Viral Sternal Osteomyelitis, what's that!?

Well, here I am in my hospital bed. Just a little behind on my blogs, but I hope to be able to catch up now that I am isolated to my little room. So after a couple of days in the hospital, they finally know what is wrong with my shoulder. I have Viral Sternal Osteomyelitis. What is that you ask? It's an infection in my clavicle bone and in the tiny little joint where it connects to my sternum. And how did I get it? Don't know. I've seen several doctors and the best explanation as of yet: BAD LUCK.

It all started Tuesday morning when I woke up. Mommy picked me up out of bed and I started to cry because my left shoulder was hurting. Maybe I slept on it wrong... So I went to school and I cried all day. Finally I convinced Miss Bobby to call Mommy and let her know. Daddy picked me up and we went straight to the doctor's office. They sent us off for some x-rays to make sure nothing was broken. Mommy met us at the Doctor's office and just as they were about to send us home, mommy asked them to take my temperature. It had spiked up to 101.7 so my doctor sent us off to the emergency room at Children's Hospital. By this time it was 7:30 pm, way past dinner time and just into my bedtime. The waiting room was packed. We didn't get to go back into an examining room until three hours later. I was sent for more x-rays, an ultrasound, and vitals galore. They poked me to draw blood and inserted an IV for fluids. Hungry and thirsty, they wouldn't let me eat anything just in case they found they would have to sedate me for some sort of procedure. My blood tests came back and my white blood count was fine, but something they call CRP was way above normal and this told them that I had some sort of infection. Now they just had to figure out what was causing it. I got to lay on a stretcher and Mommy and Daddy took turns sleeping with me.

Finally around 3:00 am, I was checked into the hospital and moved from room to room until they found us one that had a pull-out bed for mommy and daddy to sleep on. I think in total, we occupied 5 different rooms. This last one is comfortable. There is room to move around. We have a private bathroom with a shower and a window so we can tell if it is 10:00 pm or 10:00 am.

Since none of the other tests revealed anything wrong with my shoulder, I was scheduled for an MRI. I was allowed to eat breakfast Wednesday morning and then at 5:00 that evening I went in for the exam. Because I am little and squirmy, they gave me something to help me sleep through it. It knocked me out right away. They said I would be back with mommy and daddy in about an hour, but I was so sleepy that I wanted to sleep longer. They let me wake up on my own and I was back with mommy and daddy soon after I opened my eyes.

It didn't take long for them to see the preliminary signs of an infection on my clavicle. They started me on IV antibiotics at midnight and they are testing oral antibiotics too. If the orals seem to be doing their job, then I can go home sooner rather than later. If not, I might have to stay in the hospital for a while longer.

To top it all off, Daddy and I are sharing nasty coughs and I have a runny nose. During my exam this morning, they detected yet another ear infection in one ear and I might have caught pink eye from Daddy, who probably contracted it here in the hospital. He woke up this morning with the classic signs of pink eye. I should know... I had it just a few weeks ago myself. Luckily the extraordinary amounts of antibiotics I am on for my shoulder should knock all of these other infections out. Turns out, the sniffles and coughs that we came in with work to our advantage. We have been ''isolated" in order to keep from spreading our germs. This also means that we don't have to share a room with anyone else and the nurses bring us almost anything we want.