The Burkett Bundle

Yesterday, I got a glimpse of why God can allow pain and suffering in this world. 

The story starts on Tuesday night, when Kyran had a 102 degree temperature.  He seemed pretty miserable, so we gave him some Tylenol and checked on him every few hours.  He moaned and tossed and turned all night, and in the morning, his temperature was back up to 102.  After some more Tylenol, the fever went down again, and they took their morning naps. 

I heard him moaning again, and went in to check on him, and it felt like his body was on fire.  His temperature was 104.5!  I know that 104.5 is not extremely high for a young child, but it was two degrees higher than it had ever been, and I was very concerned.  After a little convincing, the nurse called Dr. Bartlett who said she would squeeze him in. 

A quick toe-prick showed that his white blood cell count was at 25,000, very high, considering normal range is between 12,000 and 17,000, so they gave him two shots of Rocephin, an antibiotic, and took blood and urine to get cultures on the samples.  The blood sample wasn't so bad, but when the nurse catheterized Kyran the first time, she tried for quite a while, but couldn't get anything out.  After a little milk, Dr. Bartlett was able to try again and got what she needed. 

She told me, before they got the samples, that I could leave the room if I wanted to.  I said, "I'm a NICU mom, I can handle it," and I was right, except that he couldn't scream quite as loud in the NICU and he couldn't look at me with eyes that showed no understanding of what was happening to him.  On Wednesday, there were two nurses, so I was able to stroke his hair and try to make him feel better (while Dr. B. had taken Karyssa out of the room with her...I love our pediatrician!) but when we went back on Thursday, it was a different story. 

His white blood cell count had dropped to 20,000, which was good, but he still needed more antibiotic shots and, due to a mix-up by the nurse, had to get catheterized again.  This time, though, there was only one nurse, so I had to hold him down.  The look in his eyes was almost more than I could take.  I think now I have a slight understanding of how God must feel when we suffer.  Kyran didn't understand why I was holding him down and allowing him to be in pain, just like I don't understand when we go through tough times, but God, like me in this situation, can see the big picture, and knows that while the suffering is heartbreaking, in the end, it will make us better and stronger.  One day, Kyran will read this story and understand why I did what I did (although, he will never remember it), but now, he is much too young to understand.  Luckily, he still clung to me afterwards, and was more loving than ever!

We went back today and his count was down to 15,000!  He's feeling much better and hasn't had a fever since Wednesday night.  His cultures also came back negative, so that is great news!  We have a busy weekend planned, so I'm glad to have our little man back to 100%! 

I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention how well behaved Karyssa was through all three of these appointments, and how understanding she was of the extra attention Kyran has been getting over the last few days.  Now the weekend is here, and she'll get spoiled with daddy-love!