What illness is complete without a trip to the ER?

Well, the saga continues with James' bout with strep....As I wrote before, we went to the Urgent health care center on Sat due to his hives. His hives were so awful in between his legs that we believed that they were causing him to not want to walk. Well, by Mon and Tues the hives were much better but James was still not wanting to walk. Then Wednesday James woke-up happy, and was running and playing like normal. I thought the clouds had parted and the storm was over!

Then, he went down for his nap. When he woke-up at 3:30, he absolutely refused to walk...or even sit up for that matter. I picked him up and thought maybe he was just exaggerating and if I showed him he could stand, then he would. Well, I tried standing him in the middle of the living room and he just fell down. He would not bare weight on his legs at all, and that scared me. I called the Pediatrician and at first she said we should probably take him to the ER, but the weather was bad outside. Believe it or not it actually SNOWED in GEORGIA! Of course the snow wasn't the real problem, it was the freezing rain and sleet piling on top of the snow. Anyways, we ended up having a prescription called in for him for Tylenol with codeine. It did nothing! So, the next morning we were up and making the trek to the Children's Health care Emergency center at Emory. They did blood work and X-rays, and discovered that James was experiencing a type of arthritis you can get along with strep. So, this episode with strep has officially been our worst illness yet!!! They gave us Lortab for him, which worked like a charm!! By the time the Lortab kicked in, it had been over 20 hours since he had walked last. And if you know my little boy, you know that he NEVER walks....he always RUNS! For him not to move for 15 minutes is amazing, so we knew that he must have been in real pain.

Thankfully he's OK, and he'll probably experience the joint pain for about a week. Hopefully, everything will be gone by then and we can all return to normal. I am thankful that Samantha has been a real trooper through all of this, and she's just sat and smiled as Doctors and Nurses have come in and out looking and poking at her brother. Through all of this I'm just thankful that my little boy is going to be alright. I've had quite a few panic attacks over the past week and of course your mind always goes to the worst things first. I was actually doing alright through it all until he refused to walk and I could tell he was in a lot of pain...that's when the tears made an appearance. Anyways, my little one is going to be OK, and I'm thankful to God for it all! I hope none of you ever have to experience all of this, but it you do just remember that God is faithful and it will all work out!!