time was missing dinner, parmesan chicken, his favorite.
Paul is being treated with strong IV antibiotics. We’re awaiting results of cultures from his elbow and also from his nose. These will tell us which bug it is that is causing the problems and whether it has spread to his respiratory system. The concern (and assumption by most of those who have seen him) is that he has a MRSA (antibiotic resistant staph) infection dubbed a “superbug.” If this is the case, he might be in the hospital for a good long time, up to two weeks. The best case scenario would be that he instead has a strep infection which should respond more quickly to drugs. We should find out tomorrow morning which it is.
Today Paul met with two surgeons, and the latter (an orthopod) decided that it did not need to be surgically cleaned out. This doctor will return tomorrow, and there is still the chance of that happening, which frightens Paul greatly, but might be necessary to speed the healing process. (Tonight Pastor Bayly compared pastors to surgeons in their job of tearing apart in order to bring cleansing.)
At home things have been running incredibly well, thanks to my awesome older children. Kara became Pirate Captain and wore an eye patch, bandana, and wooden spoon to carry out her task of homeschooling the younger ones. She’s finding that three years of college (four years work crammed) has made the job of homeschooling immensely more pleasurable, as her knowledge pool is that much deeper. Rather than continue our study of ocean animals, this afternoon I asked Kara to begin an entomology unit, a subject dear to her heart. So she led the kids in an entomology lab in which they trekked through the woods (Ben called it the “forest”) where they caught beetles, butterflies, and damselflies. Tomorrow I know they will have a great time with our Shakepeare hour in which all the kids will continue dramatically reading Macbeth. Kristen, in addition to keeping up with her own work, has been doing vast amounts of laundry and helping supervise and love the little people. Not only the girls, but the older boys have stepped up as well, filling in to cover Tim’s responsibilities. Andrew is coming home tonight and will be helping his dad frame a project that Tim’s is running behind on. Jon will also be joining them as soon as he finishes his work, and is caring for some of the mundane tasks such as fixing our freezer tonight.
Saturday Andrew and Kara are scheduled to graduate from Purdue. Our pediatrician jokingly said, “Well, not to give me any pressure or anything.” Our hope is that we will both be able to be there, but that decision will need to be made later. Tim is spending the night with Paul tonight. I or someone else will try to update soon. Thanks so much for praying.
This was Paul’s assessment of his hospital room after spending about 24 hours in the ped ward. Many of you know that our six year old was admitted to the hospital yesterday with a virulent infection in his arm. It had started with a simple abrasion to his elbow almost a week previously, which suddenly became seriously infected, red, swollen. After being treated at the doctor’s office Tuesday morning the infection did not recede, but grew alarmingly throughout the day, so our pediatrician decided he must be admitted. Paul’s main concern at that time was missing dinner, parmesan chicken, his favorite.
Paul is being treated with strong IV antibiotics. We’re awaiting results of cultures from his elbow and also from his nose. These will tell us which bug it is that is causing the problems and whether it has spread to his respiratory system. The concern (and assumption by most of those who have seen him) is that he has a MRSA (antibiotic resistant staph) infection dubbed a “superbug.” If this is the case, he might be in the hospital for a good long time, up to two weeks. The best case scenario would be that he instead has a strep infection which should respond more quickly to drugs. We should find out tomorrow morning which it is.
Today Paul met with two surgeons, and the latter (an orthopod) decided that it did not need to be surgically cleaned out. This doctor will return tomorrow, and there is still the chance of that happening, which frightens Paul greatly, but might be necessary to speed the healing process. (Tonight Pastor Bayly compared pastors to surgeons in their job of tearing apart in order to bring cleansing.)
At home things have been running incredibly well, thanks to my awesome older children. Kara became Pirate Captain and wore an eye patch, bandana, and wooden spoon to carry out her task of homeschooling the younger ones. She’s finding that three years of college (four years work crammed) has made the job of homeschooling immensely more pleasurable, as her knowledge pool is that much deeper. Rather than continue our study of ocean animals, this afternoon I asked Kara to begin an entomology unit, a subject dear to her heart. So she led the kids in an entomology lab in which they trekked through the woods (Ben called it the “forest”) where they caught beetles, butterflies, and damselflies. Tomorrow I know they will have a great time with our Shakepeare hour in which all the kids will continue dramatically reading Macbeth. Kristen, in addition to keeping up with her own work, has been doing vast amounts of laundry and helping supervise and love the little people. Not only the girls, but the older boys have stepped up as well, filling in to cover Tim’s responsibilities. Andrew is coming home tonight and will be helping his dad frame a project that Tim’s is running behind on. Jon will also be joining them as soon as he finishes his work, and is caring for some of the mundane tasks such as fixing our freezer tonight.
Saturday Andrew and Kara are scheduled to graduate from Purdue. Our pediatrician jokingly said, “Well, not to give me any pressure or anything.” Our hope is that we will both be able to be there, but that decision will need to be made later. Tim is spending the night with Paul tonight. I or someone else will try to update soon. Thanks so much for praying.
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Love, Kim
Kim