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Doctor visit and waiting game

Posted on March 4, 2008 11:37 am by TheAngelForever

For just over three weeks JSL has been battling something. The poor kid is only 9 1/2 months old, so that is a long time in his short life. Yesterday I was really flipping out because of the way he was acting, the increased mucous and change in the appearance, and the fact that he was hitting his head and pulling on his ears. Although cute, it is not good when he does a Home Alone impression. His poor cheeks and head and ears are getting a beating from the kid.

Although not taken yesterday, JSL looked like this again. This photo was taken the day before he was rushed to the ER by ambulance. VERY serious monkey who was not amused by much.

After picking NHL up from school the doctor’s nurse called back to see what was going on. I explained that the symptoms were EXACTLY the same as they were the days before he had his febrile seizure and was hospitalized. Based on this and the hitting/tugging of his face/ears they double booked us into get seen. So we went back up to their office at 3:15 and my father watched NHL. We saw the doctor that was on call the weekend of the hospitalization. He knew most of what had happened then, had been briefed from the PA that had seen him before that, and also knew we had been in since then (just last Friday for the "well" baby visit).

The doctor spent a lot of time with us. He went over everything that had happened, what was going on again, how long it had been since he was on antibiotics and then did a very thorough exam. I think he was anxious about the temperature going back up again and wanted to find a cause so we could stop it. He did a quick strep test that came back negative, listened to his lungs (still clear thank goodness) and eventually went to the ears as the last stop. Right ear looked great. . . then it was the ear that has been trouble’s turn. Sure enough the left ear had what he said was a lot of fluid, but not red or infected.

*Sigh*

There is absolutely nothing we can do to help the poor kid at this point. The charming FDA has made it impossbile to help a child that is under two to dry them out with a decongestant (JSL desperately needs one). GRRRRRRRRR! I am so ticked off – insert many other nasty words here because I want to use them.

So cure the child I dare you. Basically it will likely only be a matter of time until the ear is infected again. We have to try to avoid places with lots of germs – LOL. The doctor did say no cousin B-day party or travel this weekend until we know what is going on. So we wait and see and hope it will go away. I have an antibiotic prescription at home to start if his temperature goes to 100.5 to start immediately and then make an appointment to have the ear checked. At that point IF it is an infection we will likely be off to see an ENT. It really stinks that thanks to not being able to try medical approach we may be forced into surgery for the baby.

*evil glare*

I am extremely nervous. The Friday that the photo above was taken JSL saw the PA at the doctor’s office and was told he had a virus and some fluid in his ear, but no infection. The rest as you know is history. So the next 24-48 hours will be filled with much anxiety.

So that is the update at this point. Now to try to get the little monkey to stay hydrated and figure out what to do about the meeting with the school district on Thursday about NHL for next year. Please tell me I can not go and write me a note.

Categories:
bad news doctor jsl sick kid vent

9 month well baby visit – or was it?

Posted on March 3, 2008 11:21 am by TheAngelForever

Friday JSL finally was well enough to take him for his 9 month well baby visit. His original appointment was over two weeks ago, but the pinkeye episodes, followed by his four day hospitalization changed that twice. The tired little guy fell asleep in the waiting room, so he was far from happy to be woken up just to be stripped naked for a weigh in. I felt horrible, but had to do it.

Here’s a photo of JSL at 9 months:

Enjoying food again:

I was worried about his weight since I knew he’s lost some over the last few weeks, but it may have been mostly from dehydration. The last time he was weighed was at the hospital when he arrived in the emergency room on the evening of his febrile seizure two weeks ago. At that time he weighed in at approximately 22 pounds. Friday his weight was 21 lbs 15 oz (75th percentile), so I was very happy that he must have been back on track again. Then it was baby wrangling time for a measurement. I am not sure if this is accurate or not since he was moving around so much and someone who usually does not work with kids was measuring him. Still he was approximately 28 inches long (50th percentile). At 6 months old in November JSL was 18.1 pounds and 26 inches (percentiles were the same).

The doctor was very impressed with how he was sitting up alone so straight and was trying to pull up on anything that was nearby. She went over all of the developmental things and he was there or further. He even tried to demo crawling on the exam table much to my horror. I asked her about his tongue tie and whether we should do something about it now before he is old enough to be more upset with a procedure. She told me absolutely not until we know if it causes an issue with his speech. She said the fact that he is already talking so much and making great sounds for so many letters is a hopeful sign on that. She said that JSL is definitely "talking" more than a typical 9 month old. Of course I told her he has to to keep up with his almost 4 1/2 year old brother who does not stop talking. He says: Mama, Dada, Noah (No-Wah), big brother (big bro no wah wah), Bye-bye (while waving – especially to dismiss me from suctioning his nose), I love you, Nana, Papa, and other things are definitely parroted.

We talked about food intake and nursing and he is obviously doing well there. She is just concerned with keeping up to speed on fevers if/when they start with him. So I have a bag of medicine tricks with me at all times in case we need them. We already went over how we will do preventative Motrin administration for his 15-18 month MMR vaccine. That was a good idea to me since I had a bad reaction to that (I thought my mother once told me one of my febrile seizures was after it too).

We left the office feeling really good about things. I met one of the mommies from my local group in the parking lot to get some new to us toys for the boys. JSL and I went home, ate lunch and picked up NHL before stopping at the library for some movies. By the time JL was coming home from work JSL was not sounding good again. The poor kid was congested and I had to suction him a lot to make him comfortable.

Here are some of the new to us toys that we were lucky enough to get. The zebra was what we were going to get him for his first birthday, but now works. Thanks D for meeting up with me for the toys – the boys LOVE them!

JSL playing with the Fisher Price Learning Table:

NHL with the Pop-Onz table:

NHL with the zebra:

Although a little too small to use it on his own, JSL loves the zebra and did not want to get off.

By Saturday morning he was pretty miserable and his nasal secretions were not looking good. I called Aunt M to ask her some questions about how many days off an antibiotic something would resurface. We opted not to call our doctor and wait and see. Most of Saturday and Sunday he was OK. He was more clingy, stuffed up some, and very emotional, but nothing too alarming. Last night he was really congested and making the rattly noises from before our hospital stay. Add to that the thick nasty mucous that I was suctioning (sorry if TMI). His temperature was 2.5 degrees high for him, but never went up more than that (thank goodness). He did not want to stay in his crib (just lowered since he’s able to pull up from sitting) since he was so stuffed up. Thanks to this rough night and sounds horrible this morning, I decided to call the doctor today. So now I am waiting for that call to come back (it’s been two hours now). Our original doctor, not the one we see now will call back since our usual doctor is off all week. We just need to know what to do since he seems to be getting worse pretty quick.

P.S. Do not forget to enter my giveaway that continue to Thursday for the $30 certificate to Announcements Galore.

Categories:
doctor fun jsl milestone nhl photos sick kid

They stayed in their room – ALL night!

Posted on February 28, 2008 11:23 am by TheAngelForever

For the first time in weeks both of the boys stayed in their room all night.

WAHOO!!!!!!

Sure, JSL fussed a few times, but he managed not to bunk with us for any of the night. He was so exhausted from no afternoon nap. Why? Well, thanks to another snow storm NHL’s school was on a 2 hour delay. It just was not worth taking him for 10:00 to pick him up at 1:00. Too much effort. Plus Tuesday night NHL was up with several nightmares again. So we did a PJ day here. Every time that JSL fell asleep in the afternoon he would hear NHL and wake up

This is Spud on the couch in the morning:

The brotherly spats started already. NHL was upset that JSL got his toy. NHL took it away and JSL went crawling over to him at one point and slapped him. This at nine months – I am in for it! Here are the sweet boys together after the mini tiff.

Near brotherly headlock

JSL quickly lost interest in sitting with his big brother and wanted to be on the move. He would not take both of my hands. So he took one and I took some shots from above for a different perspective on things.

As nice as it was to have both of the boys with me for the day . . . it was a LONG 9 hour day. It was great to see NHL head out to school for a few hours.

I even managed to get JSL out of his PJ’s for the first time since he has been back from the hospital. I figured it was time, plus it was a way to celebrate that he is officially done with antibiotic.

Then it was time for the boys to say goodbye to each other.

Poor JSL was sad to see big brother go. . . I think.

I will cherish these moments now. Before I know it the two of them will be clawing at each other and wresting on the floor while screaming for me to stop the other.

P.S. – Stay tuned . . . a new blog design is coming soon. My webmaster (JL) is almost done so it can go live and then we can tweak things. A giveaway will be coming with that too!

Categories:
brothers jsl nhl photos sleep winter

The Night from Hell – 1 week later with many thanks

Posted on February 23, 2008 11:12 pm by TheAngelForever

Tonight I am counting my blessing that both of my boys are tucked into their room sleeping soundly. Both are now on antibiotics, and one is just back from from a four day stay in the hospital.

A week ago now I was just coming back home. I went out to meet Laura to get some fabric for flannel blankets and pillow cases. I was gone for an hour and a half in a night that never wanted to end. When I arrived home both of the boys were in bed. I was getting ready to sit down to knit when I heard the little guy fussing.

JL went in to try to get him to settle with his pacifier. It worked for a little while. At about 9:30 I heard some strange coughing coming from the baby monitor and went in. I scooped JSL out of his crib and noticed he was VERY hot and having a hard time breathing. We took his temperature and it was 102.8. I quickly got the motrin and bulb syringe to clean out his nose. Ugh, what a mess.

Minutes later JSL was really laboring to breathe. His temperature was soaring and causing his heart to beat wildly. A quick call was made to my parents. I asked them to please come over quick. I just had a feeling (if you ask my friend earlier in the week I made a horrifyingly accurate prediction that this was not going to go well and we would end up in the ER – Mother’s intuition perhaps?). I called our doctor’s emergency number and when he called back asked what to do. He was very alarmed with JSL’s breathing and told us to stabilize JSL’s temperature and then take him to the ER for hydration.

My parents arrived and we put JSL into the tub. He played happily and then WHAM – the nightmare that I never hope to repeat began. Please see previous posts about this here and here.

Now I sit here crying. I am afraid to go to sleep tonight on this week after. I know I will relive those shades of gray flashbacks that a parent should never see on their child. I keep wondering about items and going through what if’s.

What if this had happened when I was out?
What if my mother was not there to administer rescue breaths to my baby to make him breathe again?
What IF? I can not even fully type this one out . . . you all will know what I mean.

There are other thoughts on my mind too, but I just can not get typed out. Just having them on my mind is painful enough, reading them back would be too much.

I am so thankful that my baby is slowly getting back to himself. JSL is gaining his strength day by day and at the same time learning new tricks to show us. I am also so thankful that my mother was there that horrible day. How painful it must be for her to relive what she did. Still I cherish how my baby kissed her over and over the next day. I think somehow he knew that Nana had saved his precious life.

We also need to thank my father for staying here to man the fort while NHL slept. Big brother still does not know the horrid details of what happened while he was sleeping in his room. I knew that had he gotten up and seen Papa there he would have been comforted. Papa also stayed with NHL most of Sunday and Monday night so JL could be at the hospital with me.

My Aunt S and Mimi also helped us so much. The two of them were able to watch NHL so JL and I did not have to worry about him when everyone else went back to work. NHL had two fun days with Aunt S and her girls (cats). Then the day after JSL came home Mimi had NHL spend the day with her. He loved every minute of it. We truly are so lucky to have family here that our kids are so close to.

I would also like to thank my friends:

Laura – thank you for chatting with me into the night while I could not sleep at the hospital. We also love the amazing flannel blankets and pillow cases that were all ready for us when we got home from the hospital.
H & J – thank you both for coming to the hospital. JSL loved his puppy puppet and seeing familiar faces. You were able to make us all laugh when we needed it. I will forever remember JL and J putting together my pathetic hospital breast pump and the thunderous laughter that followed. That one nurse never looked at us the same again! H – thank you for taking me home Sunday to shower and get things to stay overnight. I never would have been able to drive myself and while I cleaned myself up, you cleaned up our clutter.
Sandy – thank you for your beautiful notes. I will definitely be talking to you soon about things. Sorry that I scared you with that text message, but it was the only way I could let you know.
To all of my internet friends – thank you for all of the comments of prayer and speedy recovery for my little guy. I am still catching up getting back to people, so please understand how much I did appreciate it.

Here are some more photos of JSL in the hospital, just back home, and today. Be sure to hover over the photos for the captions.

Now I am off. JSL is fussing and I will likely watch him sleep most of the night. I need to see his snuggly little body sleep peacefully. I have to make sure his chest goes up and down . . . I need to hear his soft breathing noises.

Categories:
family friends jl jsl looking back nhl photos sick kid

My Cover Boy Baby

Posted on February 23, 2008 3:24 pm by TheAngelForever

Thank you to Kailani for tagging me to do this fun Magazine Cover Meme.

Now I’m tagging: Laura, Sandy, Nancy, Kim, Life With My Special K’s & you! Please send me a link in the comments if you create one so I can come over for a visit.

To play along, just stop by MagMyPic.com and create your own masterpiece!