Sigh.

At around 5:00 today, Taylor felt Xander's forehead and said that he felt hot.  I told him that Xander was always hot, and not to worry... but decided to take his temp anyway.  102.5-- ugh.  We had been told to call the hospital if he ever had a fever over 101 while still recovering from the surgery.  I called and was put in contact with the on-call plastic surgeon (though we started out the surgery with a general surgeon, plastics was called in to assist and ended up taking over).  He talked to me for awhile and got all the details on Xander's situation.  Besides the fever, we are concerned about the amount of drainage coming from his tube.  On Tuesday, they had taken out one tube, but had left one in because it was still collecting about 15 cc's during a 24 hour period.  Since then, it has gone up-- and in the last few days has been draining between 85-100 cc's per day.  I was going to call about that tomorrow, but with the fever accompanying it, realized it was more of a concern than I originally did.

The on-call surgeon said that we should give him Tylenol and if we couldn't get the fever to go down to call him back.  We did as instructed and the fever went down.

I had been so tired today, and at around 7:00, plopped down on top of my bed "for a few minutes."  Jeremy ended up putting the little ones to bed and came in at about 8:30 and helped me get under the covers, tucked me in, and gave me a drink.  It was heavenly.  I haven't gone to bed before midnight in forever!  I was so excited to think that I was going to get SO MUCH SLEEP tonight.  So excited, that I couldn't fall back asleep!  I laid there in bed trying and trying to doze back asleep, but I just couldn't do it.  I kept thinking about Xander and wondering if Jeremy had emptied his tube correctly.  Ha.  So I finally wandered back out into the living room to see how it was all going.  Jeremy was playing Monopoly with the older boys and Xander was resting on the couch.  I took his temp, and it had gone back up-- 102.6.  We gave him some different medicine and I went back to bed.  Still couldn't sleep-- ugh!

When Jeremy came to bed at around 11:00, he told me that X's fever had gone down a little (101.9).  We said our prayers and read for awhile.  I mentioned that my poor parents were just getting in from the airport and had a three hour drive ahead of them-- poor guys!  We talked about how good it felt to be lying in our cozy bed instead of on the road like them.  I was still having a hard time feeling sleepy, so I suggested watching a show, but Jeremy was so tired and said that we should just try to sleep.  So... we turned off the lights and were just about to dreamland when the phone rang.

When your phone rings at 11:30 at night, it's usually not a good thing.  My heart immediately began to pound as I thought of what bad news we might be getting... but it was just the doctor calling back to check on Xander.  He wanted to see if he still had a temp.  I told him yes, and we talked for awhile, then he said he felt like he should call X's surgeon to see what his thoughts were.  That surgeon was vacationing in Florida, and I'm sure he loved getting that phone call at 1:30 in the morning...

Bottom line, we were told that Xander needed to go to the emergency room at Primary Childrens.  If not tonight, then first thing in the morning, but it was recommended that he go tonight.

So here I am, sitting at home wide awake on the night that I was sooo excited about getting so much sleep, and my poor, tired husband is driving X to the hospital as I type this.  To top it off, we were supposed to be leaving in the morning for a much anticipated trip to Grandma's.  All of my brothers and sisters are going to be there, and we've talked about it for months.

Isn't life just lovely sometimes?

Of course, all that really matters is that we get Xander the medical attention he needs and that everything can be ok with him.  I am praying that this will be a simple, antibiotic fix.  Would love your prayers for the same.  This sweet boy has been through enough to have serious complications...