The Plague is Still Plaguing Us.

I was sooooo hoping my post last Thursday would be the last one about this awful plague (which we now know is Rotavirus...more on that later) plaguing Patrick, but, alas, it was not, cause here I am, tired as can be, plugging away on my laptop (instead of napping--readers, that's how dedicated I am to the three of you) to give you a little update on Patrick's now fifteen-days-and-counting illness.

Ahhhh, so where did I leave off?!  Oh yes, Thursday...hoping and praying that we were at the end of this bug--after bouts of vomiting, diarrhea, and rashes earlier in the week.

Welp, I ate my words: guess who woke up covered in puke a little before 6am on Friday?!  Poor guy.  So awful.  I called in sick to work, and committed to calling the doc as soon as they opened to get to the bottom of it...cause that was day 12.  Ughhhhh.

Patrick was being a complete slug--which is sooooo not typical of him, even the past couple weeks in between his sickly episodes, so I knew something was up.  I was able to get a hold of one of the nurses at our doc's office right when they opened, and explained the symptoms...so she relayed them to our doc and she called me back saying she was concerned, was going to call the lab to see if they had his stool cultures back, and was going to do a bit of investigating and call me back around lunch time.

While we waited Patrick was just miserable, and it was breaking my mama heart.  There is nothing worse than seeing your kiddo sick.  It is just awful.  I wish I could switch places with him.

Anywho, our doc finally called back and she said part of his cultures had come back and it was negative for the specific bug (something that started with a "g") she *thought* he had a pretty good case for having--which she said she was shocked by because she thought it was that. she said the rest of his cultures (that scan the bacteria parts) aren’t back yet, but she suspects those will be negative too because those usually have high fevers with them and other symptoms. She said she was really thinking it’s still just viral that’s taking a long time to get out of his system, and says the hives really emphasize her thinking with that.  HOWEVER, she said she wanted us to keep him on a bland diet through the weekend, doing little eating sessions throughout the day instead of big meals, and definitely not a big meal in the evening/before bed time. She said she was hoping he’ll be better by early next week BUT if he’s not, then we’ve hit the 2 week mark where things start to get concerning.  So, if come Monday/Tuesday he’s still got diarrhea/vomiting going on, we will be going for bloodwork and GI work ups to figure out what it is.  I mentioned Celiac’s, and how some of his symptoms look like those, and she said she thought of that too, but a lot of other things (his weight, food intake prior, etc...) don’t really point to that...but come Monday/Tuesday if he’s still not better they’ll be doing complete work ups for Celiacs and all other potential GI problems.  SO, we were told to wait and hope and pray this weekend he starts to get better and there’s no more pukefests and diarrhea issues.  

Okay, after her little spiel I thought definitely this would be going away (or at least winding down) over the weekend.  Um, I ate my thoughts...again.

Because instead of it getting better, it got worse, 100 times worse than it had been.  Patrick, who is normally a tornado of energy all.the.time., had taken up permanent residence on the couch (and even Scooter soiréed up to him to snuggle--that NEVER happens) and kept having on and off diarrhea, puking, and random hives.  Just plain miserable.  We had plans for labor day--family BBQs and a lake trip--but instead we canceled all of those and remained in our house on the couch.

I did try hard to get him feeling a bit normal--encouraging him to play with his trains, have a special treat in the bathtub, and play with {Rosie's} toys, and these all worked for a few minutes, but were short lived (despite his seemingly always infectious smile) and he went back and took up residence again on the couch.

I had gotten my big camera out to snap some pics of Rosie at 5 months old, and got a few of Patrick too and he just didn't look himself--you can tell by his expression and eyes.  I felt so bad for him.

Anywho, Sunday came (and Patrick hadn't puked for 24 hours!  Woo hoo!) and I thought he may be on the mend...he was still super lethargic but not vomiting.  Well, after his nap we were going to try and go to Mike's parents for dinner, but once he woke up he felt hot and had his first fever (low grade at 100) since all this happened.   Greatttttt.  Oh, and did I mention all of this time Mike was working nights so I was flying solo in the evenings, when it seemed like all of this vomitfest was happening?!  Not fun.  So we skipped going to dinner and just hung at home.  My mom came by and brought some chicken noodle soup which Patrick woofed down.  After baths and feeding Rosie, about 8:30 I put both kids to bed and they both fell asleep almost instantly.  Yahoo!  I was hoping we were done with this and everyone would get a much needed good night sleep.

Welp, as soon as I laid down about 11pm and set the sleep timer on the tv, I heard a familiar scream, cough, and so.much.puke. coming up.  I raced into Patrick's room and OMG.  The most puke I've ever seen (like 5 episodes of puking) coming from anyone.  It was like the exorcist.  AWFULLLLL.

I whisked him out of his bed, stripped him down, and plopped him in the tub and sent a distress message to Mike (who didn't respond which meant he was on a call) and my mom and aunt.  My mom raced over (thank God) and was able to tend to Patrick in the tub (and catch his next round of puke) while I cleaned up.  I called the doctor's exchange because this was getting ridiculous and he was so lethargic and not himself, and they told me they wanted him to come to the ER asap.  Fantastic.

I called Mike and he said he was on a multiple shooting, and I told him he needed to hand it off to someone else and meet us at the ER cause we were taking Patrick there now.  Luckily my aunt Mary is a night owl so she and my uncle Jim came over to stay with sleeping Rosie and my mom and I took Patrick.

Poor guy.  They did get us into a room and seen by a nurse almost immediately, so by midnight we were checked in and waiting to be seen by the doc.  Patrick was starting to perk up, which was good, but still wasn't himself.  I was just hoping and praying we were going to get some answers.

The doc finally came in and examined him and said he was dehydrated and was diagnosed with Rotavirus.  Per WebMD, "Rotavirus is a virus that infects the intestinal tract of almost all young children by age 5. Children can get rotavirus more than once, but the first infection is usually the worst. This infection causes stomach upset and diarrhea.  Babies and very young children who have rotavirus infections need to be watched closely, because they can become dehydrated very quickly. Dehydration occurs when the body loses water more quickly than it is replaced. When your child becomes dehydrated, severe health problems can arise.  Rotavirus infections spread easily. Outbreaks usually occur in the winter and early spring. Rotavirus infections often spread in settings where many children are together, such as day care centers.  The virus spreads through contact with the stool from an infected child. The virus can spread easily even when people try very hard to keep places clean. For example, when a caregiver changes the messy diaper of a child who has rotavirus infection, germs can get on the changing table, the caregiver's hands, or the hands of the already-infected child. The rotavirus germs can then spread to other children from the caregiver's or child's unwashed hands. It may be only a few steps to the sink, but the germs may get on surfaces that the caregiver or child touches along the way. For example, the germs may get on toys, doorknobs, or sink surfaces. The germs can live for days on objects and surfaces if they are not disinfected right away.  Other children who get the rotavirus germs on their hands can get the infection when they put their hands in their mouths. They can also get infected with rotavirus by chewing on a toy that has the germs on it."

So yeah, super fun, right?!  I've sprayed lysol over every inch of our house by the way.  I'm determined to make sure Rosie doesn't get it!  Or shoot, maybe she already had it???  She was sick a couple weeks ago when this started first with Patrick...

Anyways, so the ER doc told us that this could last another week or so, and diarrhea even longer after that.  UGHHHH.  She did give us a script for anti-nausea meds that are suppose to alleviate the nausea feeling and puking, so we'll be loading him up on that and keeping him hydrated, as well as starting him on a probiotic that should help too.  We elected to not give him an IV in the ER and instead let him have a popsicle and water and that seemed to work.

We left the ER a little after 2am with a tired little boy and 2 very tired parents.  We were glad we finally got an answer to what has been plaguing him, but obviously sucks that we don't have a cure for it other than it needs to run its course...so it'll probably be another several days of bodily fluid fun fun fun around the Mooney abode.  It could be worse right?!  Trying to stay positive here.

We were worried last week that this may be a new onset food allergy or Celiac's disease, but it looks like it is not that and instead just a virus like our doc said...I just wish she would have offered up the Rotavirus diagnosis and given us the anti puke meds last week instead of landing us at a midnight ER vi$it.  Oh well.  I am going to call her first thing in the morning to ask about the results of his other stool cultures in addition to seeing if he can get the Rotavirus vaccine (so that if he does get this again it's not as bad) as well as go over what the ER doc said and make sure our doc concurs with it, seeing as she didn't have this as an idea as to what he could have had last week and was thinking more GI issues--I'm sure that'll be another post update in the future, lucky reader you!

We all slept in till 10am (Patrick till 11:15am) this morning so that was nice, but I still feel like I was hit by a truck cause I am exhausted (and trying to wrap up this long-winded post so I can take a siesta).  Luckily it's a short week of work, so that's good, but stilllllll, I am so tired and more so feel so awful that Patrick is still super sick.  Even though he slept in he was not himself this morning and super whiny, and, although no puke, he had about 5 massive diarrhea episodes this morning before he went down for a nap a little while ago.  Poor poor guy :(  Just breaks my heart.

Thank you everyone for the well wishes and prayers over the past week or so...you can definitely keep them coming!  We'll take all of the good healing vibes we can get!  And if you want to pray that neither Mike or I or especially Rosie gets this, that would be great too.  Ain't nobody got time for that!  Ha!

Here's to a hopefully week of recovery and healing for our favorite little man!