Not again (WARNING: Long story ahead)

I see irony in the fact that in the mail Friday, we received a bill for AJ's last trip to the Emergency Room. As you may recall, he was vomiting badly for several days and we couldn't figure out why...

Cut to Friday night. I awoke at around 2:30am to the sound of AJ coughing. Only it wasn't a normal cough. I went to his room to find that he had thrown up all over himself and his bed. I woke Daddy up to change the bedding while I cleaned up AJ.

On Saturday morning, AJ woke up at his usual early time. We were scheduled to participate in a campaign walk for Congressman Mike McCaul. AJ decided that he was up for going. We drove to Cypress to meet the other walkers, but while we were in the parking lot, AJ said he needed to throw up again. Which he did - leaning over the curb to puke in the bushes. We brought him home and gave him a dose of promethazine (Phenergen) that he had left over from the last bug. That knocked him out for a few hours. At about 5:00pm he woke up and told me his tummy hurt and he needed to throw up again. Yippee! This time it was so violent that the poor baby even had it coming out of his nose...Another dose of Phenergen and pure exhaustion and he was out again.

He woke me up a couple of times during the night Saturday night to ask for a drink of water. At about 2:30am he woke me up to tell me his leg hurt. From the way he described it, I just thought that he had been lying on it wrong and it cramped or went to sleep. I told him to roll over and sleep on his other side.

Hubby and I were awakened at around 4:45am to AJ screaming in agony. We rushed into his room where he was crying and holding his leg. He wouldn't let anyone touch him; he just kept screaming and crying. We noticed that his right knee looked a little swollen. We thought that he had twisted it somehow. We gave him some Tylenol and he went back to sleep.

He limped into our room on Sunday morning. He seemed to be okay as long as he didn't put much weight on his leg. As long as he sat still, all was fine. When he moved, he screamed and cried out in pain. I wrapped his knee with an ACE bandage and we went off to church. We were going to watch him carefully and take him to his doctor on Monday morning.

When we got to church, a doctor friend came up to check on AJ. He felt AJ's knee (through the bandage) and told us to turn around and take AJ to the Urgent Care Clinic. He thinks AJ has an infection in his knee. Well, crap on a cracker....that's what we need...

We took him to the clinic. The doctor examined him and diagnosed AJ with Cellulitis. Apparently, most people carry about 3 different kinds of staph bacteria on their skin. If they get any kind of injury, there is the risk that some of that staph will get under the skin and cause an infection. The infection must be stopped before it spreads or gets into the bloodstream. AJ was put on a strong antibiotic and some pain medication. We were told to take him home and keep him still with his leg elevated for a day or two. AJ spent the rest of the day propped up on the bed watching movies.

Monday morning, AJ woke up with red spots all around his ankle. Throughout the course of the day, the red spots spread up his right leg and started on his left leg.

Tuesday morning, the red spots had gotten much worse and had spread even farther. So I took him to his pediatrician. She looked at the spots and determined that it was not a rash as I had suspected. She said it was pitichiae (pi tee kee i). She wrote up orders and sent us to the hospital lab to have a CBC and blood cultures done. AJ screamed bloody murder through the entire blood draw...it was VERY traumatic...

CBC came back completely normal, but we will have to wait until Friday for the blood culture results.

Tuesday night at 12:30am he vomited again.

Wednesday morning, we took him to school. The red spots seemed a little lighter. However, I got a phone call from the school at 2:45pm saying that he had already vomited twice. I left work and went to pick him up. He has taken this evening's dose of antibiotic along with food. He has had Motrin for the pain in his knee. He was also given a dose of Phenergen before bed.

Hopefully, he will sleep through the night with no incidents.

We will see what tomorrow holds...

Bummed Out

I guess all good things must come to an end...
We got a message from the endocrinologist's office this morning. Earlier this week we did AJ's bloodwork again to see how he was doing. Unfortunately, my sweet kid will have to go back on his medication after being med-free for two months. His total T4 is low, so he will need to get half a tablet of synthroid per day. They will retest him again in 6 weeks.

That and the LCD screen on our digital camera broke last night while we were at the circus. Now I need to find a new camera. AJ seemed to enjoy the circus. He didn't get much into the acrobatics, but liked all of the animals. He says his favorite part was the clowns. We took pictures; I'll upload them soon.

Bouncy Things

So if there's food and cake, it must be someone's birthday, right?

Well, if you're AJ, that's what it means. We went to a friend's wedding on Saturday. I got AJ to behave by telling him that there was going to be cake later. Just as he was finishing his slice of cake during the reception, he turned to me with a concerned look.

"Mommy....we forgot to sing the birthday song!"

I told him to go tell Aunt K* (the bride). She acknowledged the slip and told him she would fix it. It just so happens, the groom's birthday was the same day as the wedding, and she was planning to have everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to him anyway...

About 20 minutes later, AJ inquired of me. "Mommy, where's the bouncy thing?"

"Well, sweetie, there's not a bouncy thing today."
"Where is it? Is it outside?"
"Nope. There's not one."
"Well where is it?"
"Aunt K* doesn't like to bounce..."
*completely baffled* "She doesn't like to bounce?! Why?!"
"Well, sweetheart, it gives her a tummy ache."
"Oh. Okay."
And off he went, satisfied with my answer...

And with that, I get one baby step closer to being struck down by lightning...

Fashion Critic

Apparently my three-year-old (who wants to wear his cowboy boots with shorts) has turned into a fashion critic.

Before we went on vacation a couple of weeks ago, I went out and bought some new clothes. I went down to the hotel lobby one morning where AJ and Daddy were having breakfast. AJ looks at me funny and says, "Mommy, why you wearing THAT shirt?"

This weekend we went to my parent house to visit. Sunday morning, my Mom came out dressed for church. AJ looks at her funny and says, "Granny, why you wearing THAT shirt?"

My Mom asked him what was wrong with her shirt.

AJ's answer: "It's FANCY... I don't like those flowers."

Quickies from Today

AJ singing: "Smarter than a fizz waiter..."

Daddy: (upon finding all of the doors in the house closed) "Why are all the doors closed?"
AJ: "Cuz I am the door monitor!"

Where are your teeth?

Conversation had with AJ while strapping him into the back seat after school yesterday:

Me: "What did you do today?"
AJ: "I cried in time out. WaaaaWaaaa! Miss T* put me in time out."
Me: "Miss T* put you in time out?"
AJ: "No."
Me: "You just said Miss T* put you in time out. What were you in time out for?"
AJ: "I did not have my teeth on J**."

School policy says that they call the parent if there has been a biting incident. I got no call from them. I have no idea whether my kid bit his friend or whether he's just making stuff up again...



Later that evening:

Me: (noticing an insect bite of some sort on his leg) "AJ, what happened to your leg, sweetie? Did you get a boo boo?"
AJ: (closely examining his leg) "I need a band aid. A car did it. A car hit me on my bone. It was a black car. Look at my bone."

Umm...okay...

Negotiation

AJ really needs to work on his negotiation skills...

Me: "AJ, you have 10 more minutes to play. Then it's time to put on pajamas and go to bed."
AJ: "No, Mommy. Just five minutes."
Me: "Okay, sweetheart."

Independence

June was a busy month full of business and personal travel. We just returned from a short mini-vacation on Monday that I should have pictures of soon.


Our other progress has been kept on the "down-low" because I didn't want to jinx anything. On May 30th, AJ had his regular quarterly visit with the endocrinologist in the Medical Center. At this trip, we got to meet a different doctor. After going through a few questions about AJ's general health and development, the new doctor went away. He came back in a few minutes with AJ's regular specialist. They decided to take AJ off of his medication to see how he would do. We were to observe him and process new bloodwork after one month to see if his thyroid levels stayed in the normal range.

We took AJ to the lab for new blood tests on the day before we left for vacation. His follow-up appointment in the medical center was scheduled for yesterday.

The results are in -- ALL THYROID LEVELS ARE IN THE NORMAL RANGE!

This is big, people! AJ's hypothyroidism is the only lingering effect from his prematurity that he was still being treated for. All of the other myriad of specialists tracking this kid have already released him.

They still want to test him again in another month, but if everything stays normal, he could be completely off all meds.

If you ever doubt that prayer works, I have an amazingly cute, smart, HEALTHY kid I want to introduce to you...