M.I.A.

Spring break here has been filled with excitement!  We've gone from birthday celebrations to egg hunts to Easter to a mini girl's road trip to living room camping and even had visits from the Tooth Pirate and the Tooth Fairy!  Needless to say, I think this sums up why I've been m.i.a. for a while.

Right before all of this fun, we did spend one very long night at the ER with Cole.  After a weekend of terrible flaring, refusal to eat much, culminating with one seemingly endless afternoon and evening of inconsolablility, our pediatrician sent us to the hospital.    Of course our gremlin transformed back into an angel after the tranquil thruway trek and the triage nurse looked at me as if I had three heads when I explained why we were there. Lucky for me, the second Cole woke back up, his distress was more than evident, so I no longer fielded the "look at the crazy mom" glares.

Throughout the night, the staff performed numerous tests and x-rays as ordered by Cole's g.i. doctors.  While he had a fever and a great deal of inflammation in his abdomen, the general consensus was that there was something amiss, yet other than the iv fluids the doctors felt there wasn't much else they could do right at that moment.  They explained the need for all the tests results to come in and be analyzed, which would take about 48 hours. So after a few hours of hydration, we were sent on our way.
 
Once we were home, we sleepily started our routine of trying to get Cole to eat and drink.  As long as he continued to drink, the doctors said not to worry too much about his lack of interest in food for a couple days.  Hopefully once he started to feel better, he would perk up, which is exactly what he did.

A few days later, the call came with the test results.  While the doctors were not shocked at the positive tests for blood and inflammation, they were surprised at how well everything else looked.  In fact, the nurse said she had to triple check that she was looking at the results for the right kid because Cole's numbers in portions of his tests had never looked so positive, even from two weeks earlier.  Some values still were low, but they were far beyond what they were expecting to see.

Knowing that things are moving in the right direction makes me breathe a little easier.  I am certain someone above is really looking out for him right now and feel all the prayers are helping.  Cole has a long few weeks ahead, filled with immunizations and a surgery at the end of the month.  With such a stupendous start to April I am hoping for smooth sailing as we forge ahead further into our odyssey, hoping we are done with Charybdis, and nothing else remains to blow us off course.

Thank you again for all of your continued encouragement and support.  I continued to be overwhelmed at the kindness and love from all of you, especially those of you who don't even know us.  We are truly blessed and my gratitude is beyond words.