Well that caught us off gaurd!

Sunday started off like any other Sunday. While we were still at church Mark complained that his neck was starting to hurt like he had slept wrong on it. I felt it and I could feel a small lump at the base of his skull. We both thought it was like a knot in his muscle. When we got home from church he grabbed an ice pad and went and laid down for a little while to see if that would help.

As the day went on he started feeling like he was getting flu symptoms. He had fever and chills, sweating, and was getting a terrible headache.

I left around 5:30pm for a mtg at church and then Youth Group. The girls mentioned when I picked them up for youth group at 7pm that Dad really wasn't feeling well.

While we were gone the pain got really bad. Mark said he almost called me to come and sit with him. That is NOT like my husband. He's a pretty tough guy.

When I got home at 9pm he asked me to take a look at his neck for him before he tried putting ice on it again. Oh my! When I seen what had become of the little lump from earlier I said "You ARE going to the ER to have someone look at that." It had gone from only feeling a little bump to seeing without even touching it a huge swollen lump on the back of his neck that was about 3" by 6"!


Here he is in the ER. I laid his coat and sweatshirt over him because he was freezing. The ER doctor took one look at the back of his neck and said, "OH BUDDY!" I thought that was an interesting response. LOL! The nurse had told us within being there not even 20 minutes, "You do know you are staying right?"

It turns out Mark had cellulitis which is a deep skin bacterial infection and he would be admitted for 3 reasons.

1. He's diabetic and therefore doesn't fight infections well.
2. Because of how fast this took off.
3. Because of how close it is to his brain and spinal cord.

All of these meant they couldn't just send him home with a prescription for antibiotics he needed to be on a stronger medicine that would need to be administered via IV.


We were hoping that the hospital beds were a bit longer than the ER beds. We do find humor in all situations. Wink!


This is a picture I took while Mark was sleeping Monday.


Monday afternoon the nurse drew an outline so that we would know if it was changing in size. Mark said it felt like a neck roll (that is what football players wear between their helmets and shoulder pads to protect their necks) on the back of his neck.


I took this picture Tuesday. Mark was starting to get a little stir crazy from being confined to a small hospital room so we went and sat in the patient visitors lounge and watched tv together. He was hooked up to IV but it was the kind that can roll down the hall so it could go where he went. He still looks tired to me in this picture. Both of us ended up falling asleep on the couch. I woke up to his snoring. LOL!

We are home now and he will be on 2 antibiotics for 2 weeks. We feel very loved from everyone that prayed, called, shuttled kids, visited and left messages for us on Facebook. We had no idea how many people cared about the big guy.

That being said 2 of his friends (cough, MIKE, cough, ED) asked if they could have his guns if something happened. NICE!