Three weeks of confusion

We finally seemed to have gotten a proper and accurate diagnosis of what was ailing our youngest. After weeks of random “illness” we became quite concerned. When a child throws up you almost instantly think of an infection, usually viral. That’s how it all started but it seemed suspicious even then.

He appeared to have a fever one evening, the became ill. He slept the night with no incident, which was odd. He awoke, had a bottle and became ill again. Afterwards he proceeded to run around the house like a madman. This child wasn’t “sick” so off to daycare he went.

The week went by without incident, until Friday.

The daycare calls around late morning and he is vomiting. By the time I got to him he’d done it again and while picking him up he became ill yet again. This went on for hours. I believe I counted at least 10 times that he got sick to his stomach. He looked bad, lethargic and just laid on the bed, not moving, except to get sick.

If you’re a parent and you’ve experienced the feeling of helplessness when your child is ill, it’s an experience like none other. We hurt when they hurt.

I was angry at whatever was causing this. All I could do was shake my fist in the air and curse. It didn’t help my son though. I finally took him into the pediatrician late that afternoon. I had a towel with me at all times but amazingly enough he did not become ill in our visit.

They poked and prodded him but were dumbfounded, as was I. They said he had slight fever but the whole time he felt somewhat cool to the touch. He didn’t feel feverish though he sort of acted it. Usually a sign of viral infection in children are the “fun” diapers. His only symptoms were vomiting and lethargy with sporadic (days apart) bad diapers. That should have keyed us in but I’ll get to that. I left with the loose diagnosis of it being a virus but no one was sure. That wasn’t a good feeling.

Yes, I know, talking about vomit and poo aren’t exactly glamorous but it’s been a long ordeal and I am going to blog about it!

He seemed to recover from that Friday ordeal and we went nearly another week without incident. Then early this past Saturday it all started up again. Uncontrollable vomiting, lethargy, etc. He exhibited the same exact symptoms as the previous Friday. This was no virus but what was it?

We took him in to the doc again and they agreed, finally. Though instead of ordering some tests to confirm anything we still felt left in the dark. Dammit I want some tests run! The whole weekend he acted weird.

Sunday afternoon he became ill again… (Happy Mother’s Day!)

Then Monday evening he became ill, yet again….

Finally Tuesday morning he was ill and we decided it was time for a second opinion. We called up our old pediatrician that the oldest went to (he is now 6, the youngest is nearly 2, btw). They said to bring him in, no question about it, something wasn’t right. I was at work and anxiously awaited an answer.

They ran a few tests which came back with nothing unusual. Then they ordered the X-Ray and at last, we may have found the answer. Our kid was constipated.

Whoa, whoa… say what? I got the call from my wife and I was actually shocked. How could it be so simple? Then the symptoms all made sense. The doctor listened to everything and indeed everything pointed to that.

Why the throwing up? There was no room in him! It wasn’t a complete blockage which explained why it seemed to come and go but it was enough to be prolonged. More was going in than coming out, that’s the bottom line. So now we have him on a few things to help move things along and we’re going to watch his diet more closely.

He seems to have improved over the past two days though we’re still watching him. I’m just glad the initial diagnosis was something simple.

We now end our poo broadcast.

Day 9

Much better day today.  Went to the doctor and the rotator cuff appears to be sprained/strained ( I can’t remember exactly what he said ).  I made sure that he knew I wasn’t seeing him for ILLNESS today.  At any rate he ran a battery of simple tests on me regarding moving my arm around.  I had some mild pain here and there which indicated to him it wasn’t “serious”.  He recommended I keep the arm moving but not to put stress on it, i.e. lift weights.

The irony is I got into this position by exercising!

Well eating wasn’t the best early in the day but I straightened up by days end.  The visit to the doc helped give me a good bit of piece of mind.  My mind tends to wander and I end up imagining myself going in for extensive shoulder surgery.  Which additional treatment isn’t entirely ruled out but he says 90% of these things can clear up on their own over time with rest and care.

I hope to get back to golfing in a couple of weeks!

Day 7 & 8

I’m not going to lie, the past couple of days have sucked.  It’s mostly due to my shoulder injury.  Either a rotator cuff thing or a sprain.

I’d looked forward to a pool party for a solid few weeks and when the time came all I could do was watch my kids play.  It wasn’t a very enjoyable experience not being able to play with them or play anything else for that matter.  At least they had fun and that’s what matters most for them.  I wasn’t going to rain on their day!

I narrowed it down to what happened also.  I went to do a set of pushups and instead of kneeling down and assuming the position, I dropped to the floor in a quick motion.  I apparently dropped too fast and hit at a funny angle?  It didn’t hurt at all, it just felt “funny”.  I proceeded with my workout.  If it had REALLY hurt I wouldn’t have continued.  I’m a bit peeved that a “funny” feeling has caused me so much grief.  I’m not in agony but I’m sore and my ROM (range of motion) is limited.

From what I can tell, it’s not serious.  I can move my arm around a good bit but certain positions are unpleasant.  I also have some weakness when lifting it a certain way.  Lastly there is some popping sounds, but I also have those in the left shoulder so I dunno if they are just louder because it hurts.

I am going to the doctor this morning and I’ll get his take.  I will likely get a referral to an orthopedist and get X-rays at some point.  If X-rays don’t show anything then they usually do an MRI.  I can only guess at this point.  I’m pretty sure I’ll have to keep it immobilized for a few days which is going to kill me for a number of reasons.   Most of those reasons come in the form of two small children.  Ugh.  Well lesson learned.  Don’t be cool and remove a step from assuming your push-up position.  Kneel, then assume the position!  Thank you sir may I NOT have another!

But hey, for ONCE this year I’m going to the doctor and I’m NOT SICK!!!