Mothers’ Day 2006
Mother’s day 2006, Ms. Bostwick your son may not make it through the night. These words haunted echoed in my ears as I stared at the doctors and nurses rushing to his bedside as he seize again. After months of ER visits, second opinions, and an obnoxious amount of antibiotics, He was sick again. This time it was worse.
His little body fell limp in my arms in the early morning. His throat swelled up like two baseballs on either side of his esophagus. I watched him turn blue from lack of oxygen and began CPR. This wasn’t my first time administering CPR but it was the first time it was on a child and it was MY CHILD! I could feel his ribs compressing under my hands, his eyes rolled to the back of his head, his body lifeless. I was 21 years old and I thought for sure my child was going to die in my arms.
I remember so much from that day in Holmes Regional Hospital, yet none of it ever felt real. Watching them prepare him to be taken to Arnold Palmer. Tubes, cords, cables, and devices all along him and his bedside. His body seized from the 106.8 temperature. His blood thickened to where they could barely draw blood. The 3 intubation tubes they tried to place had failed him, his airway was too obstructed. One nurse held my hand telling me he would need a tracheostomy, while I noticed the tall male nurse with dreads pray and gave it one last go with a NICU size tube. SUCCESS. My baby was now breathing at least! Maybe not on his own but no one's hands were pumping oxygen into him; it was now a machine which gave me more hope.
They explained to me that he would need to be put into a medically induced coma to slow the effects of the fever to enable them enough time to figure out what was wrong with him. I stood there on that rainy day numb and completely disassociated from reality. Phones ringing, people frantic, and so much commotion in his triage area. He became somewhat stabilized and transported to Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital in Orlando, FL.
Once there his little almost 2 year old body underwent weeks of tests, just laying helplessly in a medicated sleep. Finally we had an answer, he had a rare form of Mononucleosis. He had been tested several times prior for Mono, each time the test came back negative. This child, my child, had some of the best doctors in Florida working on him. He had seen a doctor almost bi weekly due to ear infections, swollen tonsils, huge glands and constant fevers. I was told “antibiotic resistance” was not an issue I needed to worry about. His fevers were too high to worry about the problems the medications could cause in the future, I needed to worry about the here and now. I was merely 21 years old..
I went from going on campus to school, to purchasing a laptop and learning from his hospital room. Nursing at this time was not able to be taken online, my only options… Business Management….. BORING!! But, I didn’t complain, I didn’t leave his side. I had days without showers, when my mom would have to work. The sound of a children flatlining and parents' ear piercing cries of horror were all too common. Each time, I selfishly thanked God it wasn’t my child, and would return to studying.
We spent weeks in the hospital praying, crying, smiling remembering, and honoring all of the children and parents that lost their children. I held a mother’s hands while they unplugged her daughter as the father was taken away in handcuffs for Murder ; Baby Shaken Syndrome. I met Sue Anne who had a 14 year old boy who was riding his bike home, when a drunk driver hit a motorcyclist and the motorcyclists body flew into the boy. She had held her son’s hand for days as he had pieces of the motorcyclist removed from his own flesh and body. We were all in our own rooms but each room was see through and we could all see the heartache the other was experiencing.
Once we knew what Connor had wrong with him, the treatment was seemingly easy, as was recovery. After he was released he had a surgery scheduled to put tube in his ears, and to remove his tonsils and adenoids. Surgery was scheduled and we had been home from Arnold Palmer maybe a week…1 week and this little guy comes up to me with a beanie baby and beads in his mouth and nose. I remove them but he keeps telling me his ear hurt. BACK to the ER we went but this time they assured me nothing was wrong and that I had removed all of the little white beads… He had is tubes put in, tonsils taken out and seemed to be doing significantly better.
He was still behind in speech and super loud all the time. The ENT told me that his right ear had too much scar tissue from ear infections that the Malleus was not sending vibrational sound to the other parts of his ear it was essentially stopping right at the eardrum. They recommended we wait it out until his body had fully healed from Mono before having a surgery to repair his inner ear. As he got older they continued to check his hearing and have him in special programs to make sure he would not fall behind. I had taken him for annual ENT appts from 2-6 years old, at 7 years old we were in Panama City beach when he was practicing breath holds in the pool with several Navy Divers when he told me his ear hurt. He continued for days to tell me his ear hurt. I felt Mother’s day 2006 in my bones and went to the urgent care closest to our hotel to find out he had tubes still in his ears. I was baffled and in disbelief it couldn’t be. He had been seeing doctors for these same freaking ears for years now and they all told me he no longer had tubes in his ears. I set him up with another ENT apt to find out not only did he still have tubes in his ears but under that tube that was placed he had a beanie baby bead. We have all seen the Reels of babies seeing or hearing their mother for the first time… Well this was not at cute but it was what he experienced. When the doctor removed that bead I will NEVER forget him grabbing his ear screaming “ Oh My God I hear the ocean.” The doctor explained to me that this was the first time he had probably had full air flow to his ear drum since the tubes were placed. His hearing issues instantly cleared up. Connor is now a happy healthy 17 year old young man!
I always feared putting this into writing that people would judge me for one thing or another, and then recently I have been seeing medical malpractices left and right. I have personally been misdiagnosed, misinformed and would be dead if I didn’t advocate for my self and this experience is why I learned how to advocate for myself as a mother and as a patient! ver
Never be too scared to ask for a second opinion. Never be too sky to ask what are the side affects, what else can I do for this…. Treating the symptoms does fix the problem, it masks it.
