Camping Outdoors and Camping at the Hospital

This weekend was the father-son Fraternus campout, so I had planned some "camping activities" for the littlest boys at home, as they were envious of the Big Camping Trip. Unfortunately, Thomas developed a fever, launching his post-splenectomy fever protocol, so I ended up making two trips to the Emergency Department instead.

I never knew a spleen was important until Thomas lost his! The spleen fights off some specific bugs, and especially for the first two years after losing one's spleen, one is at some significant risk of a particular infection that can lead to sepsis and death within 12-48 hours.

It's not something any doctor wants to miss diagnosing.

Thus, for these first two years, Thomas spikes a fever and we head over to our friendly Emergency Department for blood cultures, plus CBC and liver function tests, along with receiving two doses of IV antibiotics 24 hours apart. We'd only run this protocol once, back in August for a virus, and after having to spend the night in-patient, I brokered a new deal with Thomas's surgeon and oncologist: If Thomas goes in for fever, we will get his first IV antibiotics, then go home to sleep, and return to the Emergency Department 24 hours later for the second IV antibiotics.

Suffice to say, the weekend wasn't as fun as we planned, since Thomas felt awful and wept for Friday overnight and I ended up staying awake about 42 hours in a row. Chris valiantly returned from camping to babysit for a few hours on Saturday morning, but Mary (12 and mature beyond her years) filled in a lot of gaps, including when I had to be back at the E.D. Sunday by 7:00 a.m.

I had recently bought two non-fiction books to occupy me during Thomas's upcoming surgical hospital stay. Unfortunately, I read the first one in its entirety during our 7-hour E.D. stay on Saturday, and read half of the next book during our Sunday stay.

Now I have to find some new, engaging books.

We did have a few nice moments. Once Thomas received some antibiotics and Advil, he perked up and enjoyed hanging out, eating snacks, watching movies, and playing with the little gifties from Child Life.

I had promised the five kids at home a full hot dog roast and s'mores over the open firepit, but was bleary eyed with exhaustion by Saturday night, so we boiled hot dogs and cooked s'mores in the toaster oven instead. I even calculated nutrition grams so Thomas could have his own version of s'mores without getting sick:

• only one half graham cracker
• only four tiny squares of Lily's no-sugar chocolate
• only four mini marshmallows
• = 16 grams carb and 4 grams sugar
• plus I gave Thomas BeneProtein simultaneously, which adds 6 grams pure protein and helps slow down the sugar digestion

Then I let the boys sleep in sleeping bags on the floor of the master bedroom as their form of "camping."

Meanwhile, John and Dad had a great time camping!