This little guy doesn't look so good, does he?
This picture was taken on the way to the hospital on Saturday, September 22nd. When we got Elliot up in the morning, he felt a little warm, and we thought he might have a fever from teething. He didn't seem to be feeling too bad. I proceeded to make waffles for breakfast, and he still seemed to be doing fine, shoving lots of little waffle pieces into his mouth.
When I started wiping his hands off after breakfast, it seemed like there was purple berry juice that was staining his hands from the berries in the waffles. After looking closer though, I realized it wasn't juice, it was little purplish spots. Then we found the tiny pin-prick-sized dots all over his body. We started doing some research online, and decided that this type of rash could be something very serious. And Elliot was obviously not feeling well anymore. We called around to the private clinics, to try to get an appointment that day, and finally we were able to get in at the American Medical Clinic.
After an examination, the doctor determined that we better head to the City Children's Hospital #1, in the southern part of the city. So we rode the clinic's ambulance down there, and were admitted after being checked by the main hematologist at the hospital.
Needless to say, this was a stressful situation! Thankfully there was an intern who could speak English, and she was sometimes there to translate for the doctor. Other times, I muddled my way through with the doctors and nurses. Besides being concerned for Elliot (they were telling me his situation was very serious), it was stressful culturally, just trying to figure out how things work in a Russian hospital. For instance, when you get there, you pick your bed (one of 4 or more) in the room, and you put the sheets on it yourself. Also, I eventually figured out that usually you bring your own plates, cup and silverware, and you wash them yourself and keep them in your room. You also need your own toilet paper, since there is none in the bathroom. No soap either. (Really, in a childrens' hospital?). There was one girls' and one boys' toilet room and for the whole floor. There was also a shower room with one shower, and a huge window with no curtain. ?? They showed me where to throw away trash in the one room down the hall, and that there was a big bucket in there for any leftover food scraps. I also soon realized that I was out of place wearing my jeans. Everyone else was wearing pajama-type clothes. I made notes of what Aaron should bring for me.
Here's Elliot getting used to his new home for a while!
So at first I was shocked by the differences between this hospital and American hospitals, but I do have to say that I feel we got good care there. And although things were different, and the furniture was older, they did keep it clean. (Except maybe on weekends when the cleaning lady didn't work.) I was also assured that this hospital was THE center for hematology in the city.
I eventually learned that Elliot had "ideopathic thrombocytopenic purpura," and that he definitely did not have meningitis, which is what we were worried about. They did treatments of immunoglobulins by IV, and also gave him some antibiotics for a strep infection that was found. They also decided to give him a course of prednisone to prevent a recurrence. Today is the last day of prednisone for him! :) The prednisone lowers immunity, so we have been keeping the girls home from detsky sad (preschool/kindergarten), while he is taking it. We didn't want them bringing home all the germs that get passed around there.
I could write a lot more about my experience at the hospital, but I'll spare you all the details. Overall, it wasn't terrible, and I enjoyed my two roommates with their babies, who joined me in my room. It seems that in "hospital culture," your roommates become like your family, and you look out for each other and help each other out. After one scary night and day near the beginning, when Elliot's fever came back and he was vomiting, Elliot bounced back and started looking more like this:
We were released after a week, and Elliot seems to be doing well now. I took him back to the hospital last Thursday for a checkup, and his platelet count was even higher than when we were released from the hospital. When we were first admitted, it was very, very low. From what I understood, the main danger is that the low amount of platelets would allow bleeding to occur in the brain.
Here's Elliot getting his first immunoglobulin IV at night.
This was his IV treatment after the rough night of fever/vomiting.
Our view from the window of our room:
Probably my biggest source of stress was that Elliot had a hard time sleeping in a room with other people around. He never has been a very sound sleeper, and with so many distractions, he could hardly fall asleep or stay asleep very long. Here was one of the precious moments of rest!:
Thankfully these days Elliot is looking more like this:
And the girls (happy to have Mommy and Elliot home) like this:
I can't end this post without bragging on Aaron a bit. He did a great job taking care of the house and the girls while Elliot and I were in the hospital. He had to be nurse for Lydia, who came down with "hand, foot, and mouth disease" during that week, and he even did some real cooking- making shrimp stir fry one night. He also had the house clean and all of Elliot's toys sanitized when we got home. He's a wonderful hubby and Daddy!
One more thing I need to mention... Elliot turns one year old TOMORROW! Happy birthday, sweet boy!
This picture was taken on the way to the hospital on Saturday, September 22nd. When we got Elliot up in the morning, he felt a little warm, and we thought he might have a fever from teething. He didn't seem to be feeling too bad. I proceeded to make waffles for breakfast, and he still seemed to be doing fine, shoving lots of little waffle pieces into his mouth.
When I started wiping his hands off after breakfast, it seemed like there was purple berry juice that was staining his hands from the berries in the waffles. After looking closer though, I realized it wasn't juice, it was little purplish spots. Then we found the tiny pin-prick-sized dots all over his body. We started doing some research online, and decided that this type of rash could be something very serious. And Elliot was obviously not feeling well anymore. We called around to the private clinics, to try to get an appointment that day, and finally we were able to get in at the American Medical Clinic.
After an examination, the doctor determined that we better head to the City Children's Hospital #1, in the southern part of the city. So we rode the clinic's ambulance down there, and were admitted after being checked by the main hematologist at the hospital.
Needless to say, this was a stressful situation! Thankfully there was an intern who could speak English, and she was sometimes there to translate for the doctor. Other times, I muddled my way through with the doctors and nurses. Besides being concerned for Elliot (they were telling me his situation was very serious), it was stressful culturally, just trying to figure out how things work in a Russian hospital. For instance, when you get there, you pick your bed (one of 4 or more) in the room, and you put the sheets on it yourself. Also, I eventually figured out that usually you bring your own plates, cup and silverware, and you wash them yourself and keep them in your room. You also need your own toilet paper, since there is none in the bathroom. No soap either. (Really, in a childrens' hospital?). There was one girls' and one boys' toilet room and for the whole floor. There was also a shower room with one shower, and a huge window with no curtain. ?? They showed me where to throw away trash in the one room down the hall, and that there was a big bucket in there for any leftover food scraps. I also soon realized that I was out of place wearing my jeans. Everyone else was wearing pajama-type clothes. I made notes of what Aaron should bring for me.
Here's Elliot getting used to his new home for a while!
So at first I was shocked by the differences between this hospital and American hospitals, but I do have to say that I feel we got good care there. And although things were different, and the furniture was older, they did keep it clean. (Except maybe on weekends when the cleaning lady didn't work.) I was also assured that this hospital was THE center for hematology in the city.
I eventually learned that Elliot had "ideopathic thrombocytopenic purpura," and that he definitely did not have meningitis, which is what we were worried about. They did treatments of immunoglobulins by IV, and also gave him some antibiotics for a strep infection that was found. They also decided to give him a course of prednisone to prevent a recurrence. Today is the last day of prednisone for him! :) The prednisone lowers immunity, so we have been keeping the girls home from detsky sad (preschool/kindergarten), while he is taking it. We didn't want them bringing home all the germs that get passed around there.
I could write a lot more about my experience at the hospital, but I'll spare you all the details. Overall, it wasn't terrible, and I enjoyed my two roommates with their babies, who joined me in my room. It seems that in "hospital culture," your roommates become like your family, and you look out for each other and help each other out. After one scary night and day near the beginning, when Elliot's fever came back and he was vomiting, Elliot bounced back and started looking more like this:
We were released after a week, and Elliot seems to be doing well now. I took him back to the hospital last Thursday for a checkup, and his platelet count was even higher than when we were released from the hospital. When we were first admitted, it was very, very low. From what I understood, the main danger is that the low amount of platelets would allow bleeding to occur in the brain.
Here's Elliot getting his first immunoglobulin IV at night.
This was his IV treatment after the rough night of fever/vomiting.
Our view from the window of our room:
Probably my biggest source of stress was that Elliot had a hard time sleeping in a room with other people around. He never has been a very sound sleeper, and with so many distractions, he could hardly fall asleep or stay asleep very long. Here was one of the precious moments of rest!:
Thankfully these days Elliot is looking more like this:
And the girls (happy to have Mommy and Elliot home) like this:
I can't end this post without bragging on Aaron a bit. He did a great job taking care of the house and the girls while Elliot and I were in the hospital. He had to be nurse for Lydia, who came down with "hand, foot, and mouth disease" during that week, and he even did some real cooking- making shrimp stir fry one night. He also had the house clean and all of Elliot's toys sanitized when we got home. He's a wonderful hubby and Daddy!
One more thing I need to mention... Elliot turns one year old TOMORROW! Happy birthday, sweet boy!
