Jalen E. coli

About a week after getting back from Mexico, Jalen started not feeling well. I thought he just had a bug or something so we skipped school on Friday. But then, he started passing blood - a lot of blood. 

That night, we went to Doctor's Care, then Urgent Care, and finally to the ER at Children's Hospital. We thought he was having appendicitis.

At the ER, they originally thought the same, but then told us that with appendicitis, there's not blood int he stool. So then they did a ct scan. 

They admitted him at about 1:00 in the morning. It had been a very long night. This was my bed.

The next day - Saturday - we saw several nurses and doctors, including the gastrointerologist, Dr. Jones. They told us he either had a serious infection and would be in the hospital for at least a week or had a chronic condition like Crohn's or ulcerative colitis. They said he had scarring from a previous surgery, but I let them know he had never had a surgery. We were very concerned.

They scheduled him for a colonoscopy first thing Sunday morning, which meant he couldn't eat anything other than clear liquids. We ordered him broth and jello. 

He was excited to learn that he could have popsicles!

David and Baylie came to visit him, but Baylie wasn't allowed to stay. I decided to go home with her so I could shower and spend some time with her. As we were leaving, Brother Mason Morgan came to give Jalen a blessing. Later, Jalen's blood results came back and showed that rather than what they thought, he actually had an E. coli infection. It was just an extreme case. We believe that this change was at least in part due to the priesthood blessing. While we were sad Jalen didn't feel well, we were so grateful it wasn't something more serious. 

It also meant he could eat! He ordered lasagna!

I went back to the hospital and traded places with David. Jalen was doing much better, but still had a lot of pain and still passed a lot of blood. They didn't want him to go home until those things were under control so we had another night in the hospital.

He was considered infectious so all the medical personnel that came to see him had to gown up and wear gloves.

Jalen got a little too used to watched t.v. in bed and being waited on hand and foot.

Saturday night we did a Zoom call with David and Baylie so we could have Come Follow Me. Jalen kept playing around with the special features.

Sunday morning they released us and we were able to go home around noon. He still had a little bit of pain, but it was manageable with medication and within a couple of days, he was back to normal.

Everyone assumed that he got the bug in Mexico and that's possible. But Baylie and I ate everything he did. The one thing he did eat that none of the rest of us did was a Wendy's hamburger. He no longer wants to eat there!