Sheesh, June hasn't been much better.
Max got ill a few weeks ago with a migraine, high fever, and vomitting. It lasted 2 weeks then subsided and he started to have blurry vision in both eyes. He had a trip to the doctor and the ER for IV's during all this, so we figured he was dehydrated again and his headache was causing his blurred vision. Sunday, Meg and I were saying goodbye so we could head to the beach for a camping trip, and Max was complaining that the room was dark, but all the lights were on. We immediately took him to the ER at Sunrise and, by the time we got there, he was completely blind. After a CT, lumbar puncture, and blood work they found he had viral spinal meningitis and his spinal fluid pressure was at 55, instead of 15. He was admitted and they began the guessing game of what's causing his secondary problem(s).
He did stabilize once they started treating the meningitis, so Meg and I left Tuesday for the beach. On Wednesday they did another puncture and found Max's spinal fluid was still rising and causing pressure on the brain and optic disk, which was causing his loss of sight, but they couldn't figure out why it was still happening. By that evening the team of doctors decided they couldn't do any more for him and needed to send him to the children's hospital at UCLA Medical Center for emergency eye surgery to save his sight. They were airlifting him, but Jon couldn't go with, so luckily I was already down here to meet him. One thing after another...insurance goofs, waiting for a bed at UCLA, etc...then finally everything worked out. Thursday evening he was coming down on a private plane and the insurance had worked out for Jon to be able to fly with him.
The UCLA Medical Center is amazing. As soon as he got here they immediately started with making him comfortable, doing tests, and helping us with arrangements to stay at the Ronald McDonald House. By the middle of the night they knew what they were dealing with and started a different course of treatment. By the morning Max had shown a slight improvement with his vision and the dr. we were sent here for had decided the surgery wasn't needed. His vision has continued to improve in the right eye, but the left one is slow to recover. The neurologist says it will get better, just will take time.
The doctors are hopeful that he'll get released by Friday. Today (Wed) he has had a small setback though. He woke up this morning with blood in his urine. At first they weren't too concerned and did some tests, thinking it was the steroids he's on or muscle breakdown because he's been in bed for over 3 weeks. A couple of hours ago he started having pain in his abdomen that increased to the point of needing morphine and the blood is getting more prominent in his pee. Needless to say lots more tests have been performed in the past hour and we hope it's just a minor thing that looks worse than it is.
Thank you for the prayers, thoughts, help, etc. We have soooo many friends that are helping us through this, even in small ways. We love you all!
