So Stephen ran his first triathlon on August 25. He had been training on and off all summer. Cole and I went to South Shore Harbor to support him. We camped out in the McDonald's and then went out to the street to see him bike by us. Then we headed over to the transition station so we could see him come towards the finish line. He did a great job. His goal was under two hours and he made it in one hour and forty minutes. After the race we headed to celebrate at Tookies. That following Monday Stephen played basketball in our church league. On Tuesday morning, I noticed that he had pulled out a thermometer from my bedside table. When I saw him after work, he said that he felt really bad when he got home and sat down in the shower for a while. I had not seen him because his game ended at 10 p.m. and I was already asleep when he got home.
He fought a fever the rest of the week and he finally went to his PCP on Thursday. He was diagnosed with a UTI and began taking medicine on Thursday afternoon. Thursday evening Stephen began to get headaches. He went on about the rest of his week and on Saturday he helped me to a few things around the house to get ready for the baby. On Saturday night, he was curled up in our bed and his head was really hurting him. I called his dad and asked him to come over and take him to the emergency room. His dad came by with a blood pressure machine just to see if it was high. His blood pressure was fine and we decided he should go to a local emergency center. There they did a cat scan and saw nothing abnormal. They gave him some vicodin and high powered motrin. He seem to feel better then after a few hours later his head was hurting him again.
On Sunday morning, my aunt offered to come pick up Cole and take him to church. That sounded like a good idea seeing that Stephen and I were both very tired. No sooner than she left, I realized I had a case of the stomach flu. After being sick for a few hours, I called the on call doctor and she said I needed to head to the L & D floor at Clear Lake Regional. Stephen and I spent all Sunday afternoon in the hospital so I could get fluids. I was so dehydrated they had a tough time starting my IV because my veins were so shot. Later Sunday night, Stephen also got the stomach flu. He spent all Sunday evening the same as I had spent Sunday morning.
On Labor Day, we had planned on going and picking up Cole, but we decided we needed to leave him with my aunt for the day so we could recoup. I began to disinfect the house as Stephen seemed to be doing better by the afternoon. However, I asked him to come down and have some Gatorade, crackers, and a little chicken soup. He had about two sips of soups and decided his needed to go lay down. He didn't even make it upstairs; he ran outside and threw up in our front yard. He then went upstairs and curled up in a ball. I knew he felt bad. I called his dad and through tears asked him to come and take him somewhere in the medical center. Stephen didn't fight me on it and I knew he must have felt horrible. Mr. Bailey came right away. We both had made some calls and we had decided to send him to Methodist.
When they arrived in the ER, there wasn't a wait. He got right in and was hooked up to an IV within 45 minutes. They ran another Cat Scan and did chest x-ray. Mr. Bailey had sent me a text that he thought they were going to send him packing. I sent back..."he needs more testing... what about an MRI?" I just had a feeling that something was very wrong and that he didn't need to leave until they found out what was wrong with him. About thirty minutes later, I got a call that they were going to do a spinal tap. Within a hour we knew he had meningitis...but they were sure what kind. I called in sick to work at about 11 p.m. I was told by the doctors at Methodist that I needed to take a pill called Cipro. The on call doctor said, "No way." I really wanted to talk to my doctor, so I had Shaun call him and see if he wouldn't mind talking to me. He gave my doctor my cell number and he called me immediately. He confirmed what the on call doctor said and told me to come in Tuesday morning to get another antibiotic. Meanwhile Stephen was being admitted and quarantined. Shaun had come to visit before they found out what it was and went home with a prescription for Cipro. Mr. Bailey also had to take it.
For the next several days, Stephen's temperature was up as high as 103.4. We were Skyping some, but Cole and I both were a little scared of how Stephen looked. Cole and I weren't allowed to visit, but by Wednesday the hospital confirmed that the meningitis was viral and not bacterial. However, my father-in-law misunderstood the doctors when they said the cultures were negative and he thought we were back to square one. By Thursday we knew that it was viral meningitis. They weren't sure how he had gotten in...could have been another person by handshake, restroom, maybe a mosquito.
In the midst of this madness, we had realized that Stephen would probably not make the birth of our second son. I was trying to be strong and not fall apart. I needed to be strong for him and for me. On Thursday, I went to my final doctor's appointment. We scheduled an induction for Friday, September 14. I had asked Dr. Klein how long he would let me stay pregnant and that was the date that I wanted for the induction. I was hoping I could hold out for Stephen. I had also asked if we could Skype during labor just in case he couldn't be there. I had been given a green light for that. After I finished work on Friday, I had decided that I was putting myself on bed rest. My plan was to take it easy and try to keep this baby in as long as I could. "Crackers" had other plans....
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