Hospital

Jake spent a few days in the hospital this week!  He's been having a heck of a time with his skin for months now, and we've been in and out of the doctor constantly.  He's been on several rounds of steroids, and we've tried every ointment and cream under the sun.  Nothing is working, and he's in a lot of pain and is constantly itching.    It's hard on him, and its hard for us to watch him suffer.

So I took him to the allergist this week, not sure what we were going to do.  I was at my wits end, and didn't know what the next step was going to be.  I was about ready to fire our doctor, and this visit was his last chance.  I wasn't going to settle for him giving me another cream or another steroid that I knew wasn't going to work.  So when we got there, the doctor suggested that we see a specialist in St. Pete.  He said that it might take a few weeks or even months to get in though, but that he would make a phone call to try to get us in a few weeks earlier.  I asked what they would do for us, and he said, "well, if you walked in there today, with Jake's skin looking like it does right now, I think they'd admit him to the hospital."  So I asked if we could just do that here in Orlando, so at least we'd be close to home, and we wouldn't have to wait weeks or months to do it.  The doctor agreed, and we were on our way.  He was admitted to the hospital later that night.

Fortunately, we live in Orlando, and Jake was at a children'ts hospital.  They had all kinds of activities for the kids.  The first full day we were there, they had an animal show taking place downstairs, sponsored by the folks at Animal Kingdom.  Aftwerards, Pluto made an appearance, and eack kid got a goody bag with a big stuffed Mickey Mouse and a bunch of Disney toys.  He won the medal around his neck for answering a question correctly about a frog!

Luckily, the doctors and nurses at the hospital were able to get Jake's skin under control.  I told the doctor on the first day that I wanted to stay as long as it took to get his skin looking good, because I didn't want to leave when it started healing, just to get home and have it come back with full force.  So we were there for three days.  Three long days.  Jake wasn't sick, or even feeling bad, so it was really hard to keep him in his room all day and all night.  We roamed the floors of the hospital a lot.  Again, the hospital is made for kids, so there were all kinds of Disney characters around the building, and lots of stuff going on in the playrooms.

 

Throughout the last few months, we've learned that Jake is allergic to cats and eggs.  He's so good about asking us to read food labels  when we're not sure if something has eggs in it.  He's a trooper, and here's hoping we can keep his skin looking good!