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D.C. Area Babies
Update on DD #2's neverending virus(es) - v. long
DD #2 has had diarrhea for 17 days. It's been unbelievable. Four trips to the pediatrician and one trip to the ER in the middle of the night later - yesterday we FINALLY got one of the docs at the pedi office to order some bloodwork to see what the heck is going on.
A rough history is: first few days, watery diarrhea but baby is acting and eating normally, taking her first steps, in fact we even went ahead with her ear tube surgery. Next few days despite eating plenty she loses almost a pound, stool is still loose, pedi says we need to get her weight up. Go back for a weight check, her weight is up, we feel hopeful. I've taken almost a week of sick leave to care for her and DH calls his mom to come up for a week to take care of her. MIL gets here, still diarrhea, now DD adds a high fever for five days straight and coughing, runny nose. MIL takes her the doc, they say this is another virus, more like flu. It's during this time we take her to the ER upon the advice of the physician on call from our pedi office. With the addition of this coughing, fever thing, she is not eating. Anything she eats gets thrown back up in a fit of coughing/gagging. Somewhere in there we collect stool in a kit at home and deliver it to the pedi's office for analysis.
I take her to the pedi office yesterday for a weight check. I get my mom to go with me and help "champion" DD, and we get one of the really good docs at the practice to examine her and listen - really listen - to the whole sordid story. I told her him this is day 17 of diarrhea and he was like - whoa. OK. Let's do some blood work, let's do a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia, etc.
She's down a half a pound again, and this is a kid who is really small to begin with. I mean, we were happy when she hit 19 lbs finally, because she seemed to be 18 lbs. something ounces for months and months. And now she's back in the 18 pound range. I mean she's 13 months old for pete's sake.
So the doc was concerned even beyond the current illnesses. He questioned my mom about her family - is anyone particularly small in her family (answer: yes). DH and I are tall and not exactly svelt, so it's a little funny to have such a petite baby.
He orders bloodwork on the spot from the place on the first floor of the building. Also a chest Xray. Like me, the poor baby, the bloodwork people had a horrible time finding a vein. Let's just say she cried and I cried and my mom had to hold both of us.
Chest Xray shows just a "regular" respiratory virus, so no bronchitis and no pneumonia. So this fever, coughing, runny nose etc. will apparently have to work itself out.
Some of the bloodwork could be analyzed right away and apparently it was OK. Three of the four stool samples were OK, they check for just bacteria though (like salmonella and stuff like that). Still waiting for a blood test that tests for Celiac's disease (symptoms: failure to thrive, chronic diarrhea). Yikes.
So what I've learned from all of this so far is that when one of the kids seems to really have something wrong (and let's face it, we've been really blessed and not really run into anything like this yet) we should request the same doctor at the pedi's office for each visit. I think part of this is that all of those visits over the last 2 1/2 weeks have been with different doctors at the pedi office, because we were just choosing available appointment times. And every time we went we had to explain everything all over again. And that doesn't even count all the "messages for the advice nurse" conversations I had on the phone. (If I hear "have you tried Pedialyte?" one more time I'm going to scream). You can certainly request a doctor you prefer at that office, but we hadn't been doing that - but I'll tell you from now on I will be. And it's going to be the doc who we saw yesterday, so at least he can have some mental recollection of her.
So we'll be pursuing this with the doc. I asked about possible allergies, possible lactose intolerance, etc. He said we'll find things out one thinkg at a time by testing for things one test at a time. With the combination of thick mucus being coughed up and then (possible) infection in the digestive system, he said we may test for cystic fybrosis.
Wife, Musician, Fed, WW-er, and Mom of three little kids - not necessarily in that order.
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Re: Update on DD #2's neverending virus(es) - v. long
How scary for you, but I'm glad that you are now getting somewhere. Hopefully it's just a really bad virus and it will work itself out in time. Please keep us posted.
I second the fact that it is important to see the same doctor -- our practice has something like 10 docs, and we were going through the rounds a bit in the beginning with our LO when we were having weight gain issues and going to the doc every few days. Once I decided to just choose the one doc I liked and always make my appts with her (unless it's an emergency and she's not around), I've been so much happier.
Yikes! I'm glad you're finally getting some answers. Poor DD!
We originally went to whatever doc at the practice was available (mostly to get to know them, but also because C just had routine check ups). Now that he's had some issues, I'm realizing that continuity of care is pretty important.
I'm so sorry that you all are going through this! My now 4 year old nephew was diagnosed with Celiac disease when he was a little over 2. He had similar symptoms I think: he was constantly sick, lost a lot of weight, and his moods were definitely affected. I didn't realize they could check for Celiac that young? But, then again, that was 2 years ago so I'm sure they've made progress since then.
If it turns out to be Celiac there are tons of resources out there. My brother and his wife have adjusted their lifestyle and although it is a struggle at times it is great to see my nephew happy and thriving again. It was a scary few months but once they adjusted his diet he's been great. And there are tons of glutten free foods available now! Good luck!
Oh no! I can't belive she's still sick after all this time. Please keep us posted on what her test results are.
I also go to PAA (I seem to recall that's where you guys go too). I hope you saw Hopper or Sideridis. They are my favorite docs there and I've had really good experiences with both. I just realized, if my DD had continued to have ear pain on Friday night, we would have been there yesterday too. It would have been so weird to be like, Um, are you Artslvr?
I hope you do get answers. We have been dealing with failure to thrive for 10 months now. I have a kid that LOVES to eat too. DS was 19 pounds and below the 5th %tile at 12 months after being in the 75% range for height and weight his first year of life. He is now only 21 pounds still. In addition to his weight, they were concerned that he had 5 soft (but not runny) BM's a day. He still has 5 soft BM's a day. We have been through it all--Children's Hospital in DC tons of times, blood tests, stool tests, endrocine tests, GI tests, ultrasounds, you name it. We were convinced he had celiac, but in the end he doesn't. So frustrating!
I'm saying a prayer for you. I never want any parent or child to go through what we went though!
Wow - 17 days?? I would be worried too. I hope you get some answers along with some relief too. I never think to request a specific doc for a sick visit because, like you, I usually try and get first available for whatever time we are first available.
Is she really tall? I think Maggie was only 22lbs at her 18mo and still under 20 at her first birthday but she was on the short to average side of things and our pedi wasn't too worried about her weight.
Was she tested for CF as a newborn? Virginia supposedly tests all newborns for this but I know the test isn't definitive just a screening.