Fighting Off Illness

It was a pretty rough weekend at our house.

It all started Thursday night when Dominic started having yellow crusties around his nose. There have been times I suspected he had little colds, but it's always so hard to tell with his cleft. The most obvious signs of having a stuffy or runny nose don't work for him because his nose doesn't hold in anything. The following morning I called his Pediatrician, because even though it wasn't really an emergency or anything, I was still pretty nervous about him getting sick. With DiGeorge, the 3rd most common difficulty is a compromised immune system (behind the heart defect and cleft) Knowing that in utero the doctors said his Thymus was underdeveloped, which plays a big part in fighting off illnesses, I have been overly concerned about him getting sick, so I wanted to talk to his Pediatrician about what to look for or be super concerned about if things got worse over the weekend. I figured that things that wouldn't have concerned me with Rosalie possibly should concern me with Dominic. Unfortunately, his Pediatrician was not in the office Friday and the only advice her admin assistant can give me is to call the health line. I've found in the past that the health line is overly cautious to the point that if I feel I need to call then they are probably going to tell me to go to emergency anyway. So I thanked her and hung up not having gotten any further with knowing what to do. So on Friday night, at about midnight when Dominic had a huge throw-up while lying in bed I was at a loss for what to do. He normally gets fed at midnight, but I hadn't fed him yet, so his tummy really should have been empty, but he threw up so much we had to change all of his bedding. It didn't take long for cuddles to put him back to sleep, but I was at a loss for where to go from there. If he just threw up was there a point in trying to feed him again right away? But now his tummy was probably empty so he would be getting hungry soon. So maybe I should feed him? Is this enough reason for concern without a fever or diarrhea coupled with it? What to do?? I figured I would give him a couple hours and then only feed him half his feed to make sure his tummy could tolerate it, which it did. I then tried to feed him again at 6:00, but he threw up a little but again so I stopped it and decided to wait until morning for his next feed.

In the morning I decided to only orally feed him. No tube feeds. I figured he would know best what he could tolerate and if that meant feeding him 30 mls every hour, so be it. Thank goodness it didn't, he still ate on his approximate schedule, but only took his whole feed at suppertime. And no more throw-ups.

That morning I was also feeling extremely unwell. I was completely exhausted from the night before, I didn't get much sleep between feeds, and the sleep I did get between was restless because I was worried about him. I was completely stuffed up and could barely keep my eyes open. Turned out Rosalie got sick too, but she hides it better than Dom and I do... until she pukes all over her PJs. It's almost lucky in a lot of ways that Dom and Rose were sick at the same time as me. I think if I was sick and both of them were fine Roland my lose his being so outnumbered, but because Dominic basically slept all day between feeds, and Rosalie just wanted to cuddle and watch movies, it was kinda perfect for him.

Sunday Dominic and I were much better but Rosalie got worse. SHE was the one that ended up with the fever and wanted nothing more than to cuddle and sleep. We ended up putting her to bed 2 hours earlier than her normal bedtime because she was just SO wiped, and she was threatening to fall asleep on Roland while they were watching Disney movies. 

Yesterday we were all a bit tired, but on the mend and today we were all pretty much back to normal. Although Roland may have picked it up from us now, but his doesn't seem quite as bad.

It may seem weird, but after the fact, I was kinda glad that Dominic had gotten sick. Even though he had had tests done to check his immune system and we were told in Edmonton that he didn't have any issues, I really didn't believe it. I kept having that nagging reminder of his undeveloped thymus popping around in my head. I was sure these tests would be proven wrong when he got sick, but he handled it like a champ and came out no worse on the other side. Better even, perhaps. And now that is one less thing I need to be worried about. :)