Medical Mystery

It's oh so comforting when you go to the doctor and they say, "Honestly, I don't know what to tell you because I've never seen anything quite like it." And also when a second doctor gets called in for consult and asks you, "Neither of you have any history of bleeding disorders, do you?" So Noah has had small red dots on the shin of his right leg for a while. About a week ago I had him in the Baby Bjorn and noticed that his leg turned cherry red. I took him out and saw that the little red dots looked worse, and it became obvious that the dots were little capillaries that were broken. I decided that was the end of the Baby Bjorn and haven't used it since. Then the other night we went to dinner and Noah was tired and cranky and starting screaming something fierce. When we got home I noticed that his leg looked worse yet. We decided to make an appointment for yesterday to figure out what is going on. And those are the responses we got. They had him get a blood draw (big boy style with a tourniquet, and he didn't really cry until they bandaged him up) to check white and red blood cell counts and coagulation. We heard back right away on the blood cell counts which were totally normal. We'll get the coag results on Monday. And if they are fine? "I don't know what to tell you, but if it doesn't go away or gets worse, we'll have you see a dermatologist." Oh, how comforting... For a while I also thought the doctor was going to accuse us of abuse because she really thought it looked like bruising from a compression injury. I thought just one look through his records and she'd see that I dropped him once, and now he has unexplainable bruising, and social services would be there in a heartbeat. Thankfully I think we come across as loving and genuinely concerned parents.

In other news, his appetite appears to have returned, and his naps have gotten longer again. I guess when one worry goes away, another one just has to appear.