Retro Post - Kawasaki Disease

June 22-25, 2006 – Ben spent a few days in the hospital three years ago this week. They were a lousy few days! It all started with Ben having a fever. We didn’t think much of it. We gave him some Tylenol and figured he would be fine. We even took him boating (a fact that makes me feel guilty to this day). The next day he added a rash, red swollen eyes, a stiff neck, and extreme lethargy to his list of symptoms. He was one sick boy. When I googled his symptoms I got lots of “fatal if not treated” results, so I took him to the doctor . . . and she admitted him to the hospital. They didn’t know what was wrong with him, so they started doing tests to rule things out. The biggest concern was meningitis, so they did a lumbar puncture to test his spinal fluid. It was quite the ordeal. They wouldn’t let us in the room with Ben (probably a good thing), but we could hear him screaming from down the hall. It was pretty horrible. Once the lab ruled out meningitis, they drew blood to test for everything from West Nile disease to Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Ben quickly lost all patience with being poked and prodded and woken up. He hated the IV and pretty much everything else about the hospital. So did we. The doctors were baffled and we felt helpless. Nate and Shane gave Ben a blessing and we prayed lots, but it was frustrating not to be able to do more.

After two days they decided that to treat him for Kawasaki Disease even though they still weren’t sure that was the problem. It was a little tricky to diagnose since there isn’t a specific test for Kawasaki and Ben’s rash was a little atypical for the disease. They gave Ben a quality $2000 bag of intravenous gamma globulin (the treatment for Kawasaki). It was the best money we’ve ever spent. Within hours he was himself again . . . wanting to play with his Thomas trains and laughing hysterically at the Myth Buster guys dropping buttered toast. They let us bring him home the next day. We were all so excited to be done with the IV and get to sleep in our own beds that night. Ben was up and running a day or two later.

June 21:


June 22:

June 23:


June 24 (after the gamma globulin):

June 25:

We got to do other fun things like giving Ben 12 aspirin a day for a while and taking him to Primary Children’s hospital several times for echocardiograms to see if there was any lasting damage to his heart. After a year or so of testing, the cardiologist determined that there was no noticeable damage. I was (and still am) so grateful for modern medicine.