Hospital Vacation - What Happened With Kezi

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Well, what happened with Kezi? That is the question we have been bombarded with from friends, family, and ourselves. Last week was a complete whirlwind, and I still feel like I'm walking around in some kind of fog. Because we were on vacation and our communication abilities were limited at best, a lot of you have been curious as to what exactly the circumstances were surrounding Kezi's illness and hospitalization. Thank you so very much for praying!!! Below is the story. I hope that I can adequately convey God's mighty hand in all the details.

Our church's midwest presbytery hosts a family camp/conference each summer at Horn Creek near Westcliffe, Colorado. Our family was hoping to stay with some long time friends north of Colorado Springs. Providentially, that did not work out, and we were blessed to meet and stay with a family from one of the other churches in our presbytery.

Backing up, Kezi had been experiencing an intermittent fever and headache for a few days prior to us leaving on our trip. I didn't put a whole lot of weight on those early symptoms because it was so random. Basically it was like this: if she had a chore to do (like the dishwasher, folding clothes, cleaning the kitchen, etc...) she felt bad. If there was something she wanted to do, then she felt fine. It was so sporadic, and when she felt bad, it wasn't that bad. She had also just started her first cycle, and I thought that was probably playing a part in her demeanor.

We began our travels to Colorado on Saturday. She was a little dumpy Saturday evening and went to bed early. Sunday morning she felt relatively fine during church, and during the last trek to Horn Creek she told us that she was completely better and 100% fine. We checked in and unloaded our stuff for the week. As we were getting ready for the evening service, she really started going downhill. She started running a fever, her head hurt, and she had some neck pain. I gave her some Ibuprofen and stayed with her so she could rest during second service. After church, Byron came back and she did look terrible. In addition to her previous symptoms, she had a puffiness to her chin, lower lip, and neck. Being out of town and out of state, we weren't sure where we should take her. After talking with other people at camp, we were able to have a phone conversation with a doctor whose family was there (though he was not). He indicated over the phone that Strep could cause some of those symptoms. By this time, I had started to use thieve's oil on Kezi, and she was much perkier. She had not complained about a sore throat, but when we looked, she definitely had something going on there. Because she had improved, we decided to wait until morning with the plan of getting her some antibiotics on Monday. Again, whatever the cause, she was so up and down clinically.

Monday morning, she was still feeling fine and she even ate (she had been “off” some on her food intake). By mid morning, she was on the downhill slide again: tired, headache, neck pain, fever, puffy, and talking funny. Byron decided to take her in somewhere. He called our local doctor, and the nurse said that her husband was from that area, and that the clinic in Westcliffe was actually pretty decent. She was so dehydrated that they couldn't get a blood sample and could barely find a vein to start IV fluids. (This was crazy to me because I had been pushing and pushing fluids to her, and she had been drinking them faithfully.) They tested for strep and mono (both negative) and ran general blood work. Despite having an ongoing fever and being dehydrated, her WBC count was “normal”. However, given the circumstances, “normal” is not what you would have expected it to be. It should have been high, which made us think of septicemia, leukemia, etc... The doctor consulted with a pediatrician in Colorado Springs who wanted her admitted (at Colorado Springs) ASAP.

Deviating for just a bit, I was at camp and the last I knew, Byron was on a mission to get some antibiotics. I had heard nothing and got a text several hours later telling me that she was on IV fluids, starting antibiotics and was severely dehydrated. Sometimes being unplugged from media is a good thing, but when something like this is going on and you can't communicate via phone or text reliably, it certainly adds to your stress level.

Byron then took her on the two hour trip to Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs where she was admitted to the pediatric unit. Here was an example of divine providence, because when we worshiped with our sister congregation in this area the day before, Byron was able to meet the guy who was in an administrative position over all the hospitals in the Springs area. He had been notified that our daughter was being admitted and met Byron and Kezi and escorted them to their room. When you are out of town and out of state, these little personal connections certainly help you feel more comfortable.

When the doctor had examined her, she was concerned about a few things: a retropharangeal abscess, Kawasaki's disease, viral infection, west nile, and possible lyme disease. They ran several more viral and blood cultures, did a CT scan of her neck area looking for an abscess, changed her antibiotic, and continued IV fluids. Kawasaki's disease is some sort of autoimmune disease which causes high fevers as well as a certain “look” which Kezi had (puffiness around chin and lower lip, enlarged lymph nodes). Normally it is seen in younger children, but it can affect older ones as well. Basically it is a disease of elimination, where it would be highly suspected if there were no response to other treatments. Also, Kezi's fever had been reaching 105+.

Byron called and updated me with all this information Monday evening. We were trying to decide if we should have my parents drive to camp to watch the other children while I went to the hospital. We didn't want to jump to conclusions as to how long or not long this process was going to take, but trying to make decisions that could potentially affect other people based on a lot of unknown information wasn't fun. We finally decided that I would catch a ride to the hospital the next morning while recruiting some people from camp to help watch our children until we had a bit more knowledge as to what was going on. Here was another example of God's goodness: we really connected with our host family from the previous Saturday night, and we felt very comfortable asking them to help out with our kids for the day. We are so thankful that we had that connection, and there were also so many other people who were looking out for our family as well, including giving up camp time to take me to Colorado Springs.

Monday night was a nightmare for me. I was very concerned about the potential diagnoses, and also that Kezi really wasn't much better after being on antibiotics and fluids. She was so up and down. I cried and prayed all night, and I've never felt so far from God. It was a very dark valley where my feelings were telling me that God doesn't hear, I'm not saved, it's all a waste of time, etc... It was devastating. All I could do was hang on to the promises of God that were hidden in my heart. I clung to those as my anchor, but my emotions/feelings certainly weren't backing them up. My prayers became so feeble. The best I could muster was: “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Fix Kezi.” Slowly, morning came. Parts of Psalm 16 flowed through my head: “Surely my mind teaches me through the night.” Just like we are told in Lamentations, His mercies are new every morning, I felt renewed. I was able to talk to Byron and he said that Kezi looked better and they thought that maybe the fever had broken, based upon her resting heart rate.

Well, when I got to the hospital and saw Kezi, she looked terrible. Better???? I knew she had been bad, but evidently Byron didn't let me know how bad she was Monday night. It was all I could do not to break down in tears when I saw her. She was chatty, but so puffy in her face, raspy/nasaly in her voice. And her fever was starting to climb back up. The doctor did think that she had improved, but not enough to convince her that antibiotic number 2 was working. So she switched her to a 3^rd antibiotic. As the morning progressed, she became less lively and more tired, yet she wasn't really able to sleep. Byron decided that even though she wasn't great, she was still better and that he would go back to camp with the other kids while I stayed with Kezi.

She continued to feel bad and was unable to really rest until about 3:30. We hugged, cried, did a Bible study on being thankful in all circumstances (from 1 Thessalonians), and made a thankfulness list. By 4:30, she was feeling better: more energetic, chattier, increased appetite, and no fever. However, they were treating her fever with ibuprofen every 6 hours. We had a very sweet time together. I read to her from “Sir Knight of the Splendid Way” (this is very similar to Pilgrim's Progress), we sang, we prayed, she colored, etc. The children's life team at the hospital was so great in making sure Kezi had all kinds of goodies to keep her entertained. She decided that Psalm 126 was going to be her theme Psalm as she wanted to be an “exile that was brought back to camp”. God was very gracious in answering all of our prayers and she continued to feel great. She slept well Tuesday night, her heart rate stayed down, and her fever was kept at bay. Wednesday morning's bloodwork showed improvement as well, though not quite as good as the Dr. had hoped. We decided to discontinue the ibuprofen to get a better idea of any lingering fever, and if her temps stayed normal, they would release her later in the afternoon. She continued to have a good day without fevers and Byron was able to come get us and take us back.

Kezi was still really tired and did start to run a mild fever that evening, but a small dose of ibuprofen was effective. She wasn't able to play her accordion in the talent show Wednesday night, so her siblings had to change which songs they were playing to something that was less dependent upon Kezi's part. Byron was still concerned that they were missing something, but each day she continued to improve. By Friday she was feeling great, and the kids were able to play their accordions for the camp wrap up. We were so thankful that they got that opportunity! We are also so grateful for our midwest presbytery family who all were so diligent in praying for us and helping out in every way possible. They certainly illustrated 1 John 3 by loving not only in word and talk, but in deed and in truth.

It has now been nearly two weeks, and she is mostly back to normal. She still is unable to physically be as active as she was, so we are taking it slowly. We do quite a bit of running, so it is hard to see her struggle. But in time she will bounce back. We never exactly diagnosed what was wrong. The doctor speculates that she had a viral infection that was compounded by some type of super bug bacterial infection. But as to which virus and which bacteria, we don't know. What I do know, is that without God's healing hand, there is no way that she could have rebounded so quickly.

Looking back, there were so many places where we could see God working out the circumstances to be exactly what we would need, even in the details before we left on our trip. That is so comforting, knowing that we are in the hands of an omniscient God. This experience gave us a tiny taste of what it would be like to either lose a child or even spend extended time in the hospital. It's very hard to process the “what ifs” as the hospital is talking to you about things like the Ronald McDonald House and other parental supports available. In God's providence, He spared us from those things, yet we know many people whose prayers have been answered differently. It is very humbling to think about, because we know that our family's outcome has nothing to do with us being more deserving than anybody else.

This is where our experience has a spiritual parallel, and I am very motivated to tell you (and anyone who will listen) about it. We studied the attributes of God at camp. The last one studied was His wrath. God chose to save our family from the unthinkable, not because we did or did not do something. We are so humbled and thankful about how He worked, and we want to tell everyone about what he did for Kezi and for us. But the spiritual parallel is this: God saved me from the unthinkable too – eternity in hell because of my sins. He saved me not because He saw any good in me apart from Him. He saved me through Jesus's blood which paid the price of MY SINS. Friends, hell is real and in God's time final judgment is coming. As I appreciate (and don't take for granted) the gravity of what I have been saved from, I should be even more motivated to tell you about your need to be saved from your sins through Christ, my Savior! The fact is that we are all sinners and deserve eternal punishment, because as sinners, we cannot stand before a holy, holy, holy God. That is the bad news. We are hopelessly lost. The gospel (good news) is this: God sent Christ to live a perfect holy life, die a sacrificial death, and He raised Him on the 3^rd day showing that Christ's sacrifice was accepted. So by His blood, we can be saved. Will you repent and believe the gospel? None of us are assured even another minute. Waiting until a better time is not a good plan. Cry out to God and repent and believe if you haven't already.

Just as much as I want to tell about what God did for Kezi, I also want to tell you about the hope I have in Christ.

Thank you to all who faithfully supported and prayed for us during this time. And thank you for hanging in there and reading (and reading and reading) all about it here!!