Sick Baby
Ben has a mysterious rash on his torso, back, and neck that appeared this weekend. Yesterday it was just tiny red bumps on his belly but over the day and last night morphed into much larger red welts and has spread to his back and neck and seems to be creeping onto his arms and upper thighs.
He doesn't appear to be feverish and is acting normally, besides being a bit clingier than normal and maybe more tired. He also got stuffed up overnight and is having lots of snot and difficulty breathing through his nose.
I just called the doctor and she'll see us at 1140 this morning. Thank goodness for local doctors and for the ability to be seen on the day I need to! Jake and I discussed this morning that if necessary he would take tomorrow off to take Ben to the doctor. We really don't think it's wise to send him back to daycare with an unexplained, maybe contagious, rash.
Jake said several times yesterday that it might be chicken pox, as there are cases of it going around Garden Gate. I don't know: they don't look blistery at all.
It might be hives, but wouldn't they show up on his face as well, particularly if it was due to something he ate? He did have more than normal number of poopy diapers this weekend, one of which seemed to be carrots that passed right through. It's odd because we didn't give him anything new for meal times. The only thing I could think of was the piece of chicken I let him gnaw on Saturday evening but that was after the numerous poopy diapers had started. Could it be an allergy to that little meat? Or is he now displaying a reaction to carrots, peas, green beans, or sweet potatoes, all of which he's had before without incident?
I'm holding off on solids and putting him to the breast as much as possible until this clears up or we get a diagnosis. Breastmilk certainly isn't going to hurt him and I haven't eaten anything out of the ordinary recently.
He's sleeping right now, poor little guy. I hope he feels better soon. I feel so helpless.
In other not-so-good-and-feeling-helpless news, my father's leg is broken. Again. He just got the Ilizarov apparatus off for Thanksgiving and it appears as though the bone has a stress fracture. He hadn't been doing anything too strenuous on it, just what the doctor recommended: walking, going to the gym to get some muscle strength back, and he cross-country skied twice before feeling that something was wrong. Apparently, even though the previous X-rays showed everything to be all right, the bone wasn't 100% together yet. So he's going in for surgery this afternoon and they'll put on a new, smaller Ilizarov apparatus (two rings instead of five) to hold the bone ends together for another 3-6 months and make sure they rejoin.
Ugh. The doctor told my dad that this sometimes happens: that the bone can look really good on X-rays but then is pretty weak and will fracture from just the stress of walking on it. There's nothing that Dad could have done differently and there are some positive signs from this. The bones aren't out of alignment, the doctor thinks he can just go in there, rough up the ends and squirt in some growth matrix to help things bond faster, and maybe just giving it more time will help the leg bone heal properly.
At least they're not talking amputation. :-( I still feel really badly for my dad, who was so happy to be on his two feet and WALKING again. Now he's back to crutches and a metal brace around his legs and difficulty showering and probably lots of pin-site infections...
Blah. The winter has gotten me down.
He doesn't appear to be feverish and is acting normally, besides being a bit clingier than normal and maybe more tired. He also got stuffed up overnight and is having lots of snot and difficulty breathing through his nose.
I just called the doctor and she'll see us at 1140 this morning. Thank goodness for local doctors and for the ability to be seen on the day I need to! Jake and I discussed this morning that if necessary he would take tomorrow off to take Ben to the doctor. We really don't think it's wise to send him back to daycare with an unexplained, maybe contagious, rash.
Jake said several times yesterday that it might be chicken pox, as there are cases of it going around Garden Gate. I don't know: they don't look blistery at all.
It might be hives, but wouldn't they show up on his face as well, particularly if it was due to something he ate? He did have more than normal number of poopy diapers this weekend, one of which seemed to be carrots that passed right through. It's odd because we didn't give him anything new for meal times. The only thing I could think of was the piece of chicken I let him gnaw on Saturday evening but that was after the numerous poopy diapers had started. Could it be an allergy to that little meat? Or is he now displaying a reaction to carrots, peas, green beans, or sweet potatoes, all of which he's had before without incident?
I'm holding off on solids and putting him to the breast as much as possible until this clears up or we get a diagnosis. Breastmilk certainly isn't going to hurt him and I haven't eaten anything out of the ordinary recently.
He's sleeping right now, poor little guy. I hope he feels better soon. I feel so helpless.
In other not-so-good-and-feeling-helpless news, my father's leg is broken. Again. He just got the Ilizarov apparatus off for Thanksgiving and it appears as though the bone has a stress fracture. He hadn't been doing anything too strenuous on it, just what the doctor recommended: walking, going to the gym to get some muscle strength back, and he cross-country skied twice before feeling that something was wrong. Apparently, even though the previous X-rays showed everything to be all right, the bone wasn't 100% together yet. So he's going in for surgery this afternoon and they'll put on a new, smaller Ilizarov apparatus (two rings instead of five) to hold the bone ends together for another 3-6 months and make sure they rejoin.
Ugh. The doctor told my dad that this sometimes happens: that the bone can look really good on X-rays but then is pretty weak and will fracture from just the stress of walking on it. There's nothing that Dad could have done differently and there are some positive signs from this. The bones aren't out of alignment, the doctor thinks he can just go in there, rough up the ends and squirt in some growth matrix to help things bond faster, and maybe just giving it more time will help the leg bone heal properly.
At least they're not talking amputation. :-( I still feel really badly for my dad, who was so happy to be on his two feet and WALKING again. Now he's back to crutches and a metal brace around his legs and difficulty showering and probably lots of pin-site infections...
Blah. The winter has gotten me down.