Two Days When We Didn’t Know What was Wrong with Andrew and Nick!
Everyone has them,you know those days when things happen that you can’t control, that scare you to death. Two of those days for me involve my two oldest sons,Nicholas and Andrew. The first day was the day that Nick had his seizure.He was 21 months old and it was just a typical day. My wife fed him spaghetti for lunch and put him down on the bed for a nap. She came downstairs and in a little while she heard a thud. When she picked him up, there was no response, she quickly called me at work. When I got home and picked him up, it was the scariest moment of my life, as I held him and talked to him, and got no response. He was breathing and awake but that was it! We rushed him to the pediatricians and after an evaluation, we were told that he had a seizure, and should be hospitalized. He was sent to close by Rancocas Valley Hospital and when he got settled he was sleeping and stable. I went home and got some books and other things. At around six that evening, he woke up, sat up and started to play with his books, like nothing happened. We were told that the seizure was localized in the right side of his brain, and there did not seem to be permanent damage. He was though put on medication for two years, because a another seizure could be life-threatening. Luckily he never had another one!!
Andrew’s day came when he was nine days old! When he was six weeks old he was sick and was diagnosed with a blockage on one his ureters from his kidney to the bladder. It was pinched at the end causing the tube to fill like a sausage.The urologist that we saw Dr. Goldstein had previously interned in Boston were they had pioneered a surgical procedure to repair the condition. Prior to the development of this procedure, the kidney was removed! So at nine weeks old, he was operated on. The operation was successful. He spent about a week in the hospital and then was discharged. The day after he was discharged, he was listless and his color was not good. We took him to the pediatricians and Dr Arkins could not figure out the problem. We were sent home with some medicines but Andrew ended up in the hospital later that night. Both Dr Arkins and Goldstein came to the hospital. Neither could figure out the problem., Andrew was transferred to Cooper late that scary evening. The 30-minute ride behind the ambulance was nerve-wracking! After numerous tests, including a spinal tap for the poor child, it was determined that he had a Shigella infection, which is an intestinal disease caused by a family of bacteria known as Shigella. In a hospital setting the infection is caused by a worker not washing their hands between patients! His sickness had nothing to do with his surgery,which pleased us and Dr. Goldstein to no end! On a follow-up visit maybe a year or so later Dr Goldstein said to us “You know I’ve never seen Howie Arkins so worried and perplexed as he was that night”!! That made three of us!!
Both of these days were tremendously scary days that ultimately ended well. Nick will be 36 this year and visited with me yesterday as I babysat Zoe. He works at PNC Bank. Andrew turns 33 today and is the loving husband of Meaghan and the father of Mister Man,Oliver!! Happy Birthday to you Andrew !!!
I guess I really shouldn’t write something like this on Andrew’s birthday but it was his birthday that generated the thoughts of these two stress-filled days and how fortunate we were that everything turned out okay!!
