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Helpless and watching your child deteriorate.
- Oct 10, 2007 at 10:46 AM
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- Comments (6) Total Views (262) Everyone can see this journal post.
It all began a couple of weeks ago. At the time we joked that she was having sympathy PMS for me. She was cranky, no downright fussy and impossible to please. Prior to that she had some really odd diarrhea but that seemed to pass after a few days. The crankiness got worse over two or three days. We chalked it up to teething. We took her temperature and it showed no fever. She didn't have a runny nose, she wasn't tugging on her ears. It had to be teething.
Then she began to just lay around. The child who once couldn't even sit still while you read her a book, who was constantly moving and going and talking and causing trouble had no life in her. After two days of mom being the Zoe-sofa, I called the doctor. Still no fever, no sign of obvious illness I felt a bit silly. My child had changed drastically but I could offer no explanation of why that might be. We agreed to give her a couple of more days to get out of her slump.
Two days later things were the same, if not worse. She had ceased to eat any excuse for a meal several days before. Fortunately she still drank and I could tell she wasn't dehydrated. Occasionally she would spike a low fever but it would pass. The extreme lethargy did not pass. Last Friday, when I took her in to the doctor, she slept from 7 pm to 7 am. By 9:45 that morning she was back asleep and I had to wake her at 12:45 to get her to the doctor.
Hoping for an ear infection, maybe strep I carried my listless little baby in. Immediately the doctor who has been hers since birth could tell this wasn't the active, busy little girl she knew. Her ears were fine, her throat was clear, a urinalysis showed no sign of a bladder infection. The doctor was baffled, her lymph nodes were swollen and she was losing weight. We decided to give it the weekend to see if she perked up.
She didn't perk up. She was worse still over the weekend. Where she would try to get down to play the days before she shook her head no from our laps when asked if she would like to play. Where she showed interest in having a book read before she did not look at the pages and point out the banana, the baby, the ball. Instead she drifted in and out of sleep, refused any offers of food and laid on Mommy's lap or Daddy's lap all weekend long. Her only sign of any excitement came when offered nap time or bedtime.
So Monday began the first test. A simple blood test. The doctor was honest with us, she suspected cancer. Trying to push that from our minds we waited the 4 hours for the results. Good news, no cancer. Overwhelming relief quickly gave way to further concern. Her weight continues to drop, she is showing no signs of improvement and now there is profuse, forceful vomiting of anything she takes in. The fever, though mild, comes and goes. At times her body temp doesn't even register 97.2 and that is in her bum.
Daily calls to the doctor, further analysis of the blood sample shows nothing further to explain what is going on, But still she lays here, fussy, lifeless, not my child. So in we go again today, knowing she is most likely dehydrated from two days of vomiting any little bit she has ingested, knowing that it has been over a week that she has been seriously ill, knowing she has lost more weight, not knowing what is wrong or what will be done to make her better. Scanning every website imaginable in an effort to find a clue has proved fruitless. But I have a free hand while my lap is occupied and it makes me feel as if I am doing something. We grasp at anything, the new kitten, the new windows, the trip to Oregon, the latest vaccines. Did one of these seemingly normal occurances trigger something? If she has a virus, why is the rest of the house healthy? Her twin brother who shares everything, toys, sippy cups a room, he is not sick. How can it be viral?
Thank you to my Cafemom friends who have wished us well and sent us prayers. Today my hope is that there will be an answer and our precious baby can get better soon.Comments:
Sweetie, sometimes things come to make us stronger! sometimes prayer is the only thing that will pull us through those tough times..i encourage that you and your husband, and all the fam and friends that you can gather come together and pray corprately in your home around the baby. if there are any doubters keep them far away..you and the father have to KNOW that she is healed already. you cant Guess..YOU MUST KNOW AND BELIEVE. GOD IS THE ULTIMATE DOCTOR! I have seen him take away things that were fatal...just from the ppl believing! He says that you faith will make you whole and heal you.. so just trust God and know that He is God and that he can do above all that we can ask or think. put her in his hands and leave her there!
be strong in the power of his might and lean not on your own understanding!
thank God for a healthy, HEALED daughter (call her by name when you pray for her too)
my husband and i are praying for you all too...
believing with and for you,
Baby Coconut
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