Parotitis.

Sigh...it's been a long few days. Whoever said that when it rains it pours was right. Do you know how hard it is to keep an 18 month old locked up in a tiny hospital room for two days? That is what I just did for the past couple days...I am exhausted.
So it all started on Saturday...I got Tayden up and noticed that the right side of his face was a little swollen. The best way to describe it is that it looked like he had just had his wisdom teeth out on that side. I thought it was weird, but didn't want to rush to any conclusions....so I decided to watch it for the day. He acted normal for most of the day so I put him down for a late nap. When he got up from his nap around 5:00 his face was worse. The swelling had spread from along his jaw up into his face and down into his neck. He was also running a fever. So I ran him into the primary health (doc in a box) and the Dr. was no help. He might have been a PA I don't know. He listed off like 4 or 5 things it could be and even said, "I don't know what to tell you...I would take him to the ER if it gets worse." Thanks captain obvious. So I took him home for the night and decided to give him some motrin and see how he did through the night. He slept fine, but when we got up Sunday it was much worse and had started to turn red. He kept reaching for his face like it was really hurting him. I decided to take him into the ER. When we got there the Dr. was really concerned and thought we needed to get an IV started and get a CT scan of his face. They had to stick him 11 times before they finally got an IV started in his foot. They were going to do an interosseous stick if they couldn't get an IV which is way worse and more painful so I told them to do whatever they needed just to get an IV. It took 4 of us holding him down to finally get it. Poor guy. The nurses even said at one point there were shocked that I could even still be in the room let alone holding him down, but I think it helps that I have a medical background and I knew that it would all be worth it for him in the end. Then they did the CT scan...which we had to do twice because they didn't get as much as they needed the first time. They finally came back with the results and told us it was parotitis. Parotits is a bacterial infection of the parotid gland. It's caused by bacteria that some how gets into the salivary duct and then has no where to go. As a result it created a huge pocket of infection in and around his parotid gland. The doctors were concerned about the severity of his infection and decided to admit him for two days to have IV antibiotics. Overall I am glad that we caught the infection soon enough...things could have been much worse for little Tayden. The first night in the hospital was rough to say the least. Neither of us got any sleep. I think Tayden was terrified every time I tried to lay him down that someone was going to do something to him. Plus they had to take his vitals and administer the antibiotics through the night....so everytime I would get him to sleep they would come in and end up waking him up..oh and the second night his IV was blown and they had to give him shots in his thighs through the night. I felt so bad for him, but the nurses were great and at one point Tayden was the only little guy on the floor.....so he would roam the hallways for a while and flirt with the nurses. It was pretty cute to watch him walking around in his little gown with little wires hanging from him. Now we are finally home....my house is a disaster as you can imagine. Tayden will have to continue oral anitibiotics for another 8 days, but for the most part his little face is almost back to normal. We had a little joke going for a while....his face was so big we were calling him elephantits face. We are so mean I know...but gotta find some humor and laughter or entertainment among all the stress and other nonsense right? I do feel so blessed to have such awesome family and friends. Crystal and Heidi came to the hospital when we first got there and took Boston with them to church. Then September watched Boston for the full two days we were there....I know Boston is not an easy kid some times and I am so thankful September was willing to take him like it was nothing...I know it wasn't just nothing. Becky came to the hospital more than once and was so much help. It's just so nice to know that I have family that I can truly rely on. I am very blessed.
Now for some pictures...I don't think any of these really do any justice for how bad Tayden's face got, but it will at least give you an idea.
These are from Saturday when it first started swelling up.

Then here is how it looked in the hospital...this first one doesn't really show it, but the second one you can see how big the side of his face was. Sorry I know it's blurry but these were taken with Jared's phone.

This one gives you an idea how much it had spread. Notice how big it is even behind his ear...and it had started to turn red.