Our Little Man

We have had quite an interesting couple of weeks with Mr. Brayden...the kind where you just hold your child and beg God for healing and understanding. To make a very-very long story short...the weeks following Memorial Day Brayden started having high fevers, a swollen gland, bloodshot eyes and last Thursday stopped walking because he was in so much pain. We continually took him to the doctor, but each of the symptoms came in a phase instead of at once, so the doctors were a bit baffled. On Monday we took him to the hospital for x-rays and blood work where they found he had very high levels of inflammation in his system. On Tuesday we went back to the hospital for more x-rays and a Echo on his heart. Then headed back to the doctor office where they informed us that Brayden had Kawasaki Disease. It is a rare disease in the US that effects a child's heart. The best we can explain it (mostly because it is a case that even most doctors don't understand) is that he caught a "virus" and his body was unable to fight it off. Why this disease is so serious is because it thins the walls in the coranary arteries, the cells start to dialate, then balloon, then can create an anerysm. Brayden's Echo showed that his walls were thinning and the cells were starting to dialate. They are hoping that they caught it in time with the medicine, but only time will tell. We had to stay an extra day in the hospital because his fever would not stay down, but he did great Thursday night so they sent us home Friday morning...only to be hermits for the next week. Brayden is doing very well and acts as if he wasn't even sick for the last three weeks or even in the hospital for the past four days. Right now he is just taking Asperin to thin out his blood and over the next three months he will be getting an Echo every two weeks. That is the only way for the doctors to see if his heart is improving or getting worse. There is some minimal damage, but they are hoping to see the cells repairing themselves. As far as we know his life should not be restricted and he should grow up to be a strong and healthy boy. One of my first questions were, "will he be able to play sports?"...gees, I'm such a soccer mom...it's just the little things you see your kid doing when they grow up - I needed to prepare myself. Just so you know, they don't think it should be a problem, but only time will tell. Brayden was such a trooper and despite all the needles he did really well. We were a little nervous about what to do with a very active two year old, but they had a great playroom and allowed him to take car and wagon rides around the hallways...we would just follow him wherever he wanted to go pushing his IV right along side of him. He of course flirted with the nurses until they wanted to take his temperature, blood pressure or give him medicine...then the world was ending as we knew it. Well, that's all we have for now. We will update you as we are updated. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. We will leave you with a short clip of our life in the hospital...