Helping Harrison

January 2018: What started out as a seasonal cough and runny nose soon would turn into much more. The cold symptoms went away but came with a slight fever. We chalked it up as something within that cold virus was working its way out. But the fever stayed with him for days and days and only getting higher and higher, especially at night. One afternoon it got to 106 and I knew something inside him just isnt right and he needed to be checked out. We went to the 1st Dr who said it has to be something related to this flu going about. She checked his ears, checked for Strep, and for Influenze A & B. But everything came back negative.. We were confused and concerned but went home to let him rest. A few days later he just wasnt acting right at home. He was pulling at his diaper as if it were hot in the front and we assumed it had to be a UTI. So we packed up and took him into Dr. #2 - they performed a catheter to get a clean sample of his urine and in the end determined that his urine was clean, no infection.. Good but now what? So we asked about a couple other things, one being the possibility of Appendicitis. She was certain there was no sign of that here. So we went home and continued to wonder what could be the cause of all this. Would it just go away or is something bad still happening..
Thursday, Feb 8th @ 12:00am - We woke to him screaming, checked his temp and sure enough the highest we've ever seen it.. 107! We KNEW something wasn't right. We needed answers and wouldn't give up.
Friday, Feb 9th - We took him to see his regular Peds Dr. in Onalaska. She listened to us and ordered a full lab work up and xrays. Once those were done she returned and gave us the news that Harrison body was filled with infection but they couldnt find where and he would require more testing. She told us we would have to go and be admitted to the La Crosse Gundersen for more testing. So we packed up again and went downtown. There we met with Dr. #3 - he ordered an ultrasound and CT scan. It wasnt until 10:00pm that we found our answer.

Harrison had a 4"x4" abscess in his lower abdomen that was crushing his bladder and effecting his bowels. He was struggling to pass anything through his intestines causing an ileus. The super bad news was Gundersen does not have a Pediatric Surgeon on site so we had to be shipped down to Madison via ambulance due to the need for strong antibiotics before his upcoming surgery. So within a matter of hours I watched my 2 year old son travel down the interstate in the back of an ambulance. Once we arrived they went right to work getting us into our room and getting everyone up to speed on what needed to be done. Hours later he was taken down for his drain surgery. They inserted a tiny tube into his lower abdomen to drain the infection and left a line going down his left leg, they would need to drain and flush that line every 8 hours. Meanwhile he was still unable to pass urine and bowel movements at all.
The next day after he had some time to rest the team of surgeons came to meet with us and explained how they discovered that his appendix had perforated. The opening in his appendix caused it to leak harmful bacteria into his body and create the abscess. The main surgeon explained that we would have to return in a couple months to have an appendectomy once everything in his stomach had calmed down.

Throughout this whole process if it wasnt already scary and stressful enough, now we have the added burden of piling medical expenses. Between the medical imaging, hospital stays, ambulance ride, surgical procedure, and one more still to come. This is way more than we bargained for this year and without the help from family and friends our wellfare and happiness with be very limited. Please find it in your heart to help us in any way you can, no donation is too small.

We thank you all in advance for your gifts and support.

Love, The Flurys