When I originally started this blog, my intent was to be able to keep a professional journal, but every once in a while when you get your personal world gets rocked, it becomes very hard to keep focused on UX only, so I am dedicating this blog post to what happened to me and my family this past week.

My son (William) and myself picked up a nasty virus the week before last. William started showing signs of sickness on Tuesday (6/24) evening, but he seemed ok the next day, so I assumed he was just uncomfortable from teething. When I picked him up from daycare on Wednesday, I was told he was sick. So I took him to the doctor promptly Thursday morning. The doctor said he had the Coxsackie Virus, and that there was no treatment, and that he would have to just let the virus run it’s course. I also noticed on Friday (6/27) that I was starting to display show the same symptoms. I was kind of bummed out because my husband and I were going to throw a 4th of July/birthday party for me on Friday (7/4/08).

William and me at the emergency room of the hospital

I took off work on Thursday & Friday (6/26-27) to take care of myself and William. We both got plenty of bed rest. On Saturday, Williams grandmother came to help take care of him. When he woke from his afternoon nap, we noticed he was beginning to limp. We could not figure out why he was limping, but on Sunday the limp became pronounced enough for us to become concerned. So we took him to the emergency room to get checked out. The doctor x-rayed his legs, and did an ultrasound on his hip, and could not find anything wrong. His blood tests did show signs of inflammation. He told us to keep an eye on William and to bring him to the doctor later in the week.

Monday I let William rest at home and his condition did not get better by Tuesday. My husband and I took William back to the pediatrician on Tuesday, and he was concerned about his leg, and recommended an Orthopedic specialist. My husband took William to the Orthopedic specialist, and I came into work. We assumed he would just check things out. Shortly after I arrived at work, I got a text message that William’s knee was infected, and that he needed immediate surgery. The doctor was concerned that the infection could have damaged cartilage in his knee that could cause permanent damage. Of course I was mortified. I excused myself from the office and went directly to the hospital where William had been admitted for surgery.

William and me after his surgery.

William was at the hospital for 5 days after his operation. They wanted to keep him under observation to make sure that the infection did not return to his leg. I was rather surprised at the lack of response by our friends during the time we were in the hospital. I was glad that my son was okay, and that even though we were in the hospital for the 4th of July we managed to get discharged from the hospital in time for my birthday on the 6th.

William is at home and recuperating. Hopefully he will have a full recovery in no time. We are all looking forward to our lives returning to normal. And now back to our regularly programmed material…