Hope, Health and Home

This is Jesse just before his health really plummeted about a week ago. What a frightening experience to see your son, your baby, seem to get better, then suddenly tank. I’ve visited sick people in hospitals for decades and I’ve seen it before. I’ve seen so many people rally, giving their family and friends certain hope that things are improving, only to see their health suddenly erode until they finally die. So when Jesse seemed to rally, then rapidly lose all control, I was very, very afraid. I was so afraid that the infection that had possessed his body would run rampant and completely take over. I felt like I was watching some kind of Zombie movie unfold before my eyes. But the doctors filled him with all kinds of antibiotics, anti-virals and anti-fungals, and somehow managed to turn this ship from destruction to gradual health.

Jesse’s feeling stronger. He’s eating and drinking. He has his completely unorthodox sense of humor back. They took him off I.V. today. They’re talking about sending him home tomorrow. They still have no idea what happened. They have theories. They always try to find the simplest explanation. But in Jesse’s case there seemed to be a freaky convergence of incidents that culminated in his whole system going septic. Then, of course, one has to worry about the possibilities of CDif in his bowels because of all the antibiotics destroying even the healthy bacteria that the body needs. He’s taking Acidophilus/bifidus on the recommendation of a health and wholeness practitioner friend in Ottawa. Everything seems to be improving. He’ll be following up with some specialists in the next couple of weeks. He’ll remain on some drugs too for the next while. What a freakin’ nightmare!

I want to thank everyone for your thoughts and expressions of concern. It was an expensive two weeks and some gave us money to help cope with that. Thanks! Some bought me a beer through my blog. Others gave food. Some gave greeting cards, notes, emails and plenty of facebook messages. They meant a great deal to us as we went through this crisis. It meant a lot to Jesse too. So, humbly and gratefully, I say, Thanks! Even though I’ve kept trying to post my daily cartoon and a short writing, they haven’t been the very best. I hope to get right back at it if Jesse comes home tomorrow.