In Sickness and in Health

It's a good thing we started off Spring Break with a bang because the rest of it was a tumultuous roller coaster ride. Cam got sick. And by sick, I mean we both thought he was dying.

On Easter Sunday, Cam went from egg hunting and feeling fine to a fever of 106 and having a seizure in the bedroom. In less than an hour, I saw his face drain of all color turning a color I can only describe as corpse gray. I was terrified and felt totally helpless. Cam was convinced this was something he ate, food poisoning or something he could sleep off. He was so convinced that I became convinced. When sleep clearly wasn't going to fix this, my gut said "Call the paramedics" but I ignored it because Cam was talking to me clearly and I thought "Well, I am known for overreacting..."

Looking back, I know now I should have  listened to my gut. I should have insisted he go to the hospital (although he kept repeating the phrase: "Don't take me to the hospital, I get something worse than this!" and I said "What's worse than this?? Staph??")

Irony of ironies--he had staph and that's what was making him so ill. We found out because I insisted he go in to our family Doctor the next day when he still had a high fever but was feeling so much better. His fever was 104.9 now. His infected leg was nearly double the size of the other one.

With a heavy doze of antibiotic at the doctor's, plus a 10 day hard core antibiotic to take home, Cam started to show improvement and we both realized what a close call this was. The doctor told him within a few days, and possibly just a few more hours, Cam would have turned septic and this story would have a very different ending.

This man is my whole world. Don't even get me started on how much my kids and I love him and depend on him and want him to be well. As I sat on the bed next to him on Easter I felt like I was living my worst  nightmares. I sat and watched him shake and changed the damp blankets he'd wrapped around him and sweat through in just minutes. I locked the door to our bedroom because I didn't want our kids to see this nightmare unfold.

It's been nearly three weeks now and Cam is really still healing. He missed two weeks of work to rest at home. In that time  he lost 31 pounds. Walking is still really painful for him and there are still some fun staph-y after effects to deal with but he's here with us.
My entire body and my whole soul feels wrung out from this experience (and I can only imagine how his is feeling). I put this here because I know this is a turning point in our story together and I'm certain that we'll look back on this someday with gratitude that we got through another tough time together.