Wallo Family Adventures: Landon's in the Hospital

I know most of you are aware of what we've been going through the last few days, but I figured I'd write an update and let you all know exactly what's happened. On Friday we noticed Landon was really warm. We took his temp and it was 101.0, so I called his pediatrician who saw us immediately. He said Landon was really sick (his temp was coming in at 102.6) and that we needed to be hospitalized at Seattle Children's Hospital. After packing up a few things, we took off and checked in at the ER. It was really scary at first. They brought him back immediately and hordes of people came in to assess Landon. He was septic, had a very high fever, was breathing much too quickly (around 100 resps/min) and his heartrate was way too high (around 210). His belly was also hard and swollen. They proceeded to do some blood and urine tests, but had to wait until he was more stable and in the NICU to do his spinal tap. He had an NG tube placed for feedings that first night as well, since he was breathing too rapidly to eat orally. They also started 3 different kinds of IV antibiotics immediately.

After a night in the NICU, Landon was doing much better. His fever and heartrate were down and he was able to eat on his own. We were transferred to a regular hospital room where he has continued to improve. Test results have come back as positive for parechovirus, but they're pretty sure he has a bacterial infection as well because of the severity of his initial symptoms. They haven't been able to determine what kind of bacteria he has and most likely won't be able to, but he has responded very well to antibiotics and is back to his normal self as far as anyone can tell! We'll still have to stay in the hospital until this Friday to finish up his antibiotics.

We've had a pretty difficult time with all this. It's been really hard seeing Landon being poked and prodded so much. It breaks my heart every time they've had to place a new tube or IV (he's on his 3rd IV now) and I couldn't bear to stay in the room when they did his spinal tap. Luckily my mom's been in town and has been able to watch Carter for us while we've spent most of our time at the hospital. Tyler was able to take most of the week off work and has been helping out a lot at the hospital and commuting back and forth to home to spend time with Carter and get some things done. I've been fortunate enough to be able to stay the nights at the hospital and Tyler has spent a couple here with us, too. I've gotten just about no sleep and that's been rough but somehow I've had the strength to do what I need to do.

We're so grateful for all the love and support we've received from family and friends and can't wait to get back home! I realized the other day that between all 3 of these recent hospital stays, Landon will have spent more of his life in the hospital than at home!! Hopefully the next month or so will be a little more uneventful.

Here's a few of the pictures of Landon before we came to the hospital. Yup, he's pretty cute!! These are at about 2 weeks old...he's now 3 weeks :)