Parenting: 3-6-Month-Olds Community

My 3 month old was diagnosed with Bacterial Neisseria Meningitis 3 weeks ago to the day. He got his 2 month vaccines and two days later laid in his crib lifeless while moaning (not crying) and everytime we went to comfort him, he would scream like his body ached or he was in pain. Imagine how we felt when our attempts to comfort our sick child failed. I called his Pedi 5 times over the weekend and she just told me it was a side effect of the shots and if his fever reached 103....take him in.

Finally on Monday, I took him to his pedi and she immediately thought that something was wrong. She admitted him and thought that he "looked like a meningitis baby". They did a spinal tap on him and waited 48 hours to see if anything grew in the spinal fluid. While in this 48 hour waiting period, I was told that it could be something that happened when I was pregnant with him...they wanted to do a CAT SCAN in case he was "dropped" lol (imagine my frustration and outrage towards the doctors when they went as far as assuming he was dropped.) I took two days off of work to be with my son and was told I was I was on a critical warning and needed to come back to work or I'd be terminated....so on D-Day (the day of the results) I went back to work and while at work, I got a call from my pedi (I put her on speaker phone) she explained what meningitis was and it wouldn't be a bad idea to leave work now because it is contagious. My boss felt like an a-hole and now I've been on leave for 3 weeks without problems .

So we were transferred to Children's Hospital and they explained that "bump" on LO's head that was mistakened for blunt trauma was his soft spot that was bulging because of the inflammation in his brain caused by the meningitis. His brain was so inflammed he needed 3 weeks of antibiotics instead of the norm 7 days. His white cell count in the spinal fluid only dropped from 1900 -1500 (it's supposed to be at 0) so he has to be on antibiotics for longer. They found fluid pockets around his brain that needed to be drained. They drilled two holes in the top of his head to drain the fluid. After that was all said and done....he was done having fevers and we just needed a repeat MRI in a week (today). The pockets that they drained are non existant. He now has large fluid pockets inside of his brain that requires a shunt (a tube inserted in the brain that drains the fluid into his stomach) and he keeps it his whole life. So far he has had 4 spinal taps and on his 5th one tomorrow.

Most babies don't beat this infection...it's usually fatal. The few prayers got us this far. Now I need everyone else to help him fight this other battle. They keep explaining the rare side effects and everything that is rare is common for LO. We need your support. Please keep him in ur prayers. Thank u for making it this far!