Adventure Begins! First hospital visit of the trip… Saturday the 15th… Four days in

We got to try out the children’s hospital in Orlando last Saturday night (15^thof June), the night before we left on our cruise.  Keegan’s tongue had had a little red mark on it the few weeks prior to us leaving (like an inflamed tastebud – as though maybe he had burned it or cut it on sharp chip or something), but the few days before us leaving it seemed to be getting better.  After arriving in FL it started going downhill again and wound up splitting open. It bled and bled and bled (for about 90 minutes) on Saturday evening.  I talked with a friend at our dermatologist’s office and then the P.A. who was on call. She said that given our circumstances we should head to the E.R.  

So… By then, the older three boys were asleep (it was 11p.m.), so we left a note for them and the three of us drove to Orlando to visit Nemours Children’s Hospital.  This place was rather disgusting.  The sheet on the hospital bed hadn’t been changed since the previous patient(s?); it was oily and there was a snot-like substance on it. The paramedic who took us into the room said it might be tape but it looked way too alive.  There were crunched crackers and M & Ms on the floor and the floor itself looked like it had not been cleaned for quite some time.  The furniture looked decades old.  It felt like we’d already moved on to an underdeveloped country!  At least the doctor was very very nice.  Unfortunately, she was the only physician working that evening, so our full Nemours experience from door to door was about five hours.  The three of us climbed into bed at about 4a.m. ready to wake up at 8a.m. to get ready and leave for the port.   

Sadly, the silver nitrate (which Keegan called “spicy”) that the doctor had put on Keegan’s tongue to stop the bleeding did not do the trick and as we were scrambling around packing and loading suitcases into our rental car Sunday morning, we were also trying to stop the bleeding and figure out how to do a FaceTime follow-up call with a physician at Nemours.

Everything worked out in the end (i.e. we boarded the ship!), although he did have a couple more bleeding episodes during the day.  The doctor we FaceTimed with was also really great and we have the plan to keep an eye on it, control the bleeding, and load him up with ice cream because ice cream is soft and cold (cheers from Keegan!).  If it continues, we will have him seen in the UK for maybe laser treatment or cauterization.  Both doctors seemed confident that there is not a serious underlying issue and both said that the amount it will bleed, although it really seems like a lot coming from such a small area, is not a reason for concern.  Thank you, God! Please pray for the bleeding to stay minimal and for a clean hospital in our future to get this resolved!