Two Words For Ya.... SEPTIC. JOINT.

NOT a good combination. Some of you know this story and perhaps some do not. For everyone who didn't hear all the details and are still not quite sure what all transpired, here is the full account!

For the Fourth of July weekend, we went to our friend's camp house on the creek. We had planned to spend the day Friday (3rd) and Saturday (4th). Well, we took Jobi down Friday and had a great time - hanging out in the water, swimming, eating, etc. We were geared up for a wonderful weekend! Jobi was so worn out by the end of the day (and had not napped) that we didn't think anything of it when he only wanted us to hold him and not walk. We chalked it up to being tired and sleepy - so once we hit the door of home, we put him straight to bed, no problems... until about 1 a.m. He woke up, screaming crying. He felt very feverish to me, although his temp was only registering very low grade. I could tell something was wrong. My baby was in PAIN and he was letting me know by his cries and he was clenching my t-shirt in his fists! We didn't know what to do. I quickly gave him some Tylenol, holding and rocking him for over an hour until he finally fell back into a restful sleep. Thinking he would be fully well by the next morning, we tried to go on with our regularly planned 4th. Well, when Jobi awoke, he was still crying and not bearing any weight on his right leg/foot. We had no idea what on earth was going on... I got on the phone immediately with the Pediatrician's office and made an appointment - thank GOD they were open AND our regular doctor was even on call! We were so relieved. We saw Dr. Burks and he checked him out thoroughly. His little ankle was reddish/black and blue and up to his knee was swollen. He would cry when we touched it or in fact, even attempted to get close. Dr. Burks sent us to the hospital to get xrays and said he would call us when the reports came back. At this point, we weren't sure if he had gotten something from the creek - some sort of bug/spider/snake bite, fracture, break or worse??? We were racking our brains, replaying the previous day's events. Never did we dream anything truly serious would come of this whole experience. Well, the xrays returned normal - negative. So Dr B said to just keep an eye on him and call him on Monday if he wasn't any better. Monday comes...... we call. Dr. B says he doesn't want to start any antibiotics or anything in case the meds were to mask something that could be there we needed to know about. We were even supposed to be very conservative with the Tylenol or Motrin just in case he were to spike a fever - Dr. Burks wanted to know about it immediately. The worst case scenario he had given us was that it could possibly turn into Osteo Myelitis - infection of the bone. It can be caused by some sort of bacterial infection from a cut or scrape... and the infection gets enters the bloodstream and usually manifests itself at a certain joint in the body. But we had still not ruled out that it could be a tiny fracture or something of the sort that was going undetected. Thursday, the 9th we found ourselves back at Dr. Burk's office. He sent us to see a Radiologist at Hburg Clinic where I work. They had ordered repeat xrays as well as an ultrasound to see if they could determine anything new. Well, the ultrasound revealed excessive build-up of fluid around the joint, which is obviously not normal. He was very thorough in his exam, which we appreciated. All of the doctors were baffled, not to mention Mommy and Daddy! From the Clinic we went back to the Pediatrician's office. Good thing I was sitting down as he wasted no time asking me what my plans were for the afternoon and days following! He was sending us to University Medical Center in Jackson to see Dr. Haber, a Pediatric Orthopedist. We were to check in through the ER and Dr. Burks told us to go prepared to stay at least one night. If Jobi were to be put on IV antibiotics, it could even be up to 10-14 days :( Wow, what a whirlwind the whole thing was. It exhausts me even now as I recap! If we left Hburg by 3 pm, there was a good chance we would see Dr. Haber through the ER - Dr. Burks had talked to him and he would be awaiting our arrival... if we made it there in time. Well we made it to the UMC ER about 5:30 pm. No sign of Dr. Haber, although his residents were there and they were on the lookout for us, thankfully. We started out by spending hours in a triage holding area during which time Jobi had a full panel of bloodwork and ankle xrays. They gave him a Tylenol suppository for pain so luckily he was able to rest for a while. Xrays still came back negative so after consulting with Dr. Haber by phone, his Ortho resident notified us they had decided an MRI should be performed. It was midnight now and MRI meant sedation. It was awful - Jobi did not handle the anesthesia very well! He cried and thrashed, inconsolable... for what seemed like an eternity, although in reality it was probably only about 30-45 minutes before he fell back into a deep sleep again. From about 12:30 am to approximately 3:30 am or so, Chris and I sat in post-op. SAT. Trying to sleep... in upright, most uncomfortable chairs. Chris ended up sprawling out in the floor alongside Jobi's bed! I wish I had had the camera at the time :) Every time the phone would ring at the nurse's station, we hoped it would be the MRI report letting us know what the next step was going to be. It was taking forever for the Radiologist to read the report. FINALLY we got the call. Not what we were hoping for, I - in my exhausted stooper overheard the nurse say 2 things... "Surgery" and "6 AM." Oh my Lord, are they talking about Jobi??! We were the only ones in recovery this wee hour of the morning! They told us we were ready to be moved to our room at Blair E. Batson Children's Hospital. We got settled there about 4 a.m. and did a port in Jobi's hand to prepare for the IV antibiotics that were to follow surgery. The Pediatrician on call, Dr. Adcock, explained to us how the procedure would work - they would put him under, obviously, (AGAIN!!) to drain the fluid away from the joint. The fluid would be cultured at 24 and 48 hrs to see if any infection grew and would therein give us an answer about Jobi's diagnosis. Dr. Adcock told us to get some rest - rest, what's that? - as much as about 2, maybe 2 1/2 hrs! They would come back to get us to prep Jobes for surgery. It seemed we had just closed our eyes and opened them again when the surgery nurse rolled in to get our baby boy. You can imagine... an ill, sleepy, ornary 20 month old who had been through it in the past, oh... 22 hours? Not to mention the whole week leading up to all of this! He had no clue why he had to be there or what was going on. I can imagine he just wanted to go home and be left alone. My heart (and body) was broken. Chris, too. Our spirits were torn as we watched our baby boy having to go through all this! Oh and let me say as I forgot to mention earlier in this post... Chris was supposed to have reported to Civitan Camp on the Thursday we ended up in UMC! Talk about stress upon stress. Yeah, we were at that point. Well as we sat like zombies in the surgery waiting room, the telephone rang... it was Dr. Haber's nurse letting us know they had gotten started and Jobi was doing fine. Then the phone rang again seconds later. It was the nurse again, saying that there was a lot of puss and what appeared to be infected fluid around the joint and they were draining it to be cultured (sorry, know that's gross). It wasn't long before they were coming to get us after the surgery was finished. Jobi had done great. They inserted an external drain that looked like a cut piece of drinking straw sticking out of his ankle! The orthopedist would not remove the dressing to check it until 48 hrs later. So we knew we were facing a few days hospital stay. They had it wrapped with an ace bandage and the area taped. Over the next couple of days, we saw pediatricians, orthopedists, and infectious disease docs. They were all expecting the culture to grow some sort of strep or staph so they began the IV antibiotics to treat the joint infection. Praise the Lord the actual bone itself was not affected! Osteomyelitis had been ruled out , which was our biggest threat of danger. Whew!

Jobi continued to improve every day :) With visits from our Preschool minister, Mumsie and Pop, Aunt BB, and Nana and Papa, he was a happy boy! There was also an overwhelming outpour of PRAYERS, texts, phone calls, balloons, snacks and goodies... it did our hearts so good to see how much Jobi is loved by so many. YOU - family and friends - are the VERY BEST and we couldn't have made it through this ordeal without all of your LOVE, concern, and support.
We were released from UMC on Monday, July 13th. The cultures? Never grew a thing!! Truly a blessing, but still so "bizarre!" as one of our pediatricians, Dr. Schneider put it. Jobi was sent home with 18 more days of oral antibiotics - same meds he was receiving intranveneously. 18 days - 2 tsps - 3x daily. Ugh. But hey, that was fine with me! We were just so happy to be home!!! And Daddy was able to join camp already in progress. We had to go to Jackson 2 weeks after discharge to follow up with Dr. Haber and also Dr. Palmer, the Infectious Disease doc. They did xrays again and more bloodwork. They said everything looked great and the bloodwork was normal! We were to come back one more time a month later (which was actually last Tuesday, Aug 21st). At that appointment, we were all clear and RELEASED! The antibiotics did the trick and hopefully we will never see the likes or hear of SEPTIC JOINT again!!! :) :) :)

Jobi was super excited when Papa came through the door of that hospital room!! He said "forget food!" He would only eat sitting in Papa's lap :)

One of my long-time, dear friends Tracy sent lunch to us by way of my parents one day - so sweet!! It was GREAT to eat wonderful chicken salad w/rolls, chips, goldfish for Jobes :) cokes, and cookies for dessert. Jobi got a sugar cookie with sprinkles on it and he got so excited squealing "OOOOHHHHhhhh!!" haha! It was too cute

By the time we left the children's hospital, Jobi was laughing, cutting up, giving "high 5's" to all the docs and med students... they loved our boy!! You can tell he was well on the way to recovery! :)

Here it is... the external drain. Chris had taken a night off from the hospital to go to camp to check since it was the day of camper registration so he left Jackson that Sat. afternoon and drove to Wiggins, then came back Sunday evening. I had to spend that one night by myself and the next morning is when the Ortho doc came in to change Jobi's dressing. I'm glad I got through it OK... eww! Jobi will always have a little battle scar to "show off" his wound :) He was SUCH a strong little boy to go through so much! He made his Mommy and Daddy very proud.

Mumsie and Pop were the first to visit - Friday night... we didn't have the camera at that point so I don't have any Pop pics but they were sweet enough to stay with Jobes so Chris could get me out of the hospital for a little while. I told him I wanted something good to eat... not junk. So he took me to the mother bar of all veggies and salads :P Golden Corral! We need one of these in Hattiesburg! It was soooo good and really hit the spot. Then Nana and Papa came up Saturday and spent the day (took care of Jobes while I caught some zzzzzz!) and Mumsie came up again Sunday afternoon with Aunt BB. We had a nice stroll around the Methodist Rehab facility - so nicely landscaped and a McDonald's and Subway! It was a nice change of scenery for us, even though we were still on hospital grounds. Jobes was so happy to see some loving faces from HOME!

Jobi got "Alli"gator from Daddy :) and a sweet, soft teddy from one of my co-worker friend's granddaughters, Mallie and Jayne - along with fun get-well balloons!

Rolling tongues with Mommy :P haha

Trying to bear weight on that right foot/leg! Within just days of being home, he was walking again... NO problems!! Thank the Lord!

Children's has a GREAT activity room with tons of toys, books, computer/video games, movies, puzzles, coloring books... you name it! There were kids of all ages enjoying themselves. How wonderful to be able to take their minds off their illnesses for if only a short time! There is a full-time Child Specialist on staff that manages the room's activities. Jobi had a great time watching Baby Einstein's Old McDonald and with several pop-up and musical toys. We were even able to "check-out" Blue's Clues and Elmo videos to watch in our hospital room! They also had wagons and other little vehicles you could reserve to take strolls around other floors and areas of the facility - just hook your IV on the pole and GO! We took Jobi on several little adventures :) Once he felt better, he loved getting out of that room!

I would like to take this opportunity to give a shout out to all of Blair E. Batson Children's Hospital... all of our doctors, med students, nurses, therapists and the facility as a whole - they were just FABULOUS. They took excellent care of our Jobi. Even though this was a very difficult time, they made it feel as much like home as possible and truly CARED. I am humbled by the positive attitudes and upbeat personalities they bring to work every day to care for sick children. Our hats are off to them!

FINALLY............ HEADED HOME!!!!!!!!!

Jehovah Rapha - You are HEALER. THANK YOU for healing our baby! Thank you for the excellent care we received and for bringing us through that tough time of illness - restoring our spirits and souls by granting us REST and renewal. We trust YOU, Father, during the difficult and trying times that will come in our walk with You and will praise You always for your provision and protection over us. Thank you for blessing our family as You have... for wonderful friends, loved ones and family members who are prayer partners with us and building blocks of our FAITH! We love you, Father... may everything that Chris, Jobi, and I do as a family glorify and bring honor to You... and help us remember to always keep You Head of our household. AMEN!