Post-Surgery

Things have been busy since our return from Denver, thus the late-ish post.

Zane is still on the mend from his surgery. Unfortunately, he managed to get to his eye and do some major rubbing (which was a huge no-no). I'm hoping he didn't release the sutures and undermine his whole surgery as his eyelid (today) seems a bit droopy again. There is a tad bit of swelling that remains along with bruising, so maybe it's just that. The surgeon said to call the office if the left eye didn’t completely match the right by Monday 8/6. So I’ll give him a call tomorrow. I doubt there’s anything he can do.

The Friday after surgery, Zane and I returned to the hospital for a digestive emptying scan. It was a part of the investigation into his retching and vomiting. It was pretty much a disaster. The plan was to feed him his formula with a nuclear medicine added to get pictures of his upper digestive system to see how slowly or quickly food moves through. It was imperative that Zane not vomit the contents of the formula/nuclear medicine combo or the test would be ruined. The trouble began with the quantity they planned to give him. Zane normally receives 160 mL over an hour. They gave him 240 mL in a matter of two minutes. I warned them it wasn't a good idea to give him that much. They did it anyway. Only moments into the scan, Zane coughed. That was quickly followed by vomiting. They restarted the test after he stopped, but the test results were considered skewed. Zane continued to whimper and grimace for the next forty minutes—all the time attempting to rub his eye for comfort. The whole test was filled with stress. I was glad to be done with it all.

Since arriving home, Jeff and I were able to get away for chunks of time on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. His parents came to watch the boys so we could bike ride, tube down the river, and have dinner in town. Unfortunately, Zane wound up with a fever. I blame the visit to Children’s. This will be the third time he’s picked up a bug after a trip to the hospital. He’s still fighting a fever as of today. Though it’s low-grade, Zane is quite miserable and mainly wants to sleep. I haven’t given him any medication to fight the fever, hoping his body will fight off whatever virus he has. I just hope he improves by later today. He has an in-town appointment tomorrow to have another TLSO made. Sounds like grand fun, huh? Poor kid.

Another Trip...To the Pediatrician

We’re off to the pediatrician’s today. Zane could not hold down his food last night during his continuous feed, so we stopped it early and gave him a slow infusion of Pedialyte halfway through the night. By morning, he seemed all right. But around bath time, he had the chills, soon followed by a fever again (101.6). He is just plain miserable.

The pediatrician’s office is booked today—likely due to the holiday—but they always manage to fit him in due to his more concerning medical issues (i.e., UTI infections). Looks like the little guy gets another dose of misery this afternoon with a catheter. I am hoping it is simply a viral infection clinging on. I don’t want in-patient surgery as part of his horizon. Wish us luck.

Sicklies, Please Leave

Zane cannot seem to get well. We abandoned our campsite in Ridgway one day early because Zane awoke with a fever. We had no way to register the actual temperature (as I left the thermometer at home) and no drugs like acetaminophen or ibuprofen to give to him (as I used the last of a bottle on his pain relief the night before). It didn’t help matters that I was up a big part of Saturday night sick to my stomach. Not a fun thing to happen while camping.

When we arrived back in town, we made the requisite stop at Wal-Mart for drugs and Pedialyte, then gauged his temperature at home: 102.9. Of course, these things tend to happen on Friday nights, weekends in general, or on extended holiday weekends when the doctor’s office is closed. We have managed to keep his temperature under control, but he cannot altogether shake it. Of course, this makes me wonder if he has yet another UTI or if he is simply suffering from the same virus-type stuff I did (although, I didn’t have a fever).

So if the temp stays up overnight and into tomorrow, it looks like we’ll be making a trip to the pediatrician’s office for a lovely catheterization and urine culture. Another UTI would only mean one thing: in-patient surgery to fix his kidney reflux issue once and for all. *Sigh*