update

Thanks for your prayers. Here is an update on how things are going...

This morning Z had a CT scan, which revealed an abscess near his lymph node. He went directly from the CT scan into the operating room where the abscess was surgically drained. The improvement in his condition has been significant since then -- his face almost looks normal again! My beautiful boy is back and I am one thankful mama.

Now the plan is to stay in the hospital at least until tomorrow afternoon as he heals from the surgery and gets more IV antibiotics. If he is continuing to do well over the next 24 hours we will be headed home! We'll continue a 2 week course of antibiotics and hopefully that will be the end of it.

The abscess was most likely caused by bacteria getting into his lymph node, which must have already been swollen from fighting a virus. The bacteria caused an infection in his lymph node and surrounding area, which then led to the abcess. I feel like this is the weirdest thing I've ever heard of, but the doctors tell me it is not an unusual occurence in toddlers. They will run tests on the stuff they drained which will tell us whether the bacteria is "typical" (which means he probably got it here) or "strange" (which probably means he brought it from Ethiopia). That will certainly be interesting to find out.

Anyway, we are all doing much better than we have been for the past few days and we very much appreciate your prayers. Hopefully my next post will be written from home!