WHAT A WEEK! WARNING--long post ahead

Wow! What a week we had last week. I thought you all might be interested in hearing all about it so I'll try to be brief...
SUNDAY--Heather leaves, which of course sucked and was very sad. Then Sunday night Jackson started with a terrible headache. Brookie had gone home with a fever and sore throat so I started to worry that Jack AND Brookie had strep.
MONDAY-- Jackson woke up with no headache but a little dizzy. He said nothing else hurt and other then the dizziness felt good enough to go to school. That afternoon he came home, played with his friends and went to baseball. Everything seemed fine. In the meantime Heather called and confirmed that Brookie had strep.
TUESDAY--Jackson wake up with a sore neck. I didn't worry because it was hurting him on the side and I assumed he had kinked it while he slept or tweaked it during baseball practice the night before. Much to his dismay I sent him to school, since he said nothing else hurt other then his neck and I'm not keeping a kid home from school with JUST a kink in his neck. At noon the school nurse called and I decided to pick up Jackson. I could tell he was in pain and figured he won the battle this time. When we got home he said his throat hurt so I called the Dr. and was able to get an appointment later that afternoon, where a diagnosis of Strep Throat was given. I asked the Dr. about his sore neck and he briefly mentioned that sometimes lymph nodes can abcess but more likely then that was that the swollen lymph node above the hurt muscle was tender and that was causing him to hold his head weird, thus kinking/straining his muscle. We went to the pharmacy, got his anti-biotic and headed home. As the evening wore on though Jackson complained more and more about his sore neck. He got to the point where he couldn't even move without help from me or TJ. As he was laying in bed that night moaning and crying in pain TJ and I concluded that his neck pain was more then a kink. I called the on call Dr. at the office and was told to give him Motrin and call back in the morning...it didn't sound too urgent.
WEDNESDAY--After a very rough night I called the Dr. and got in almost immediately. I dropped Natalie and Brady off at a friends house and headed up, where the Dr. ordered a CT scan to check for an abcess. He also kept us at the office for observation because he was concerned Jack was dehydrated. After Jack drank 3 glasses of water and was able to pee we headed over for the CT scan. After the results of that came back showing a "lesion" in his neck we headed up to Ear/Nose/Throat Dr. to see what the next step would be. We were told that he was borderline hospitilization and that if we couldn't get on top of the infection with Steroids and heavy duty anti-biotics then he would have to have surgery. So back to the Pharmacy for new medication and then home! We thought we were all good, but then he started throwing up his medicine, so after talking to the Dr. AGAIN we went to the hospital. He was admitted, hooked up to the IV for the medication and monitered through out the night.
THURSDAY--Jackson woke up feeling sooooooooo much better. We hung out at the hospital while they gave him more anti-biotics and steroids through his IV. After the P.A. came and checked him out she gave us the go ahead to be discharged. We got home about 3:00 p.m. Of course they changed his medication to something even stronger then he'd been on so we had to take yet another trip to the pharmacy. That night though, Brady started to have goopy eyes and he actually asked to go to bed. Hmmmmm, could that be my first clue that he wasn't feeling well at that point either?
FRIDAY--I woke up and made a Dr's appointment for Brady. I then took Jackson to the ENT to be checked out again and was told that he was doing great and there was no reason to be concerned that the infection wasn't being taken care of. We even got the go ahead for Jackson to play in his baseball game on Saturday. It seemed we successfully staved off surgery! After that Dr's visit I took Jackson home and then took Natalie to the dentist and Brady to his Dr's appointment where he was diagnosed with a terrible cold and ear infection. Thankfully no pink eye! Luckily there were enough sample of anti-biotics in the sample closets at the Dr's so we didn't need to make another pharmacy trip. We got home, and I had a fun night with the Laurels in my ward at a No Prom Party.
SATURDAY--Jackson woke up at 5:00 with a swollen neck and pain again. At 6:45 I called the on call ENT and he told us to head over to the hospital. I sent TJ over and was going to go meet them when TJ called and said after the ENT spoke with the ER Dr. they were confident that Jackson could come home and remain on his oral medication without any further problems. I was grateful but skeptical, thinking that if the medication wasn't stopping the swelling and infection from flaring up again, how would it actually fix it. Turns out however, that the medical professionals were right and by that afternoon Jackson was feeling much better again. That afternoon TJ took Natalie to her very first soccer game, where she got the Player of the Game award. TJ said she did so good and she didn't even cry when she got bowled over by another little girl who was twice her size. For those of you who know Natalie, you know what a HUGE accomplishment that is for her!
SUNDAY--TJ and Jackson and Natalie head off to Stake conference and I stay home with Brady, who still wasn't feeling so hot.
MONDAY--Jackson is doing so much better today. The swelling has gone down again and even though its not back to normal it is doing so much better! I'm so grateful for all the Dr's and nurses who took care of him and I'm grateful for the level of medical care he received. I'm glad we live in a country where we have good, reliable health care! Now I just get to wait for the BILL!

In the midst of all this craziness we also found out that our request to be transferred to Denver was not approved by TJ's company. Both of us are extremely dissapointed but we are trying to be positive and optimistic. We will get there someday soon...I guess just a little more patience is required in the mean time!

Thanks to everyone who have been saying prayers for Jackson this week. They were heard and answered and we are very appreciative of all the love and support from family and friends!