Mary's had a 102/103 degree fever since Friday along with an unrelenting and excruciating headache. Her OB/GYN, over the phone, thought it might be mastitis and prescribed an antibiotic on Friday. By Sunday, the antibiotic, along with Tylenol, had done nothing for either her fever or headache. With Mary's fever at 103 Sunday evening, her doctor told her to go to the emergency room. We dropped Drew and Will off at Ma and Pa's and Mary, Landon and I trekked off to St. John.

The emergency room physician was stumped by Mary's condition which we now learned included a super fast heart rate. Mary had a couple of symptoms of several ailments but, at the same time, was missing key symptoms for each possible diagnosis. The primary concern was encephalitis, swelling of the brain. So, it was time for tests: CAT scan for her head, chest x-ray, full blood work up, urine analysis, flu test and a lumbar puncture. The results came back negative for encephalitis but showed positive for a massive infection the origin of which was unknown.

During all this Mary and her uncooperative veins were being, as usual, uncooperative. The nurse couldn't get a line in and even the IV specialist they called in couldn't get one going. Finally, the doctor himself had to put a line in Mary's neck...but, of course, not until after unsuccessfully trying on one side before putting it in the other side. So, in addition to everything else, Mary was stuck twice in each arm and both sides of her neck...fun!

Mary was given an intravenous antibiotic, a steroid and a strong pain reliever which was finally able to knock down the headache she had had for three days. Sometime after 3:00 am, we were finally able to go home with a prescription for a different oral antibiotic. As of tonight, Mary's a little better, but still not well. Her headache is controllable with Tylenol but her fever and other symptoms are still present.

Needless to say, yesterday was not a Mother's Day to be remembered.