Oh What A Night!

So, I get a voicemail from my sister Dori at 7:02pm last night. My sister starts out by saying "I am at the Emergency Room with Robert. They think he has meningitis and they have to do a spinal tap." Then she breaks down and starts sobbing and I can't understand much of what else was said except "come here, I need you, I need you, come now". I cannot even put into words what I felt at that very moment - I mean, first of all, this was ROBBIE and second of all my youngest sister "NEEDS" me for support. I wasn't sure how much support I was going to be because, let's face it, this was ROBBIE, the keeper of my heart. I was on my way to run an errand and quickly made a U-turn and headed toward Winchester, VA hospital.......a hospital I LOATHE. (Natalie will remember our little 9 hour jaunt to that very hospital when I severly burned my hand last year. Not a fun experience) I called Dori back and Brian picked up. He was calling someone from church to come over so they could give Robbie a blessing. He sounded very scared and very rattled. I called my neice Hannah because I knew she would be by a computer. I had her google "meningitis" and "spinal tap" because I wanted to know exactly what we might be dealing with. I also called my cousin Michelle who is a nurse to get some more facts.

I pulled up to the ER and Brian was waiting outside for me-looking scared to death. He brought me back to Robbie who was sitting on the bed with Dori. He was pretty out of it. He was happy to see me. Dori said he had been asking when YaYa was going to get there. He really liked the thing on his finger that made it glow red. Poor thing had to be stuck 6 times for them to get blood! You can see in this picture on his right arm all of the little cotton balls and tape he has on his arm! They were finally able to put an IV through his hand and that is why it is bandaged up so he couldn't pull it out. Anyway, we sat there for about 45 minutes as nurses kept coming in to check on him. He was pretty zoned out and just starred a lot. The Dr. finally came in to do the spinal tap. They LUCKILY put him under and we had to leave the room.

This is him just waking up from the spinal tap. He just starred for quite a while. I went around the bed to talk to him and he could only move his eyebrows. It was actually quite cute. The fluid was clear which meant he did not have bacterial meningitis which is much worse and very contagious. The Dr.'s think it might be viral meningitis so he was admitted for at least 2 days. It takes 24 hours to see if it's viral. He still had a headache and his fever was still high, plus, it still hurt his neck to move his head. The nurse had to stay in the room to observe him while he was waking up and stayed an additional 30 minutes after he was awake. THEN they could finally put him in his room. He was excited to go to his room because he had an X-box in there. The first thing he said when we got to the room was "this is a girls room, there are butterflies" Sure enough, the border around the ceiling was butterflies. Once he saw the nintendo though he was okay with the room. He was still very out of it and a very sick little boy. It was 11:45 by this time and I was getting ready to leave and Dori wanted to run home to get some clothes and things for Robbie since he'd be staying for a couple days. Brian stayed with Robbie and they put on video games while Dori ran home. I wish I could've seen Robbie play video games because he was SOOO out of it when I left, I am sure it was hilarious.

So, that was my night. Very scary and highly emotional. I am so happy that Robbie will be okay. I am sad he had to have a spinal tap....it did not look like a proceedure I would ever want to have. Poor thing....he was very brave. It really stinks to see a little 4 year old so sick and you can't do anything about it. I love this kid SOOOOO much.