The Small Family     

Well, I had planned to have lots of fun stories and pictures from our trip to San Jose for cousin Nik’s birthday party this weekend. Unfortunately, our week took an unexpected turn in the form of illness, so I don’t have a lot of pictures or fun stories to share.

My Mom and I took Theo to the park on Wednesday morning, and all seemed to be well. Wednesday evening was Chris’s school night, so Theo and I made our customary trek to the frozen-yogurt store for a treat. Theo ate a small amount of his berries-and-cereal concoction, but then wanted to go play in the hallway. (They have a black light and purple walls, with glow-in-the-dark stars and painted bits up, and it looks really neat--Theo loves it.) I figured he just wanted to play instead of eat, so I thought nothing of it.

Thursday morning, he had a little bit of diarrhea but seemed otherwise completely fine, so we assumed something he ate didn’t agree with him, and we carried on as normal. (He often has quirky GI issues for no apparent reason, which we usually figure means he has ingested dairy along the way--baked into something, most likely. So this didn’t raise a red flag to us--it’s pretty much par for the course for him to have some weird little GI thing on a regular basis.)

But he barely ate a thing on Thursday. Or on Friday. Still, he had no fever and he had all his normal energy--other than no appetite and a few rounds of diarrhea, all seemed well.

By Saturday, though, the poor guy was a mess. He still had probably 80% of his energy, but he couldn’t keep a thing in--not even liquid. And he got a wretched rash that hurt like crazy, so he was pretty unhappy. (Not to be indelicate, but let’s just say it was so bad that it actually made him bleed a bit from a place any man would cringe about.)

We were surprised by the rash, though, because here’s the thing: He was a ROCK STAR at making it to the toilet every time! The only time he “sat” in a mess was when he had diarrhea in his sleep, and we didn’t discover it until morning. Upon discovering it, we got him in a baking-soda bath and then some nice cotton underwear, thinking that would be breathable and would allow the rash to heal. Nope. It just got more inflamed throughout the day, until it bled a bit in the aforementioned OUCH area and looked like hives all over his rear end.

At that point I called the advice nurse, and she told me to put a mixture of A+D ointment and a tiny bit of Maalox (yes, the stuff you drink!) on it. Mamas/Daddies out there, if you ever run into this problem with your kiddos, let me say that this makeshift paste WORKS! The rash was significantly better within hours.

But let me take a moment to brag about my kiddo here. (Sorry--bragging isn’t nice, but I’m just really proud of him!) When I was talking to the advice nurse to explain what was going on, I mentioned that I was surprised the rash was persisting, as he hadn’t had an accident all day--even though he was sick close to a dozen times, he made it to the toilet every time. She said, “Are you kidding me?” I said, “No--he’s really good about it.” She said, “But he’s not even three! I’m surprised he’s even potty-trained yet, much less staying clean when he’s this sick!” Rather proud, I said, “Yes, he potty-trained really easily when he was 27 months, much to our surprise and delight. He really just took right to it. And I’m really surprised that it’s sticking even when he’s sick.” She replied, “I’m amazed, and I’m a pediatric nurse! That is just incredible!” So yay to our little boy for being SUCH a champ!

By Sunday (the day we were to go to San Jose for Nik’s party), the rash was probably 90% better, but Theo was still in bad shape. He tried to eat a bit (for the first time since Friday, though he barely ate Thursday or Friday), but it went right through him. He woke up at 7am, drank a whole cup of PediaLyte, then fell asleep on my lap for two hours. Then he was awake for two hours, but not doing much…before falling asleep on my lap for another two hours. And now, as I type this, he’s downstairs with Chris, watching some TV while he rests on the couch.

Poor kid. This is the most uncomfortable I’ve seen him, except for maybe when he was a tiny infant dealing with a dairy problem. Our medical group says not to bring the child in unless he suddenly gets a fever, is dehydrated, or has diarrhea for at least seven days, so I guess we wait a few more days and see what happens. And in the meantime, Chris and I keep our fingers crossed that we don’t get it, as the advice nurse said it’s likely quite contagious.

I’m actually relieved that it happened now instead of in a week and a half, when we’re heading for Disneyland, but it was a shame for him to have to miss his cousin’s birthday party. However, not only was he in no shape to go, I’m quite sure no parents at the party would’ve thanked us for bringing a potentially contagious stomach bug--the gift that keeps on giving! ;-)

Anyway, apologies that this entire blog was about poop, but you can’t polish a turd, and this week has been a bit of a turd! (And on that decidedly unladylike note, I bid you all a good week….)