Tender mercies

July 6, July 11, July 17-19, July 26.

Hebs is sick again. Vomiting, diarrhea, general malaise. Same thing as before.

Who ever heard of being sick with the same thing again and again, with perfectly happy days in between?

Well, doctors have, presumably.

So off to the doctor we went. Thankfully, Telima could watch the three big kids, which was tender mercy #1 because the doctor appointment lasted two hours. Dr. B. checked Hebs' vitals, ear, mouth, throat, stomach (poor little tender tummy). He then sent us downstairs to the lab, to have blood drawn for a check of white blood cell activity.

I had a feeling that this wasn't going to be a simple finger stick, and I was right. My poor little Hebs! Two nurses held him down while one of them tried to find a stickable vein in his arms. She tried one arm, then the other, then went back to the first. Hebs didn't like any of this, but obviously the worst part was the stick itself. When she was done, the nurse said, "Well, that was lucky, because I sure couldn't tell where that vein was at all." (Tender mercy #2)

Glad she didn't tell me that before she started shoving sharp things into my baby's arm. Just saying.

We then waited and waited and waited for about 45 minutes until the results came back. Normal levels on everything, which rules out a bacterial infection. (That's good, right?) Hebs was able to take a little nap on my lap (tender mercy #3), and I finished my book and then played endless games of Trivial Pursuit on my iPod touch (tender mercy #4).

Dr. B. came in to discuss our options. After reviewing the complete history of the situation, he thinks it is likely that the virus we all had messed with Hebs' stomach, and so every couple of days he gets sick again. (Crazy, vast, impossible oversimplification of what he told me. But I don't remember it all, sorry. Something to do with the stomach muscles not contracting the way they should.) The treatment for this is a small dose of erythromycin (an antibiotic) before every meal, that will cause the stomach to contract. He should only have to take the meds for about a week or so, and then he'll be back to normal.

In the meantime, we're also going to provide a stool sample (oh joy) to be tested for parasites like giardia, on the off chance he picked something up from that pretty little canal behind the cabin at the Tobler Family Reunion. It takes around 3 days to get results back from that test.

If he doesn't test positive for parasites, and/or he doesn't get better on the antibiotic within the week, and/or he relapses AGAIN, then we start to consider more wild and obscure problems. The kind the doctor doesn't discuss with you until he has to. The kind I'm not going to Google or think about until I have to.

Tender mercy #5? Hebs is probably not contagious, so to all my friends who came to the parade, and all my nieces and nephews at the reunion--you are in the clear!

Hopefully. Probably.

And tender mercy #6? Ralphette is doing very well, and I'm progressing toward labor nicely. We'll see if we can't resolve Hebs' problem first, but at least he's not contagious when I bring a newborn home from the hospital.