Sickie

So by the end of the week Eli was a complete mess.  And for lack of a better term...it was gross.  The rash started to weep and rise...almost like he had been burned.  The Impetigo was in his nose too and his face was a crusty mess.  We went back to see  Dr. Pritchard a second time on Thursday and focused on the rash on his leg, the growing ear infection and....poor guy...his four molars that were pushing through in the back of him mouth.  Neither the nurses, the doctor or Rob or I thought anything about his belly.  It was all about being grossed out by the "Herpangia" blisters (another term you best just chuckle at and not google) in his throat.  He was upgraded from a cream to an oral antibiotic and we were sent home.  They had us on the schedule for the following Tuesday to return...but only because it was his 12 month check-up that I had to reschedule from weeks before.  They told us that if he was feeling better we could cancel the appointment as he wouldn't be able to get his immunizations because of the antibiotic. 

By the weekend Eli was feeling better. A LOT better. So much so we kept the already rescheduled 3 time appointment for him to get his first haircut. 

April 1st - Eli's first haircut

The rash had faded and the ear infection had gone away.   But he kept getting fevers at night.  They weren't as high as they had been in the weeks previous but we had been giving him the Ibuprofen/Tylenol cocktail so i thought they could be masked.  Although I should have been relieved my gut was telling me something was wrong.  Something causing all these things...something more serious. Fevers stress me out....all i understand about them is that they are the bodies way of fighting something...and they weren't going away.  I noticed his belly again...and sometime that weekend i noticed that it had started to bulge on the right side.....just slightly...almost too faint to tell.  "it's just gas." i kept telling myself but knew better.  I had Rob look at it...and we both noticed that his belly button had started to push out like it was an "outie".  He doesn't have an "outie".  We decided we would take him back in on Tuesday and talk to Dr. Pritchard about his tummy.  Little did we know that by making that decision we may have saved his life.  Moms and dads out there.  If there is that little nagging feeling in your gut telling you something isn't right with your child...there is something wrong.  Don't ignore it.

But by Sunday he was playing and acting like normal and we decided he was well enough for daycare Monday. That was the normal routine after all.

April 2nd.  Ku vs Kentucky.  That's all we were thinking about Monday at work.  Eli had a great day at daycare.  His daily report made no note of anything unusual.  Rob picked him up and we all met up at home to watch the game.  Although Kansas lost the game we were very appreciative of the effort and were relieved that Eli had seemed to break from his fevers.  It had been two straight nights without them. We all went to bed happy. 

April 3rd.  Eli's appointment was at 10 AM so we took Rob to work (we share a car) and then made our way to the doctors office.  He was weighed, his height measured and his head circumference.  All near the 80% mark. Big boy.  Dr. Pritchard was relieved that his rash was under control and that his ear infection was gone.  She confirmed he couldn't have his shots because of the 10 day course of antibiotics and she was about to let us go when she asked me (almost like she could sense it on my face) if there was anything else i was concerned about.  I turned to Eli who was happily ripping apart the paper they lay across doctors exam tables in his diaper and said,
"well...yes...his stomach...something isn't right.  Does it look odd to you?" 
She laid him down and started to feel around his belly and i saw something in her face change.  She looked at me and said,
"Do you have to go back to work now?"
.......my gut started to feel gross again....
"Well...not if you are going to tell me I need to do something else."  I replied.
 "Ya...i think we better get an x-ray on him.  It might be gas...but you are right..it's quite distended.  I can call Providence Medical because it's closer and get you in right away. I bet they can have results back to me by this afternoon."

I was quiet.  .  .

     The odd silence was broken by her assuring me that the x-ray would make me feel better.  I know she was just trying to stop me from worrying but i already knew something was wrong.   We gathered our stuff and headed to Providence.  It's a small hospital closer to our house...not the hospital Eli was born in which is downtown and much harder to get emergency requests into.  I called Rob.  He was worried too but we were glad we were getting it looked at...and a few hours isn't too long to wait.

Eli rocked the x-ray.  Didn't move once.  He was totally obsessed with the machine and the light that fell onto his belly.   They had me wait to dress him until the image had come through and it was clear.  If they had seem something at that moment they kept it under wraps.  I asked if they would get the results back to my doctor today.  The technician told me it should be no problem.  We gathered our stuff and left.  In the car I sat there for a moment.  Should i go into work?  Should he go to daycare?  I looked back at him and he was cooing and laughing and seemed fine so i decided that I had missed too much work with him being sick that I really needed to go in for the rest of the afternoon.  I was behind on deadlines.  And it would make the few hours we had to wait go faster.  I dropped him off at daycare and headed to work. 

The next call we got was not from the doctors office telling me that his x-ray was just gas. 

The next call i got was at 3:30 and it was from Creative Minds, "Meg........it's Stephanie, Eli's got a fever again...it's 103!"

Something was very wrong.