Mother’s Day in the hospital

I’ll begin by wishing all of the mothers reading this a very happy and blessed Mother’s Day!!
I hope it’s a wonderful day for you, spending it with the blessings we call our children!

Unfortunately, I am spending my Mother’s Day in the hospital in Springfield.  For the last week, I have been running a low grade fever and my counts have been low.  This is not a good combination, because my ability to fight off infection is very low.  The medical term for this is called neutropenia.

On Thursday night, I visited the local ER because my fever got higher than usual.  This was indicative of an infection somewhere.  Blood cultures were drawn, a chest x-ray done, blood and urine was checked – all came back clear, with cultures needing 48-72 hours to see if any bacteria was to grow.  I was sent home a few hours later.

On Friday morning, I drove to town to get a shot of Neupogen, which is a shot that helps boost your white blood cells and neutrophils – the infection fighters of your immune system.  Upon returning home, extreme confusion and disorientation set in, causing another visit to the ER.  Additional testing was done, all coming back clear – but Springfield felt better if I were admitted through the weekend so they could observe me.

The confusion went away after a few hours and I was admitted to Springfield on Friday night.  My husband stuck with me all day on Friday, getting me settled in to my room and then having to return home for work on Saturday.  My parents made the trip up, one to stay with me and one to care for Abbie.

And after a few days here, things seem to be on the way up regarding my immune system.  My counts are improving; preliminary culture results are negative; the IV antibiotics they gave me helped my fever.  This morning, there was an improvement in the white blood count and neutrophils, so the doctor decided to stop the antibiotics and the Neupogen shot, giving me one more day here in the hospital to see if things stay normal – and a possible discharge tomorrow.

The assumed culprit for all of this is a medicine I’ve been taking called Bactrim.  This medicine, ironically, helps to fight off infection, but has the ability to lower your counts.  By stopping the medication, they hope to see continued improvement in my blood counts and hopefully finding an alternative medication to replace the Bactrim.

All of this comes one week before I’m supposed to go to Ireland with my siblings.  This is a trip that has been being planned for several months, a trip that I’ve had on my bucket list for years.  It will also be a celebratory trip for my 30th birthday, which will happen this November.  Obviously, no one wants to have health problems arise this close to a big trip, but I’m thankful for the expertise of these doctors and the improvement that we’ve seen over the last 24 hours.

This isn’t how I envisioned my Mother’s Day, but as I’ve said before, I believe everything happens for a reason.  I was upset that I couldn’t spend Mother’s Day with my own mother, but this little medical hiccup allowed me to.  My daughter is also here in the city and we shared a visit together this morning.
I am also thankful to my mother-in-law, a woman who raised the man who has my heart, and who will also drop everything to help us in a bind, like keeping Abbie on Friday when we learned I was being admitted to Springfield.

Having the support of family is priceless.  And I’m one lucky woman to have many that love and care for me.

To those celebrating this special day today, hold your children close and thank God for blessing you as their mother.  It’s such a priceless gift.

And a shout out to my sister who celebrates her 28th birthday today!
She was my mother’s best Mother’s Day present 🙂