Gory Details

Okay, they're not really that gory, but for those who are interested, here you go . . .

The cause of Evan's illness was a tiny little bacteria called mycoplasma. It is so small that doctors and scientist used to think it was a virus. Unlike other bacteria, mycoplasma doesn't have a cell wall.
So these little buggers caused the pneumonia that got him down. That's nothing unusual. Mycoplasma pneumoniae is fairly common in causing walking pneumonia.

Evan was diagnosed with pneumonia, given IV antibiotics and a follow up course of oral antibiotics. Normally this would take care of things. That's where things went wrong. For some reason--maybe it was the bacteria, or maybe it was his body's reaction to the bacteria--he developed meningitis.

Meningitis is the swelling of the lining of the brain and spinal cord. Even though a bacteria was at the root of the meningitis, Evan did not have what is typically known as "bacterial meningitis." The meningitis was not contagious, although mycoplasma is. Usually it doesn't cause pneumonia, just a cough, ear infection or headache. In fact, many healthy people have mycoplasma in their system.

So Evan had mycoplasma pneumonia, that somehow led to meningitis. Some of the doctors who examined Evan actually seemed excited about this diagnosis. It was unusual enough to be really interesting to them. It was a little scary to see the spark in their eyes, and I wanted to say, "Hold on! I know this is fascinating to you, but don't forget this is my boy, not just a medical case." Fortunately, most of the doctors really cared about Evan the patient, not just his unusual case.

Today we followed up with a visit to the pediatrician. Evan's weight is down between 5 and 8 pounds, but otherwise he's doing well. His double vision is gone and he's slowly regaining his health. His doctor suggested he might want to find something less dramatic to do next time he wants to stir things up, even though they have really cute nurses at the hospital. He wasn't kidding about the nurses, just ask Ryan!