In 2019, our son was hospitalized with osteomyelitis. He was in the hospital for 10 days and 5 of those were spent in ICU. After his hospitalization, he had a PICC line and we had to administer IV medication at home for more than 5 months. Even after his infectious disease doctor stopped IV antibiotics, Kylan still had to take antibiotics orally for several months. It was a long road to recovery.

Almost three years later we ended up being admitted into the hospital again. It was June 6th, early Monday morning around 2am, when I heard Kylan come to our bedroom door and say, “Mom, I need you.” Me and Jordan both jumped out of bed and I saw Kylan limping down the hallway. His body was sticky and his hair was wet where he was sweating from the pain. He was holding his left thigh in the exact same place it hurt in 2019. He said, “My leg, it hurts so bad.” My stomach dropped and I took a deep breath. He didn’t have a fever and we gave him ibuprofen for the pain. He struggled getting down the stairs to go back to bed and I couldn’t sleep at all the rest of the night. I laid in bed and prayed until Jordan got up for work.

Later that morning we went to the same children’s hospital that treated him before. We got to the ER at 8:30 and were taken straight back to a room. The nurses and doctors were acting quickly because of his history. They ordered an xray and an ultrasound of his thigh/left hip.

The xray came back normal, but the ultrasound showed some fluid. Next, they ordered an MRI and done lab work. He went for his MRI at 2:30 and finished a little before 4 o’clock. His MRI also showed a significant amount of fluid and his bloodwork showed that his CRP was elevated.

An orthopedic surgeon that ordered the MRI came and talked to us around 5:30 that evening and said he wanted to do a procedure to drain fluid from the hip to see if the fluid was infection. He said he didn’t feel comfortable waiting until the next morning for a team to get together to do the procedure, that he wanted it done as soon as possible because of Kylan’s history. He said he would prep and do it himself in the ER room. He left the room to get everything ready, came back a few minutes later and said someone over him had made arrangements for someone to come do the procedure immediately.

The last time Kylan had the procedure done, they sedated him. They talked it over with him and had determined he was more mature this time around and that he could possibly be able to handle it without being sedated. They even allowed me to stay in the room. The surgeon, Kylan’s nurse, the attending physician, and two ultrasound techs were all packed in our small emergency room.

Kylan said the numbing shot was the most painful part. The surgeon had a long needle and was showing Kylan on the ultrasound machine where he needed the needle to go. He showed him his skin, his muscle, and his hip joint. We watched him guide the needle as far as he could before he said, “I need a longer needle. I was almost there, but couldn’t quite make it.” Because we were in the children’s hospital and Kylan is 6′ tall and over 200 pounds, they had to make some adjustments to the sizes of needles and blood pressure cuffs while we were there. The nurse joked that when she had talked to the other nurses who might come in our room for them, “Not to be alarmed that there’s a full grown man with a beard laying in a bed that’s entirely too small for him,” in our room.

Once he got a longer needle, he went in and was able to get a syringe full of fluid. It didn’t look thick, but it was yellow and cloudy. Kylan’s nurse divided it into several different tubes and got it to the lab. Kylan said he felt some relief once they had drawn some of the fluid out and he was finally able to get some rest.

Later that night a resident doctor came in and talked to us. Unfortunately, she said that the results were in the gray area and that, “his numbers are showing borderline infection.” Doctors weren’t comfortable starting IV antibiotics because he didn’t necessarily need them yet, but they weren’t comfortable sending us home until they saw whether or not his cultures were going to grow infection. We were admitted and made it to a room upstairs at 12:45am.

At 4am they were trying to draw blood for more labs and had a lot of issues. They eventually got enough blood to send to the lab to check and make sure nothing had changed significantly overnight.

Around 8am the doctor came in and said that so far, nothing had grown on the fluid from his hip. He said he couldn’t figure out why a young kid would have a reoccurring issue with his hip unless he has rheumatoid  arthritis, lupus, or another kind of immune disorder. He said if he had strep throat anywhere from 4-6 weeks ago that it could cause swelling and joint issues, but Kylan hasn’t had it recently. He said he couldn’t eat or drink incase the fluid comes back as infection and they need to do an emergency “wash out” surgery like before, but that once we reached the 24 hour mark that the chances of needing surgery to wash it out start to go down.

The doctor said we would follow up with the infectious disease doctor to see what the chances are of this reoccurring in a young, otherwise healthy, kid that didn’t experience any trauma to the area.

At 2 o’clock an attending physician came in and told us that it was rare for Kylan to have had osteomyelitis the first time, but that if he were to have it again it would be extremely rare. He said, “It’s like being struck by lightning once, and then a few years later being struck by lightning again. It’s extremely rare.”

We stayed in the hospital until 24 hours had passed (from the time the lab received the cultures from his hip) and no infection had grown. We were discharged at 7 o’clock that evening, but were told to keep my phone closeby incase something changed and they needed us to get him back to the hospital.

On June 9th Kylan said his hip was starting to itch. It was warm to the touch, but he wasn’t experiencing any pain. He had developed a terrible rash, but one of my best friends who had went through medical school told me to get him to the emergency room incase it wasn’t just a reaction. She said the rash was so bad that he might need IV intervention.

We went back to the hospital early the next morning and was relieved when the doctor said he thought it was just a reaction to either Chlorhexidine or Betadine, which is what they typically use to prep with before a procedure.

It’s been two weeks since that hospital visit. Kylan never developed any other symptoms and 24 hours after they had drained the fluid from his hip, he wasn’t in any pain. He’s been going to summer workouts with his basketball team each day and played seven basketball games last weekend. We had a follow up appointment with his orthopedic surgeon and he didn’t have any concerns. I don’t know what the future holds or how many times this could happen to our boy, but I am so incredibly thankful that we serve a God who does and who promises to take care of us along the way.