We had an interesting week. Bennett and I just got home from spending the last two nights at Childrens Hospital. Bennett is doing fantastic but our week definitely got off to a rough start. On Sunday Bennett started complaining a lot about the back of his neck hurting. At first I thought he meant his throat but by Monday he made it very clear it was not his throat, it was his neck. He woke Scott and I up early Monday morning crying about his neck. We just had him crawl in bed with us and he quickly went to sleep. I kept him home from school and decided to take him to the doctor and she assumed the pain was just a crick in his neck. She decided to swab him for strep and the test did come back positive even though he never complained about a sore throat. She gave us some antibiotics and felt like he would be feeling 100% the next day. But on Tuesday morning, bright and early and way before it was time to wake up, Bennett came in our room again, crying, complaining about his neck. He fell back to sleep and slept for a long time but by the afternoon he was seemingly better. I have a sitter come to my house on Wednesdays and she texted me around lunch asking me what Bennett did to his neck and told me he was crying about his neck hurting. She said he laid on the sofa and fell asleep and he slept for 3.5 hours. Scott took his temperature while he was sleeping and it had spiked really high to 103. By this point I just felt like something was not right so I decided to take him to Childrens. I figured we'd be there 4 hours then they would send us on our way with some kind of explanation for his neck.
After we had been there for about 30 minutes, the pediatrician came in to take a look and said very matter of fact that something was not right. She wanted to do some blood tests and a CT scan. If those came back negative then she wanted to explore meningitis which would mean a spinal tap. I felt like I was going to be sick. She was hopeful the other tests would give us an answer because she was obviously also hoping it wasn't meningitis. She told me to be prepared to stay a few nights. I was so surprised! I was not expecting it to be this big of a deal and I started feeling extremely anxious that something horrible was going to be wrong with my sweet boy.
The nurses came in and did the IV to draw his blood and Bennett did amazing!!! He did not even make a peep or flinch. We were all SO proud of him and he got a Woody for being such a brave boy!! Next was the CT Scan which felt a little scary for Bennett but, again, he did so great and I was so proud of him.
We didn't have to wait long for the CT reading to learn Bennett had an abcess on his tonsils which was the reason for his neck pain. We were immediately admitted and the doctor wanted to get a better look at it the next day to determine if Bennett would need surgery to remove it. I was not at all expecting to be admitted and wasn't even a little bit prepared. By the time we got this news, the other boys were already in bed at home so Scott ended up calling an Uber for my suitcase that he packed for me. Hahaha!!
After two nights in the hospital, we got to come home today!! Bennett received several different strong antibiotics and they seemed to be doing their job so the doctor didn't feel like surgery would be necessary. Bennett took a really long nap yesterday and he woke up feeling and looking so much better. By this morning he looked 100% and said he felt that way too! His neck isn't hurting him anymore and he has a full range of motion of it now. He has to be on antibiotics for another 8 days to make sure we really take care of this abcess.
Who knew this was even a thing because I certainly didn't! I never dreamed Bennett's stiff neck was this big of an ordeal and I feel a little silly for going to Bed Bath and Beyond on Wednesday morning to buy him a neck massager. LOL. I also cannot believe that this is the second time this year that one of my kids has been admitted to Childrens Hospital. It was a little lonely not having anyone there to keep me company or bring me any food. It also felt a little different this time because when Campbell was in the hospital in February for the flu, you could tell he was miserably sick. Bennett didn't seem 100% but he definitely didn't seem miserable like Campbell was, which I was so thankful for. You could tell Bennett's antibiotics kicked in hard and fast and I'm not so sure Bennett didn't enjoy all of the attention he got. Ha! Of all of the scenarios we were presented with on what his problem could be, we definitely ended up with the absolute best outcome. I'm so, so thankful Bennett didn't have to have surgery and also beyond thankful it wasn't meningitis. Bennett is one tough little dude. He always has been--he didn't even cry when he was born. He handled all of this like a true superhero and I'm so glad we got home just in time for Halloween!
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