Arkansas Children's Hospital

Owen had a rough week last week. He got shots last Tuesday morning and by that night he was running fever and throwing up. We just attributed it to the shots and thought he would improve by the next day. But he continued to have fever on Wednesday and the vomiting episodes increased. He also became really fussy, to the point that there was nothing we could do to console him. So on Thursday, Josh took him to the doctor to make sure he didn't have an ear infection or teething issues. We just wanted to make sure that it wasn't a "normal" baby issue. To make a long story short...after insignificant findings, our doctor called Arkansas Children's Hospital and the geneticist on call wanted us to be admitted to the hospital immediately. So we went to Northwest Hospital in Springdale to be hooked up to a 10 % dextrose IV and then air lifted to ACH.

preparing for his flight to ACH

getting ready for his first plane ride..

during the flight...

Everything happened so fast we didn't really have time to think about anything. We didn't know if a parent would be allowed to ride with Owen on the flight to ACH so Josh jumped in the car and headed down to Little Rock just in case. We didn't want Owen to arrive at ACH and be all alone. However, they ended up bringing the plane instead of the helicopter so there was enough room for me to ride. Owen did well for his first time on an airplane...he slept for most of the trip. We arrived at the hospital and were greeted by daddy, GiGi, Papa Bart, Natalye, Kristina, and Sandy.

getting checked out..

snoozing with mommy...

Owen decided to stay awake

and watch "Bolt" at 4 am

snoozing during the day...

ACH is a great hospital; they are very attentive to their patients. After our experience at Washington Regional for Owen's bilateral hernia repair, we were very greatful to be ACH. With Owen's rare diagnosis, there are very few doctors that know how to treat him. Even at ACH, ther are only three geneticist that are familiar with his diagnosis. The first nurse I talked to said "I googled his diagnosis and I couldn't find very much". Ha! That didn't make us feel comfortable by any means.

hanging out with Daddy...

talking with Dr. Kahler (our geneticist)

hanging out with GiGi

The great thing about being at ACH is that we were overseen by our geneticist, Dr. Kahler. In addition to getting the 10% dextrose, they ran alot of lab work, did an EKG and and ECHO. They're still not sure what caused Owen to throw up, but their main concern was how Owen's body was going to respond to the illness. Baby's with his condition tend to go down hill really fast, so they wanted to stay on top of things.

just lounging...

Playing with his teddy bear

from Children's Therapy TEAM

Playing with Beema and GiGi

Owen is doing much better and is back to acting like Owen! We are very thankful for the care that we recieved from ACH. According to Dr. Kahler, this is something that we may continue to go through until we completely understand how Owen is going to respond to illnesses. There were some minor abnormalities noted in our EKG so we had a follow up EKG today and should know the results in the next few days. We have another appointment setup with Dr. Kahler on August 10th to find out more about Owen's condition. For now we will continue to montior Owen closely and pray that we will provide him with the best care. Thank you so much for all of your prayers.