Warning: this post contains somewhat graphic descriptions of tummy & medical issues!
It's been an eventful week at our house! It all started last Tuesday when Luke started having diarrhea. I figured it was from teething or something he ate, so I didn't really think much of it. When he woke up Wednesday with a big mess, I figured it was something. Then that night, Caroline had it a few times so that confirmed to me it was a virus or something. She was fine the next day, but he kept on having it, despite a bland diet, but had no other symptoms. Saturday it seemed better, but he was really fussy/clingy and I figured it was just from teething. So we all went to church on Sunday. I got paged from the nursery because Luke was really upset, but by the time I got there, he had calmed down and was fine the rest of the time. Then that afternoon when he woke up from his nap, he was burning up! His temp was around 102 and he started having diarrhea again. I was worried about him because it had been going on for so long and now with the fever. The next morning he woke up with more diarrhea and still had the high fever, so I called the doctor. At the doctor, they said his ears looked fine and his strep test was negative. I had saved his diaper from that morning since I knew they would want to test his poop - that way the nurses would "take care of it" and I wouldn't have to - ha! Then they took blood from his arm to check his levels. The first time they tried they blew his vein so they had to stick the other arm too. Chris met me there to help with Caroline - she was watching me and the two nurses hold Luke down and him screaming and crying. After they got his blood she said, "I want to do that. Can I get a poke too?" What?! Silly girl!
His blood levels showed his white count was a little elevated (meaning it was something bacterial), but with the diarrhea, they didn't just want to put him on antibiotics. Then they decided to check his urine for a UTI since he'd been having all those messy poops, so they had to put a little bag on him and we had to wait for him to pee! Chris took Caroline to the store while I held Luke and he fell asleep. When he woke up, I let him walk around a little and ran the water in the sink and he finally peed! They tested that and said that looked fine too! SO, they couldn't do anything or really tell us anything until they got the results back from his stool. We went home with no answers and a sick little boy :(
That afternoon, the power went out during nap time and woke up both kids. Luke took some milk and went back so sleep and ended up sleeping 3 1/2 hours! He was still hot when he woke up, but he didn't have any more diarrhea. We ate dinner and Chris decided to take Caroline swimming so I could relax with Luke. Well, right after they left, Luke's doctor called and said his tests from that morning showed he was a little dehydrated. She was afraid it would get worse overnight since he still had the fever and wanted us to go to the ER right then to get some IV fluids! I had to call Chris at the pool and get him to come back home so we could go to the hospital. We all went together and arrived around 7:30. Luke was all smiles and walked all around the waiting room - the ER nurse looked at me like, "Yeah, he looks real sick!" Fortunately, the waiting room wasn't crowded at all and we got right back to a room after a few minutes. Then came the waiting. We had to wait for Luke's pediatrician's orders to go through, then the nurses came in to get some blood and start the IV. Well, they had three different nurses try FOUR different times to get a vein - IT WAS TORTURE!! (Caroline was curious to watch and wanted “pokes” again too). I had to help 2 nurses hold him down; he's so strong and was SO mad! Plus, he had already been stuck twice that morning! Poor baby! I felt so bad for him, but knew it was for the best.
After they finally got the blood they needed and started the IV, it was getting late and Caroline was getting restless. We called some friends that live near the hospital and Chris took her over there to sleep until we were done. I held Luke and he fell asleep after all that torture! He slept on and off between IV beeps and nurses in and out. We finally saw the doctor and she wanted an abdominal ultrasound and an x-ray, so more waiting followed. A few hours later, when all the test results were in and normal, they let us go home. They said his hydration levels were up from this morning so he should be fine with the IV fluids. We picked up a sleeping Caroline (she stayed asleep in the car) and got home around midnight. Luke was all over the place after his cat-naps at the hospital, but he finally calmed down, but was up several times in the night and his fever went up to almost 104.
The next morning (Tues), he still had fever but no diarrhea and we followed up with his pediatrician. Chris was able to stay home with Caroline, so that was a big help! She did some more bloodwork (just a finger poke, thankfully!), and said his white count was the same (hadn't gone up, but hadn't come down either) so she wanted to check his urine again, this time with a catheter. So my poor baby had to be held down again for that, but everything looked normal. SO... the doctor decided to give him an antibiotic shot since his stool test results hadn't come back and she didn't want to give him any oral antibiotics that might make the diarrhea worse. She said she would call me the next day with the results and see how he was doing and if we needed to come back on Thursday. Well, later that day he had more diarrhea and his fever didn't go down until late that night. I was hoping that the shot was kicking in and at least his fever would go down!
His fever was down on Wednesday morning, but he was up a few times in the night. He woke up around 6 and had some milk, then went back to sleep. He woke up again at 7 and had diarrhea. I gave him some pedialtye and then he threw up. I was so discouraged because I had thought he was getting better! Then his fever started coming back. I gave him more sips of pedialtye until breakfast. Then he had a big blowout and made a mess everywhere. He ate some cheerios for breakfast and a few bites of fruit but wouldn't eat more. He had a little more diarrhea after that. He ate a better lunch and some more pedialtye, then had more diarrhea. I just didn’t know why it was getting worse and wondered if it could have been from the antibiotic shot. I called the doctor and left a message so she would call me back with the stool results and tell me what I should do. The nurse finally called me back and said most of his test results came back negative but a couple were still pending, she thought. I told her about the new symptoms and she said to bring him back to the doctor the next morning and just try to keep him hydrated until then. Well, he took a long nap, but woke up once during. Then he had diarrhea when he woke up and he didn't eat but a few bites of dinner, then threw up again and had more diarrhea. I was so discouraged and just didn’t know what was going on with my sweet baby boy! I was afraid he would get dehydrated from the throw up and diarrhea and from not eating dinner, so I tried to push fluids in him until he went to bed.
Last night was a much better night! This morning, Luke’s fever was down and we went back to the pediatrician – our doctor wasn’t there, but she updated this other doctor about all Luke’s issues. The other doctor checked his white count again and said it had come down since Tuesday, and there was no blood in his stool from this morning. Since his fever had gone down too, she gave us an oral antibiotic to take care of the rest of the “bad bacteria.” She called what he had “nonspecific colitis,” which is basically bacterial overload in his system that caused inflammation of the intestines, but didn’t show up on any of the stool tests. He’ll probably have more diarrhea from the antibiotic, but at least his fever is gone and he’ll hopefully be well soon! What an ordeal!
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