2 hospitals, 1 Ambulance, & 9 hours later

We are home! Last Wednesday Aaron was diagnosed with Mono. His tonsils were huge but didn't show strep, his pediatrician prescribed a steroid to shrink up the tonsils , the same steroid that Alex and Andy have taken off and on for years when they have bronchitis, or strep throat. I didn't notice any improvement from the tonsils with the medication but he wasn't declining either. Sunday morning we woke up to the sound of Aaron vomiting and screaming, when I get to the bathroom he has the toilet filled with blood and he is dry heaving. I checked out his tonsils and attributed the blood coming from his tonsils. After 4 episodes like this, I decided it had to be more. I bypassed the local ER or as we call it, the band aid station, and took him an hour north to another hospital. They needed to stick a tube down Aaron's nose and into his stomach to drain the blood out of his stomach. He wasn't amused , but sat perfectly still as they poked and prodded him. When the ER doc saw what was coming from his tummy, he immediately called for us to go to the children's hospital in Akron.
I was praying for both of our lives in the back of that ambulance, the driver was young, talking on his cell phone and jamming out to music and FLYING. The older medic in the back with us had to keep telling him slow down. Holy Smokes that was scary. After making it to Akron, they finished cleaning out his stomach, stopped the bleeding, and removed about 7 tubes from his body. They also gave him some morphine for pain, and that was almost funny, he was seeing rainbows, and smiley faces on that stuff ;o) Basically what had happened is the steroid he had been on for 5 days had eroded his stomach and he had been bleeding from his belly. He is on a strict diet for the next week, and has 3 meds to take for his stomach for the next 8 weeks. He has slept most of today and that's a good sign, no more vomiting, no more blood from strange places. So I think I will try to catch up on my sleep too!