What A Week

Warning: This post is mostly about vomit. 

It all started Sunday night. Brian was just getting home from the grocery store. Noah had complained that his tummy hurt, and then asked for cheese. Like an idiot, I assumed he was hungry and gave him a cheese stick. As Brian was putting groceries away, Noah started crying. I went to hold him and then I got a vomit shower. I was literally covered from shoulder to thigh. Chunky, cheesy, really pukey smelling vomit. Then the poor guy just cried and cried while we stripped his clothes off, cleaned him, and cleaned the floor. We have mostly hard wood, but we were lucky enough that he hit the area rug. Throughout the rest of the night he did ok. He went to bed without any problems. But around 10:30 or so, he woke up and was whining. I turned on the video monitor and he was holding his hands out in front of his face with fingers spread wide apart. It seemed strange, so I went to check on him and sure enough, he was covered in puke. We cleaned him off, stripped the sheets, remade his bed and laid him back down. I emailed work to let them know I was staying home Monday. Twenty minutes later he started crying again, and yes, more puke. Changed him again and back to bed he went. That was the end of night one. 
On Monday morning he woke up while I showered. When I got out I could hear him happily chatting to himself in his crib. I opened the door and he announced, "Mommy, I hear the Great Pumpkin!" So adorable. He had a really good day and I felt a little guilty for keeping him home and missing work. On Tuesday he went back to daycare and had another good day, though a little more needy than usual. He didn't eat much for dinner but that's usually the case these days. He slept through the night, until my alarm went off around 4:45am. I hit snooze and tried to get in a few more minutes of sleep. Then I heard Noah start crying. Things are starting to blur together at this point, but I'm pretty sure I went to check on him and he was throwing up again. Brian woke up and helped clean everything up, again, and he called in for a sub. Noah went back to sleep and requested milk when he woke up. Brian gave him a small glass, which brought on more vomiting throughout the day. He last threw up around 5pm that night, so Trick-or-Treating was out. It was a little sad while we ate dinner and he listened to the kids at our door. He kept asking, "Mommy, where's Noah's Halloween?" and "I want candy, pleeease!" He had some toast and pedialyte for dinner which he kept down. He went to bed fine. That was the end of day/night two.
Thursday he went back to daycare. He had a good day, but again was a little more cuddly/clingy. He ate bland, bland food and kept everything down. When I picked him up in the afternoon he gave me a big hug and repeated "My mommy!" over and over again. Heart=melted. He refused dinner again, aside from a baby food pouch and some grape juice. He went to bed without a fuss and fell asleep quickly. Just before 11pm, I woke up to the sounds of him whimpering in his room. I turned on the monitor and watched him for a few minutes. He had his head down on his pillow and his legs tucked under with his butt in the air. I figured it was nothing. After a few more minutes I decided to check on him. I rubbed his back and asked what was wrong. He sat up, spat out his pacifier, and puked all over himself twice. The second surge was kind of scary because it came fast and there was a lot. He seemed to choke on some of it, and kept trying to catch his breath. You could see the panic in his eyes as he stood up and quickly stomped his feet up and down in his crib. I just kept rubbing his back and telling him it would be ok until he finally got everything up. Brian helped me clean up the sheets for the 4th time this week, and then Noah asked to go back to bed. That was the end of night three.
Which brings us to today. I took off work again so I could bring Noah to the doctor. This pattern of bad days followed by good days was not feeling typical. All appointments at our clinic were booked for the day so we had to do walk-in care. I was worried about the wait, but I think all the crying and fussing Noah did in the waiting room helped us to be seen within 5 minutes. The doctor listened to the story of our week and agreed that it didn't seem to fit with the usual GI bug. We started with a strep test which was negative. Then she ordered an abdominal x-ray to check for any possible obstructions and a slew of blood tests to check kidney, liver, and pancreatic function, as well as for any infectious diseases. The x-ray went great. Noah was a champ even though I had to leave the room momentarily (no pregnant ladies allowed!) while they took the picture. The blood draw also went without a hitch. Noah has seen me take so many shots, so I just told him it was his turn to finally get one. He just said, "Oh!" in a cheery little voice and then watched his blood pour into the vials with clear interest. They gave him a sticker for being so good. When we got back to the room, the doctor explained that his x-ray was clear, though it appears as though he is pretty backed up in the poop department. The CBC panel was also clear. The doctor ran through all of the possibilities of what it still could be, with the most likely culprit being some sort of weird GI bug, but the lack of diarrhea kind of threw her on that one. She told me to call immediately if he starts vomiting in the early morning only, as this could indicate some kind of brain inflammation or infection. However, she felt that's highly unlikely since he has no other symptoms. We went home and got the call that all the rest of his blood tests look good, aside from his liver enzymes being a little elevated, but she said that's common when someone has a GI infection. So, hopefully this will pass soon and we can go back to our normal lives! I missed approximately 4 half-days of work all last school year. Since the beginning of this school year, I've already missed 6.5 days, 3.5 of which have been for my sick kiddo. No fun!!