Dante has had a bad cold since last Monday, but when he woke up Friday morning with his right arm bright red I knew we were not dealing with just a cold anymore. After a brief stay in the Emergency Room, Dante was admitted to the hospital with cellulitis from a Strep infection, and is still there today. If all goes well, he will be able to return home tomorrow. As bad as it looks in the photo below, that is actually much better than Friday when it was at its worst.
Not only is today Kimberly's first Christmas, it is the first Christmas we have not all been together as a family. Jamie and I have been switching off staying with Dante in his hospital room. Jamie was here with the kids for opening gifts this morning, then he and several of the kids brought gifts into the hospital for Dante and I. Thankfully Dante's pain level has been going down as his IV antibiotics are taking effect, and we had a pleasant visit.
It had been decided this morning that Dante's swelling was not going down quickly enough, so his arm was wrapped in gauze and put into a sling holding his right hand up near his left shoulder, to try to reduce the swelling. Dante was not cooperative during the process, but once it was in place he seemed relieved to have it wrapped and immobile.
Despite having his right hand trapped and his left arm slowed down by an IV with two lines plus a fascinating new toy, Dante still managed to reach that nagging itch.
Dr. Leif is in the house! Whenever a doctor or nurse walked into his room Dante tensed up and showed resistance to whatever they intended to do. Sometimes he fought more than others, depending on how long it had been since his last dose of Motrin. So I was very surprised when he allowed Leif and Amelia to play doctor on him.
Today was not how we planned to spend Christmas, but Jamie and I did spend an hour together at the hospital between his morning at home with the kids and my afternoon/evening with them. We are blessed to have had that time together, and to try to keep it as normal as possible for the rest of the kids. I am thankful that this is only a skin infection, painful as it has been for Dante, and not a terminal illness or one of many hospital stays for treatments or surgeries.
Tomorrow I will go back to join Jamie at the hospital, hopefully to bring our Dante home.
God is good!
1 comment:
i really admire you and your family and find it heart warming to read your blog... may god bless you and your family always.. you are my heroes i wish everyone in the world had as much strength and compassion as you and your husband you two are truly heaven sent angels
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