In which we discover John has Kawasaki's disease

On November 12, we discovered that John had a fever. That's not too unusual in our house; we took his temperature and didn't think to much of it. We used one of those ear thermometers, and his temperature was around 100 and 101 degrees. Soon, Nancy noticed his neck seemed sore when she picked him up. This continued until Friday. The symptoms remained the same and we had become concerned enough to go to the doctor. Friday afternoon we saw the doctor and after an examination, the doctor concluded he had an infected lymph gland. It seemed very apparent; when the doctor felt the lymph gland, it was swollen and very tender. He prescribed an antibiotic and sent us on our way. We were relieved because we were worried he had meningitis.

Friday we noticed that the skin around his eyebrows was red, but we attributed this to his fever. Later that evening, JeNeale noticed this redness and suggested that it could be an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. Nancy didn't think so because his eyebrows had been red all day, but she did notice some red spots on his neck soon thereafter. Later that night, we were having a hard time getting John to sleep so we had the light off and were watching a movie. When the movie was over (about midnight), John still wouldn't go to sleep. We turned the light on to change his diaper and discovered that his stomach and back were covered with a rash. After reading the prescription information and talking to an on-call nurse, we decided to take John into the emergency room; we thought (as JeNeale had suggested earlier) he was having an allergic reaction to the antibiotic (amoxycillon).

We woke Matthew up to let him know what was going on and left him in charge of all the sleeping kids. The on-call nurse had suggested we stop on the way to the hospital and get benedryl to help the rash. We went to the Nampa Wal-Mart, got the medicine, and went to the Mercy Medical Center ER. (We arrived about 1am) We hadn't given John the benedryl so we verified with the nurse at Mercy that we should do it, and we gave him benedryl at that time.

We waited some time (over an hour) for the ER doc to show up. He conducted a brief examination of John and concluded that John had probably had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. He gave us a prescription for another antibiotic (zythromax). Over the weekend, John made no improvement despite being on the antibiotic. John's regular pediatrician was very attentive and kept in contact over the weekend.

By Monday, we were concerned enough to take him back to the doctor. We stayed there several hours and began doing blood tests on John. Doctor A spent much of that time with us talking through the possibilities. The symptoms John was experiencing did not seem to follow the usual course of either a viral or bacterial infection. The pivotal point came when they took John's temperature one more time before we left. He measured at 104 degrees. We were somewhat surprised because it had not measured that high before and he didn't seem any warmer to the touch. As Dr A asked some follow up questions, he discovered that we had been using an ear thermometer and one with whcih we were having some problems. He is not a fan of that kind of thermometer and thought that John may have had a higher temperature than originally thought. It was at this point that he began seriously considering a diagnosis of Kawasaki's Disease. Two of the main symptoms are sustained fever for 5 or more days and a rash over the body. Because it is rare, there is no test for it, and it can cause long term heart and coronary artery damage, Dr A referred us to a pediatric cardiologist.


Tuesday, the 18th, we went in and John had an EKG and echo cardiogram (another term for an ultrasound of the heart - caution, these are VERY expensive). Both went pretty well because John was so lethargic by this point. The cardiologist was very nice, and he called in a infectious disease specialist with whom to consult. They started talking about John in front of us. When they realized what they were doing, they excused themselves and went into the hall to talk about John. We could hear them just as well from the hall. They felt that there was enough evidence of Kawasaki's disease to admit us to the hospital. Although the diagnosis of Kawasaki's is difficult, the treatment is well established. We had no idea that we might be admitted to the hospital that day and so we were not prepared.

Well, we went anyway. We were admitted early afternoon. We spent most of the afternoon waiting for John to get an IV. The treatment of Kawasaki's disease is a dose or more of IV immunoglobulin (IV IG for short) and baby aspirin therapy. Finally, about early evening, it came time to give him his IV. This was one of those things Nancy likes me to take care of so I went in with John. Unfortunately, the Kawasaki's had caused John's skin to be swollen and the nurses had a hard time finding a vein in which to insert the IV. In fact, they never did even though they tried for 2 1/2 hours. It was miserable -a parental nightmare. John cried so much that Nancy finally came in to be with us. In the end they decided to insert a central line into a main artery that was just under John's clavicle. I was actually relieved. It meant that he would be able to get his treatment of medicine. We are fortunate enough to be close to Nancy's family. Kathy and LeAnn watched the kids while we were in the hospital.

Friends from the ward started showing up right after John had his central line. Bryan (my brother), and TJ stopped by. A young man in our ward had been diagnosed with cancer and was on the same floor as we were. On Sunday evening I had taken him a copy of field and stream. Bryan took the opportunity to make fun of me for that. Katrissa and Ron brought us a sack of goodies and later brought us Chicken Club sandwhiches with guacamole. Brent and JeNeale stopped by with slushy drinks and stayed and visited. Nancy had been fighting a headache and was trying to hold off from throwing up while everyone was there. Brent and JeNeale were still there when Nancy couldn't keep it down anymore. She did make it to the bathroom. They stayed and visited and made sure we were ok. Earlier, Julie had asked Nancy for a key to our house so the relief society could clean our house while we were in the hospital. Nancy said no so Linda came to me for a key. She is small in stature, but she somehow got a key from me. She was trying to be sneaky, but Nancy knew the whole time.

John started his course of IV IG about 9pm Tuesday night. It continued to 9ish the next morning. The night was misery. They gave us one cot and a glider chair for our accommodations. Nancy held John most of the night. Part of the night he slept in the provided crib and she got in it with him. Wednesday afternoon, John started showing improvement. His rash was slowly fading, and he started showing some signs of life. For the past day or more he had been very lethargic. I had gone home Wednesday to shower and change and get some things for Nancy and was caught by the house cleaning crew. It was humbling to be there while the house was being cleaned.
Our doctor decided to keep him another night for observation. Another miserable night. Nancy needed sleep, so for part of the night I put John in his carseat and put his carseat in a wagon (we were in the pediatric unit) and we walked the halls of the hospital. The movement kept John asleep. Occasionally, I would stop a read an article out of an Ensign I had with me. We ended up back in the room and I traded back off with Nancy.

We were discharged Thursday and home by noon. We came home to a clean house and a beautiful flower arrangement. John was doing better and continued to show improvement over the next few days. We have since had a follow up doctor's visit. John shows no sign of heart damage. We will have one more doctor's appointment, but expect no problems. Through it all we have been very blessed. Friends and family have been very supportive and we have been taught, once again, of the blessing friends and family can be. Nancy's back endured surprisingly well - another significant blessing. John is on 1/2 a baby aspirin a day and will be until his last doctor's appointment, but he is back to himself.






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Me and Julia Down by the School Yard

Ok, this post has nothing to do with a school yard, but I couldn't resist the allusion to the Paul Simon song. On Columbus Day, Julia asked about going on a fishing trip I owed her. For my birthday, she had given me a small bottle of a kind of fake worm I like to fish with. Here is the funny part - they are pink. More about that later. When she had given them to me, I promised I would take her fishing. Anyway, we had a really busy day. I wanted to take her fishing, but it had to be close because we didn't have much time. My friend Jared had given me a tip about a canal flowing from a local reservoir (Lake Lowell) that I wanted to try. I figured it was perfect. It was close, Jared's reports were good, and it gave me and Julia a chance to fish.

However, when we arrived, we saw that there was no water flowing into the canal. What water there was was shallow and dotted with dead fish. In fact, there were dead fish all over - hundreds, maybe thousands of them. With the exception of one small (like 6 inches) catfish, they all appeared to be carp. Then we saw a pool thick with live fish. The water was so shallow that, as Julia put it, you could see their "fish tops" (their dorsal fins). They were so concentrated that I felt it took the sport out of fishing for them. After some thought, though, I figured Julia might like the excitement of having a big fish on the end of her line. I didn't bother taking my pole out of the Suburban - the fishing was going to be so easy as to ruin the fun of it. We climbed down into the canal and started fishing. To keep it simple, we were just bobber fishing with the pink worms -bright pink worms. I cast it out and waited. Nothing. Julia says that maybe we can take the ones we catch home and eat them. I said that we didn't really want to eat these kinds of fish (carp). Then she asks me the kind of question only kids can. "Then why are we fishing?" Not expecting to have a philosophical discussion on why I fish, I don't think I ever gave her a good answer. So we are casting and waiting and Julia is exploring and no fish takes the bright pink worm bait. I start casting into the part of the pool that is the thickest with fish. They are so thick and the water so shallow there is a constant display of "fish tops". Still nothing. Cast, wait, retrieve. Nothing. Julia suggests maybe we try another close by pool. No, there are a lot of fish right here. However, despite the fact that they are packed in like sardines and their food supply has got to be extremely limited, they want nothing to do with bright pink worms. We soon tire of the this and I suggest we head back. Julia asks if there is somewhere else we can go. I explain that we are short on time and need to get back....blah blah blah...and I can tell she really wants to try somewhere else, so we do.

We go across the road to the lake that should have been draining into the canal - Lake Lowell. We sit down at the water's edge and I cast out another pink worm with a fisherman's optimism. Julia has it too.



I take the opportunity to give her the talk I think all fishing fathers have to give their kids at some point. It's the "why we had fun even though we didn't catch any fish" talk. We saw and heard a lot of geese and the lake was blue out past the green stuff floating on the water. And we came up with other reasons, too. Of course the best part was just being together and to see her in her pink shoes, pink dress, and pink coat out fishing. Very cute.

We fnally ran out of time and we had to reel the line in to see if there was a fish on the hook. We visually inspected it and found that, indeed, there was no fish on the hook. To our delight, however, we discovered that the pink worm was gone. That means that a fish might have eaten it off the hook. It was enough to satisfy us. In reality, I did see the bobber bob ever so slightly. With fishing, you never know.

We go back to the suburban to get in and I thank Julia for coming and for the pink worms. When I said that, she asked me, "Do you know why I got you pink worms?" You should know that there is actually a reason besides catching a young girl's eye to sell pink worms. I have had good luck catching rainbow trout on pink marshmellows and pink lures. One of my favorite lures is a pink Rooster Tail that has caught so many trout I call it pinky fishslayer. Of course Julia knows none of this. I ask her why she pick out pink worms. She says, "Because I like pink!" I can't think of a better reason to fish with a pink worm.

Vacation

The week of September 29 we went on vacation. Our original plans were to go to Utah to meet our newest niece, but that didn't work out. We decided to take the time anyway and find things to do close to home. The first thing we did was go visit Nancy's brother and family near Letha.

We don't get out there as often as we should so we should have gotten a lot of great pictures of the kids. We didn't get enough kid pics but I did get this great shot of a bumble bee.


We had a great time bowling a couple of times. Even Samuel got to bowl. You can see that we Aydelottes have some natural bowling technique.

For years we have been talking about building a firepit in our backyard. We had one in Nampa and loved it. We finally did it. The "building" consisted of stacking landscape bricks in a circle and lighting a fire in the middle. We didn't even bother digging out the grass.

Not complicated but it was effective. We tested it by cooking hotdogs and bratwurst. John and I enjoyed sitting together near the fire.

Nathan's birthday was that Friday. Family came over to celebrate with us. Nathan turned 11 and will be starting boy scouts. More evidence that the kids are growing up way to fast.

We finished up by watching conference. I love listening to the speakers. When I was at home, my father started the tradition of taking us to pizza after the priesthood session. At first I didn't care much for all the long talks, but always enjoyed the pizza. Well, now I love the talks, and I still love the pizza. I go with my brother, my two brothers-in-law, my father-in-law and my son, Matthew. Because Matthew was excited to start being part of the tradition, Nancy and I let him go to the priesthood session just before his twelfth birthday. Now Nathan wants to do the same, so I will have two of my boys with me in the spring. Guess Dad knew what he was doing. One of my favorite vacation moments came while we were watching the movie Cars. It is a favorite here -particularly with Samuel. I was sitting on the couch and Samuel came and propped himself on my lap and kept watching the movie. For that momement, we were together and he was so sweet and beautiful. It didn't last long, but for me it was one of those moments that makes all the other stuff worth while. Monday it was back to work. It was work and sickness (for some of us). We finished this week on a high note, though. We had some great friends over for dinner. Now I am looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Blog's Beginning

We, the family Aydelotte, finding ourselves at our leisure during this vacation week, have decided to start a blog. We have also gone bowling and swimming. We have friends that blog, and we take some inspiration from them. We hope that this will be a good forum to share family events with friends and family. The whole thing nearly came to a screeching halt when we realized we had no ideas for a blog name. (Is this a bad sign for our blog?) Well, anyway, Nancy came up with the name. I think she was referencing the fact that we home school. I like it because it reminds me of fishing and is somewhat abstract. The kids don't really like the name. Maybe they will grow to like it. Maybe not. Please visit on occassion. Both Nancy and I will be posting. Maybe we will let the kids post. Maybe not. By the way, Matthew came up with the title for this post and he would be proud to know he got the credit.