6 days + 2 doctor visits + 1 x-ray + 1 ultrasound + 2 ER visits + 1 CT Scan = Pneumonia

So last week was one heck of a week at the Varner House (as I am sure you can imagine from the title of the post). So let me do a recap!
Saturday-I worked all day Saturday and Bryson took care of the kids. That night Brody started to run a fever which is very odd for him, but I didn't think much of it.
Sunday-He wanted to lay in our bed and watch cartoons and was just not himself. Still was running a fever but he really wanted to go to church. I really started to think at this point that his stomach problems were starting to come back. The week before he had run a fever for one day and had thrown up once and then had diarrhea off and on. We did go to church but he stayed in class with us and slept during class and then during worship services. All of this is SO not our little boy! We laid low the rest of the day and gave him Tylenol, but every few hours the fever always came back and every time it got higher than the time before. He started complaining that his stomach hurt, but he says that everyday so I didn't really know what to do.
Monday-I took him to the Pediatrician Monday since he still had the fever and kept having stomach cramps. Of course by the time we got to the doctor's office he decided he felt fine and didn't have any stomach pain and was just a model patient laying there and letting her push on his stomach and listen to his heart, stomach, and lungs. She said he had a lot of gas but that everything else looked fine. I asked if we could have some blood work done so I could see if any inflammation was present before deciding on taking him to his GI doctor. She thought it was a little premature but agreed to do the order for that and an X-Ray but suggested I wait a day or two. Brody's illness was very up and down. For a few hours he would be fine and then he would just be wiped out having to lay down and rest for long periods of time and screaming in pain that his stomach hurt. He would run to the bathroom and say that he needed to poop and then lay in the floor with his knees to his chest screaming in pain. It was BAD!
Tuesday-My dad came up and kept Brody while I went to work. He continued to run a fever, but was fine throughout the day. Until the moment I got home and then the cramps came back. I called Bryson and told him we needed to get the bloodwork and X-Ray done ASAP. I started to get very concerned. I knew something was wrong but had no idea what he could be which is a feeling I hate to have! We made it to the hospital and had the X-Ray first that showed a TON of gas but nothing else. Brody was a trooper while having blood work done and after a quick trip to Target to buy him a new Transformer we were back home with no answers! That night his fever got up to 103.7. This really frightened me. For the first time I was scared to go to sleep. He would have moments at night that he would just be burning up and screaming in pain. He wouldn't want me to touch him or talk to him. The only thing I could compare it to was contractions. It would come and go and when he wasn't screaming then he was shaking from the pain.
Wednesday-First thing Wednesday morning I called the Pediatrician's Office and requested to talk to a nurse or the doctor. One of the nurses came on the phone and I explained how bad Brody had got and wanted to see what the blood work had shown. She spoke with the doctor while I was on hold and said the the blood work did show elevated levels but that everything indicated it was a virus. I tried to explain that this was not a virus and that he was really sick and she would put me on hold and ask the doctor my question and then get back on and tell me what he had said. This frustrated me very bad. Just get on the phone and talk to me! She said he was assuming it was the flu. Really? The flu? I'm no doctor but I knew it wasn't the flu. Just from checking the internet the flu hits you like a ton of bricks and then you are pretty much down until you get over it. She told me his fever could get to 105 and still be ok. At this point I was really not happy but felt at a loss of what to do. I started to doubt myself even though I knew something was wrong. They did schedule an appointment for him to see his GI doctor since his blood levels were elevated. The appointment is March 29th so that didn't do me any good! Throughout the day he got worse and the fever stayed high. Our friend who is an ER Doctor (Dr. Rob) was in Disney World that week but was so nice to take my many phone calls and text messages. He was concerned it could be a appendicites. Our other friend who is a Surgeon was worried about the same thing and both thought the fact that his fever kept getting worse was not a good sign and neither felt like he had the flu! They both thought he needed to go to the ER. Since Rob was gone we decided to head to the Norman ER around 8 that night! Gran B came to sit with a sleeping Meg. The ER visit resulted in the doctor saying that his tummy felt soft and so Rob felt that meant it probably wasn't something surgical and probably more stomach issue related. That made us feel better. We did an ultrasound that showed nothing and decided to forgo the CT Scan and the other test that we would've had to go to Children's Hospital for. I did get in a heated discussion with a nurse that night over liquid tylenol but I am trying to block that lady out of my head so I won't go into detail! The ER doctor recommended that we try to get into the GI doctor on Thursday. We got home around 11:30 and we were SO tired. Brody ran a 104.4 temp that night and threw up. He was in so much pain and I felt so helpless. I was so mad at myself for not going through with the CT Scan and just laid in bed with him and cried. I felt like I should've done more to find out what was wrong and I worried that if it really was his stomach stuff coming back that I didn't know how I was going to handle him being this sick.
Thursday-Dr. Rob and Dr. Kite (a ER doctor in Norman that we both go to church with) both checked in with that morning and both thought he needed to have a CT Scan. I tried getting into the GI doctor first but they thought he needed to go the the Pediatrician. I didn't feel like they could do anything for him so around 11:00 Brody and I headed to Norman ER and Dr. Kite quickly greeted us and took extremely good care of us for the next 6 hours! Brody was such a trooper while he got an IV, blood work, urine sample, and drinking 12 oz. of nasty stuff for a CT scan. He then laid there perfect and followed the instructions during the CT Scan. Within 5 minutes Dr. Kite came to the room and shocked us with a diagnosis of pneumonia. Everyone was so surprised. He did have a cough that he has had for a while but it certainly was not a bad cough! I guess he had so much gas that you couldn't see the pneumonia in the X-Ray! Thankfully Brody's oxygen levels were good enough to be put on antibiotics at home. I was instructed to set my alarm for every 2 hours that night to check his breathing. That scared me and I don't think I slept much that night! Thankfully he never ran a fever after leaving the hospital!
Friday-We had to do a follow-up visit at the Pediatrician Office on Friday. They thought he was doing good and scheduled a follow-up X-Ray for 10 days to make sure it is gone. They think he is dealing with two issues. The pneumonia and stomach problems. He is doing pretty good on his road to recovery. Still hurts when he coughs and complains that his stomach hurts, but SO much better than he was and for that I am so thankful!