Dr MOF took a look and his ears were still infected after a week on Omnicef. So, she decided to give him shots of antibiotics instead - my poor little man. At least the nurses there are excellent. He has a series of three shots (two at a time for a total of six) and today is the last day. It's just miserable - painful - they put Lidocaine, a numbing agent into the injection because of it - and there's no guarantee that this will work. I'm at my wits end and so glad I made an appt with the ENT for Thursday. We'll see what he says. I mean, if so many antibiotics haven't worked - maybe it's viral?? I'm very concerned about Imri's speech development - while he'll only be 7 months old on Mother's Day, it's my opinion that I've seen less consonant and vowel sounds from him of late and that worries me. Did I mention that he said "mama" last week?? *beaming mother*
As for the spleen - well, it's still enlarged. And Dr MOF decided she wanted to ultrasound him. Then she changed her mind and decided she wanted to CT him so they booked us for Tuesday at Children's Hospital in DC. We need to be there by 10 am, which means leaving our house by 8 - traffic is brutal around that time of day. I called there to find out the drill after finding out Imri will have to go without anything to eat for SIX (!!!) hours because they'll have to sedate him.
And, because he needs to get both oral and IV contrast, if he won't drink the oral contrast, they need to put in a nasogastric tube (down his nose and into his stomach)and also start an IV. Knowing my boy, he won't drink the contrast. Please. He barely takes juice on a good day.
Top that off with sedation (and without an anaesthesiologist, it's RN-done conscious sedation)for a procedure that may be unnecessary and I'm left with a real dilemma - do I agree to the procedure on the off chance that they MAY find something wrong ... or do I hold off from something that seems terribly invasive to me?
He is on iron drops and supposedly the anemia is fairly mild - so why not wait the six weeks to see if his anemia vanishes? Anemia is not uncommon in breastfed babies.
I do get a chance to talk to Dr Wonderful, his primary pediatrician today but unfortunately John won't be able to come because he's .... GOLFING ... grrrrrrrrrrr. He did come to the last two appointments, though. Finally.
And while John and Imri are getting somewhat better, I am still sick as a dog. It's awful. I mean, this is the sickest I've been since Imri started daycare and it's going on two weeks now - laryngitis (complete loss of voice)which is slowly resolving and now a wonderful head cold with the type of sinus drainage that gives you a toothache. My nose has become a faucet. TMI, I know. It's not helped by Imri waking every two hours at night, either. Or by the fact that I have no sick time left at work. I finally caved and took benadryl last night.
Anyway ... thoughts and input? My RN gut is telling me "wait" on this but my mother instinct is saying "if there IS something wrong, better to catch it early". I am so verklempt.
Anyway, Happy Mother's Day to us all!
1 comment:
Sara: I'm so sorry that you are feeling sick. I feel your pain. Truly I do. I've been sick, in one form or another (or, all forms at once), since we came back from Florida in March. I just finished my 3rd round of antibiotics in 3 months - and woke up with ANOTHER sore throat, today. And 10 minutes later Elizabeth threw up everywhere. "How do I get OFF this TRAIN?!?!"
Re: Imri. My advice - go do the procedure. Yes, as an RN you might see the advantage of waiting. But as a Mom, you won't. If nothing else, it will give you peace of mind that your cherub is OK. We were faced with a similar dilemma w/ Will when he was ~4 weeks old. They wanted to do a barium enema - very invasive, very traumatic for a tiny preemie baby. It will be hard for Imri, but - God forbid there is something going on - you need to know about it sooner than later.
Rarely do I say this - - but I'd try to hold off on the CIO until you get through this rough patch. That poor little guy is having a tough time between his ears, and everything else. Give your DH a kick in the ASS and tell him to lend a hand during the night time hours. If that doesn't work, hide all of his irons.
I'm sending you PEACEFUL healing vibes! :)
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