Another day at the clinic

It's like the pediatrician's office is AJ's second home.

This time, he's got some sort of nasty sore throat. Complete with fever, achiness, fussiness and all. This of course just on the heels of his last cold.

Anyway, we were sent to urgent care on Sunday. Any fever over 101 meant they wanted to check if AJ's neutropenia is any worse. Any worse and any sign of bacterial infection would warrant antibiotics. Luckily his cultures (including a throat swab) all came back clean, and his neutrophils (amazingly) came back at normal levels! Hallelujah! Looks like just a good old fashion throat infection for the little guy. It's sure stinky though.

Can't believe this kid is only 13 months but have already had 4 lab draws. He didn't make it easy on them (per the lab ladies, he is extraordinarily strong). He also cried through pretty much the entire doctor's office visit. It's OK, we finally learned the trick to properly getting him to swallow his meds. The medical assistant taught us to tilt his head back (usually does induce at least some crying... Which is great cause it opens his mouth) then squirt it into his cheek (as opposed to directly straight back into his throat). It's been working like a charm every time so far. Also, I've made up my mind. Ibuprofen is a gazillion times more awesome than acetaminophen, even if it doesn't come in suppositories. It works SO much faster and does a much better job at keeping his fever at bay.

That is all. Happy Monday!

Mother's Day #2

It's my second mother's day!!! Woohoo!  This time, I feel slightly more worthy of the title.

It wasn't an elaborately planned out day or anything but it really was a special day to me.  It was filled with warmth and joy.

Little man woke up at 5:30 AM (not unusual), but went back to sleep with me in my bed...until 9:35 AM!  He hasn't slept past 8 AM (even when co-sleeping in my bed) since he was about 6 months old. Sleep - truly a mother's day gift that every mommy deserves.

Then we spent the morning at the park, while little man giggled away in the swings.

Then this.  Naptime.

Speaking of gifts, I got this hilarious book from my husband. It's a book "written" by a toddler about how to parent a toddler.  Hilarious. A good laugh is always needed in my life.  

Then we went home and hubby prepared a DELICIOUS rib roast.  We had both sets of moms come over to dine at our house.  Afterwards, we filled our bellies with baklava and European cake (seems to be a Lee family tradition now) as AJ scampered around the house giggling with every step. 

My heart is full tonight.    

Chronic Benign Neutropenia of Childhood

Answers from the hematologist today.

He thinks AJ has a chronic benign neutropenia of childhood. This is a childhood condition where he has much less white blood cells than most kids.  They said it usually goes away with time and doesn't cause major problems (like other more serious conditions that affects blood cells...I don't even want to mention all the bad stuff I encountered on my Google quest while waiting for results!).

More lab tests are in his future on a routine basis.  For now, our assignment is to monitor him for signs and symptoms of infection, including fever, and if that should develop we will likely need to poke him again to figure out more about the cell counts.


Good to finally get answers on what's going on, but now I'll need to learn more about this to see what we as parents need to do to help him.

Waiting

Waiting is the worst feeling of all.  Because inherently with waiting comes worry.  And worry chews holes in my stomach.  We've been waiting for a while now, several weeks actually, to figure out why AJ's not growing (weight wise) as expected.

There's not a whole lot to suspect from a glance of the situation - a healthy giggly scampering boy who's just a little bit on the thin side...not even really - 50th percentile in weight and 97th percentile in height to be exact.  If it wasn't for the fact that he's gained only 1.5 pounds since his 6 month visit, there'd be nothing to suspect at all.  All toddlers get picky right?  All kids go through this right?  Maybe.  just maybe.

Incidentally, after drawing a HUGE syringe full of blood (and running about 10 tests to rule out "organic" causes), a list of abnormal lab results haunt me.  I remember seeing the tests minutes before I was due to sleep on a Sunday night, and you guessed it... I didn't sleep a wink thinking about them. The next day, I set out on a quest to figure out what was wrong...by googling and using credible medical information sources.  Let me tell you, while my brain was learning and searching as a trained medical professional, my eyes were seeing everything as mother - only the negative.  I can't even tell you how many bad things I came across! I literally made myself sick at work thinking about all the different permutations of health disorders that my child could have. I finally gave up my own quest and e-mailed his pediatrician for some advice on interpreting the labs. Bless her heart, she'd been thinking about them too.  She had some preliminary thoughts about the labs, all benign explanations, but upon consultation with her colleagues decided to have us repeat labs again in a week to see if things would resolve, just to be on the safe side.

That was today.  1.5 HUGE syringes full of blood later (AJ now knows what a tourniquet is, and cries on cue), we're waiting on the lab results again.  Some cell count abnormalities have surface yet again (similar to last time).  Pediatrician thinks she has an explanation, but is this time consulting a hematologist for further review just in case.

It's not fun waiting.  I'm praying/hoping/wishing that there's a simple explanation for what's going on, or it's one that is easily resolvable. I look at my little guy (who's learned to walk circles and circles around the house in the past few days) who's getting more and more energetic and giggly - and know (hope?) that whatever's happening, he gives me strength to wait through this.

More to follow when I hear back.

Urban Hike Friday

Today on a whim we decided to take AJ out on an adventure with us.  All we brought was one diaper, a pack of wipes, a Mum mum cracker, a sun hat, and AJ's Kelty hiking backpack. We thought we were going for a short walk...

But instead we ended up going on a 4 mile urban hike around our neighborhood!

First, we ventured out to find the "neighborhood" waterfall.  Yes, there's a cute little waterfall about a mile away from our house.  My husband's talked about it a lot, but I had no idea it was so close to the main road.

Then we kept walking west, because well...little man fell asleep.  Oops.  We figured we'd walk around and do some shopping at a neighborhood nearby until he woke up.  So we went and got some boba at a nearby Fillipino place and hung around for a while.

Then when little man woke up, it was time to eat lunch, so we ventured into a Japanese place and had ourselves some sushi. AJ ate half of my bowl of rice and a bunch of M's *SPICY* udon noodles.

Then, walked AJ along the shopping center down to Holistic Pet, where he met a friendly dog named Mocha and picked up some treats for our dog. 

The sun was starting to really come out so I decided it was time to visit a coffee place that a friend recommended.  Ever had Mayan mocha?  It's like a Mexican mocha but even spicier.  

Then it was the journey back home.  But since the waterfall really was right on the way home, we visited it again, and I climbed on top of the waterfall this time. 

Their view (yes, that's me)

My view!

After being out and about for 4 hours, we got home at 3 PM just in time for naptime.  Such a fun urban hike, and so proud of us for surviving and getting so much done without all of our baby paraphernalia and car.