It has been awhile since I have posted. In my last post, I showed pictures of Landon while he was sick. Well, Landon's symptoms continued to escalate even after those pictures were taken. He ran a constant fever of 104-105.9 (yikes!) that did not respond to Tylenol, the rash continued to spread into his eyes, face, lips, tongue and whole body, and his feet and hands began to swell. I was in the doctor's office twice, and on the phone twice in addition to the visits, and each of those 4 times, I was sent away with the doctor's assuring me, "Don't worry about it". Well, after some nudging from a few concerned friends and family members, we took Landon to the emergency room. And boy am I glad we did. He was diagnosed with Kawasaki's Disease, a rare childhood illness that causes inflammation of the blood vessels. It acts like a virus, but the body begins to attack itself thinking there is a virus, which causes the high fevers and rashes. We thought we were only going to be in the ER for a few hours, but we were told we might be at the hospital for a few days! I spent the night with Landon as they did an IV treatment called IVIG, which is similar to a blood transfusion. They take the antibodies from adult blood cells and put them into the patient, which helps them fight off the fake virus. We were told we would see a dramatic improvement in 24 hours. Well, after 24 hours, Landon got worse. His whole face and body was swollen, to the point that his eyes were just little slits because they were so swollen. He couldn't even bend his fingers because they were like little sausages. His fever continued to stay above the 104 range, even on around-the-clock Tylenol. Not good. We decided to be transfered to Children's Hospital in Chicago, where they actually do research on Kawasaki's Disease. We were transfered by ambulance, and began the whole process all over again. After another treatment of IVIG, and after 7 days of being in the hospital, we were able to go home! I really think it was only by God's grace that Landon was healed. He really brought Landon's fever down, even when it looked like it wasn't going to go away.
The long term affects of this are a few fold. First, Landon has to receive follow-up ECHO cardiograms to be sure he doesn't have any long term heart damage. Because all of the blood vessels become inflamed, there is a possibility that the arteries could be affected, which can cause anuerisms and heart attacks. He has to take aspirin daily to thin his blood to prevent clots from forming. He also has a bit of arthritis in his joints (wrists, knees, ankles, fingers), which will hopefully go away with time. He has another ECHO and follow up appointment in a month, so I will post those details. Thank you for your continued prayers for our little Landon. God is a good and faithful God. We really felt His presence the whole way through this.
