When It Rains, It Pours

[***Warning: This blog post includes lots of poop talk.  If you can't handle poop talk, don't read***]

My poor little guy has been really sick!  This was his first significant illness since his bout with RSV when he was only a few months old.  All in all, I actually think we've been pretty lucky.  Ryder has had a few minor colds here and there, but besides the RSV, he's remained pretty healthy considering he spends 4 days a week at school surrounded by kid germs.

On Thursday (September 13th), the daily sheet that comes home from school with Ryder, which summarizes his eating, sleeping and diaper patterns for the day, noted that he had some diarrhea.  Indeed, he woke up with more diarrhea the next morning.  Well, things continued downhill and Ryder proceeded to have diarrhea 5 or 6 times a day (with no normal bowel movements in between).  I tried to brainstorm possible causes, but I couldn't come up with anything.  It didn't seem like a stomach bug since he wasn't throwing up, he wasn't particularly fussy, and he had a totally normal appetite.  I initially wondered whether he was having a reaction to something he had eaten, but I wracked my brain and couldn't think of any new foods he had tried in the preceding days.  Meanwhile, I watched closely to make sure he didn't get dehydrated, which is the biggest risk when you are dealing with a baby with diarrhea.  On Saturday morning, when there were still no sign of improvement, I called the after-hours nurse line at the pediatrician's office.  At that point, they told me to feed him bland food (which I was already doing), offer him pedialyte (which I was already doing) and that he probably had a virus that would go away on its own.  She did say that diarrhea from a virus should at least show signs of improvement within 48-72 hours.  It had already been almost 3 full days, so I was a little bit leery.  But although I was concerned, I wasn't overly anxious.  Again, Ryder was acting pretty normal, still sleeping through the night and napping well had a normal appetite, and never had any fever.  However, come Monday morning, there was zero improvement.  He was waking each morning with a diaper FULL of diarrhea and continuing to have several additional diarrhea diapers each day.  I called the pediatrician at 8am sharp to make him an appointment and they told me to come in at 8:30. 

The doctor's "diagnosis" was actually interesting/unusual.  Really, it was more of a theory than a diagnosis, in my opinion.  Because of Ryder's lack of other symptoms that would typically accompany a stomach bug, the doctor felt that Ryder probably had a 24-hour virus or some other affliction the prior week that had initially caused some diarrhea but that Ryder's intestinal lining had become damaged at that time.  Because the lining was damaged and unable to repair itself, the diarrhea continued.  The doctor told us to give Ryder special anti-diarrhea formula instead of his normal formula and to sprinkle probiotics into all of his meals.  He was hopeful that those measures alone would allow the good bacteria to restore itself in Ryder's system.  Lo and behold, Ryder's diarrhea was 100% gone within 24 hours of implementing the recommended measures.

It was rough to watch Ryder battle non-stop diarrhea for 5 full days, but the story doesn't stop there.  Prior to this whole diarrhea thing, Ryder had already been battling a cold.  He had a snotty nose and a cough.  The cold symptoms persisted for nearly two weeks but I hadn't taken him to the doctor.  On previous occasions when I had taken Ryder to the pediatrician for cold symptoms, Dr. Friedman had always told us to give him extra fluids, suction his nose, run the humidifier at night, and let it run its course.  So this time, instead of making an appointment, I simply did all of those things and assumed the cold would eventually go away.  But since I was taking Ryder to see the doctor for the diarrhea on Monday morning, I obviously addressed the cold symptoms as well.  It turns out that Ryder had a sinus infection and an ear infection!  Poor baby!  Ryder had never had an ear infection, let alone a sinus infection. The doctor also detected that he was wheezing and needed breathing treatments.  Needless to say, I did not feel like mother-of-the-year when I left the appointment.  I wish I would have brought him in sooner. 

On top of the sinus infection, ear infection and asthma, Ryder had a HORRID diaper rash from all of the diarrhea.  So I can only imagine how miserable he must have been.  In retrospect, I cannot believe what a trooper he was!  He slept through the night despite his ailments and his temperament was relatively stable throughout it all. 

We left the doctor with prescriptions for hardcore diaper rash cream, albuterol for his nebulizer treatments (the breathing machine), probiotics, anti-diarrheal formula, and antibiotics for the infections.  He started taking all of his medicine on Monday and he is already doing soooo much better.  No diarrhea since Monday evening.  Diaper rash is gone.  Congestion is mostly gone.  Cough is lingering.  We are still doing breathing treatments, so hopefully the cough will continue to improve. 

Anway, I acknowledge that none of Ryder's ailments were serious in the least, but the fact that he was dealing with two infections, breathing problems, diarrhea and awful diaper rash all at once made it all so much worse. 

I took off work on Monday for Rosh Hashanah but ended up at the pediatrician's office and staying home with a sick baby instead of attending services.  I knew God would understand.  I didn't like having to miss services and lunch with my extended family afterwards, but I did enjoy getting some extra snuggle time with my baby on a weekday.