One Sick Two Year Old

Well, WMJ turned two a few weeks ago. At Dec 15th's two-year doctor's appointment, he weighed in at 33.5lbs, 36.5" tall, and had a 50.8 (cm?) head circumference.

Of course, that's the good of the beginnings of his third year in life. Well, maybe not all the good. He got some really cool toys for his birthday ;)

The bad revolves around some sort of multi-infection-plus-virus thing he had going on the weekend before. That Friday morning, we woke up to hear Wesley saying "color.... colors..... color" in the monitor. Normally, when he says "color", it's because he's gotten his crayons out (which are downstairs in the kitchen -- not in his room, by the way) or wants to color. Jen's first thought was that he must've gotten hold of a marker or something and was marking up the walls and/or carpet. No such luck. The "colors" he was referring to were the red and green bell pepper chunks from his previous evening's meal of tuna and peppers that was now in a pile in the middle of the floor. Mmmm.... (Nathan/Clete -- does this sound familiar? ;) )

And actually, not all of it was in the pile -- some was on his leg, which carried it to various other parts of the room when he woke up...

Oh... I... I guess I didn't mention how well he's taken to the whole "remove the side of the crib" scenario. He's doing GREAT with that ;) That first morning when we went to get him, we couldn't find him. He was completely under the bed. When we tried to pull him out, I think we startled him awake, which sort of freaked him out. So, there was a little crying and what not that first morning, but most all other nights he's stayed in his bed really well. Every once in a while you've gotta go upstairs and remind him that it's nap/bed time, but... The whole bed time routing is so much easier now -- he climbs up into bed on his own, you pull his blanket over him, and walk away.

Back to the gruesome story... I hear Jen saying something along the lines of "oh crap" via the monitor, so I get out of bed (yes -- I'm a lazy bum -- I try to stay in bed as long as I can). I go help clean up the mess and him and we start our normal routine. Of course, the normal morning routine involves drinking milk and watching Curious George while sitting in our bed. He starts to drink the milk at our bedside waiting to be picked up, but before we get over to pick him up we hear the burp gone wrong. A milky white smells-like-7th-grader-vomit-on-the-school-bus geyser erupts from Wesley all over the carpet and the side of our bed. He had this sort of "what in the world is happening here" look on his face as he looked side-to-side, geyser still gushing. Luckily he's a little guy, so his stomach's not that big, so it only lasts a second or so, but man, it felt like about ten seconds...

Something's definitely wrong with 'im...

I volunteer to clean up the mess and Jen cleans up WMJ. I figure I should take the dirtier job since she's more prone to preggo-puking. Ungh... I don't know what it was about that particular hurl, but that stuff stunk _BAD_.

We baby him through the day -- uh.. well... Jen babies him through the day, doing basically just water and crackers - none of which he's able to keep down. Jen went to the store and got some clear Pedialyte to try and give him, but he didn't seem to like the taste of it, nor could he really keep that down either. Jen laid him down a little early for his nap. During his nap, she called the pediatrician to see about bringing him in for a sick visit. She talked with "the bad nurse" (this is the nurse that, upon inspection, said it was just allergies when Wesley had two ear infections -- I don't have a clue why Jen doesn't just ask for somebody else when this lady answers...). She was basically told that they were booked up through the rest of the day, it was probably just post nasal drip causing nausea and thus vomiting, and he'd probably be fine. Towards the end of the conversation, Jen at one point said, "So what you're telling me is that you're not going to be able to see him today if I bring him up there."

He started seeming better after his nap (slept for a pretty long time), so, feeling better about his condition, we went ahead with our movie night that we had planned (went to see the new Narnia movie in 3D with some folks from the youth group -- pretty good time ;) ). Jay stuck around after a conference call the two of us were on and watched him while we were gone. We'd started Wesley on a banana, some crackers, water, and Pedialyte before we left. When we got home, Jay gave us the report. Wesley finished up dinner, got down and played for a while, and all seemed fine. Then came the burp gone wrong again. Banana chunks and funky stuff went around a couple places in the family room.

Ungh...

He went to sleep good and slept through the night. At this point I guess I should let you know that just before the "remove the side of the crib" setup, I turned the door knob around so we can make sure he can't get out and thus into the bathroom, etc. Yes, we're horrible parents -- we lock our kid in his room ;). Now, normally, he's up around 6:30 or so, playing with a toy or five, trying the door knob saying "door.... stuck...." and things of that nature. 8:30 rolls around with no playing noises (yes, there were breathing noises ;) ) and Jen's worrying... She goes to check on him and he's just laying in his bed in his normal balled-up-on-his-stomach sleeping position but with his eyes open. That's a pretty sure sign that he doesn't feel good...

We get him up and baby him, and find out he's reverted back to the "can't hold anything down" state. Jen calls the pediatrician. Of course, since it's Saturday, the normal office that we'd go to is closed. So, she's calling the office up in Kannapolis. They say there's a really long wait, but they'll see him at 11:30. We get ready and head up I-85. When we got there, they told us they were running about an hour behind. I left Jen and WMJ there, ran an errand, and not too long after I got back, we were called back.

Jen had apparently given him some water in the waiting room which he'd held down the whole time. So, the nurse practitioner that saw us was hopeful. She did a strep test and something else. She diagnosed him with "a little bit of an ear infection" and dehydration. She went to check with the doctor (who we still hadn't seen) about something while the strep test was out. At that point, what little bit of water Wesley had drank in the waiting room came back up. When the NP heard about that, she checked with the doctor again. The doctor said we'd need to just go to the hospital to do a round of IV fluids and see what to do based on that.

So, off to the hospital we went.

Wesley hadn't been back to CMC Northeast (or any hospital for that matter) since he'd been born. Well -- maybe he'd gone to a hospital (a couple cousins have been born since him), but he hadn't been admitted to a hospital ;) Of course, Wesley had never had a real vomit 'till the day before either... It was a weekend of firsts for him ;)

We totally couldn't figure out where to go in, the place that I think I was supposed to drop 'em off (a circle) was blocked by a couple bad parking jobs) and the parking lot closest to that circle was blocked off for construction. So, I dropped Jen and Wesley off at the emergency room entrance (which was also the children's emergency entrance -- which appeared to be the nearest entrance to the "Jeff Gordon Children's Hospital" where we were supposed to be going). The parking lot there said "emergency room parking only", so I drove around the hospital again. I must admit -- I now have a map of that place and am a _lot_ more familiar with it after this whole ordeal. I parked in the 'surgery center' parking lot and worked my way through the building to where I thought Jen was supposed to be.

Turned out, somebody in the emergency room area was able to check Wesley in. That person's desk just happened to be right outside the elevator that I was going to take up to the 2nd floor -- so, when I turned around after hitting the call button for the elevator, I saw 'em. Weird ;)

Anyway, after we got checked in, we were handed off to someone else and escorted up to the children's hospital, where we were handed off again and led to a room.

The worst part of the next hour was getting the IV started. The nurse got it in his right hand after having 'blown veins' in both of his elbows. Based on the pediatrician's visit, they ran fluids, some anti-nausea medication, and an antibiotic. They planned on keeping that up until he had pee'd, some tests had come back, and he'd been checked by the doctor.

Of course, the tests didn't really get started 'till late, and the doctor didn't see him 'till late, because we somehow were checked into something else other than the hospital -- some doctor's office or something. We were physically there, but not in the system ;)

By 5:30 or 6, Wesley started to perk up. Not long after, the nurses brought him apple juice and orange Jell-O which he promptly went to town on and was quick to ask for "moh" of once finished. By that point though, we'd already been told to expect to stay overnight, and possibly 'till Monday. With his change in behavior though, we figured it'd just be overnight. I had gone home for most of the down time and brought Jen dinner and overnight supplies for the two of 'em (hey -- I had to play in the morning -- I wasn't gonna try and figure out how to sleep in the same room with Jen, Wesley, and her mom again... The night before his birth was the last time I dared subject myself to that ;) ).

When all was said and done, Wesley was diagnosed with two ear infections, a sinus infection, and a stomach bug. No flu, no RSV. Chest x-ray was clear.

As soon as I got done playing in the second service at church, I was instructed to head back up to CMC to pick Jen and Wesley up, as they were being discharged.

Of course, we got home and WMJ developed a fun case of diarrhea. That pretty much kept going 'till we were done with the week of antibiotics. Joy.... At least he's back to his fun and playful self now ;)