A blessing in disguise

I never would have imagined I’d spend five days of the last week since having Jaylen in the hospital. In fact, the first two nights home with the little guy went really well and we presumed he was doing just fine, that is until we went in to the routine doctor’s visit. Originally we thought the pediatrician might have been a little too cautious by sending us to the ER with Jaylen to do labwork for jaundice, turning a dusky color when crying (also referred to as cyanosis) and having a heartrate that was slightly lower than normal – but after all we’ve been through and now learning how serious things could have gotten we are so thankful that things were caught this early on.

It’s definitely been a tough few days. We’ve sat by Jaylen’s side at the hospital and watched him under go blood work, catheters, an EKG, xrays and ultrasounds (of his heart, kidneys, and bladder), a spinal tap and a VCUG procedure of his kidneys and bladder. Initially they had concerns about his heart, kidneys and bladder. Just the thought of anything being seriously wrong with him was especially difficult for us to accept. Luckily the tests Jaylen underwent showed that everything was normal and functioning properly. As you might imagine it was so difficult seeing him in pain as he was poked and proded these last couple of days, but fortunately all of these procedures were done as a precaution due the initial concern of cyanosis. However, his labwork did come back positive for a urinary tract infection. We were told that in newborns infections can be very serious and should not be taken lightly because something like a urinary tract infection can easily spread to other areas fast in newborns. So we had to sit and wait for 48 hours as more labwork and procedures were completed to rule out any other infections or abnormalities internally. Thankfully all of the tests came back normal and Jaylen just needs to be given antibiotics for the next week.

What was the hardest for us was that we never even felt as though anything was wrong with Jaylen – so to take a trip to the ER and have umpteen procedures done on him when we originally thought he just needed labwork completed was a shock for us. But looking back now we certainly understand and appreciate the thoroughness of the pediatrician’s desire to prove everything is okay with Jaylen. So I guess this stressful time has been what some of you have been telling me – a blessing in disguise. It undoubtedly has helped me appreciate how fortunate we are. Though this was a tough time for us we found ourselves especially lucky after seeing just how serious some of the situations other families are dealing with at the hospital with their sick children.

After a long 2 1/2 days, we’re finally home now and finding a way to settle back into a routine at home. As I sit here and reflect on these last few days – I have to admit that there’s no doubt just how blessed we are. We’ve decided to share some of the pictures we’ve taken these last few days in the hospital with everyone (visit our pictures in flickr to see the photos). As you can see from the photos, this experience has only strengthened the love we have for Jaylen.

Thanks to all of you who have expressed concern, shown support, or have went out of your way to help us this last week. And yes, we realize there are still many of you who may be finding all this out for the first time as you read this. Just know it was tough for us to repeat telling this entire experience with everyone. We also didn’t want to alarm everyone before we knew more details and results of tests. Thankfully this entire ordeal has had a happy ending and we can now move on with raising this little guy.