Sorry is has been so long without an update. We have had a rough time with Holden and his illnesses. I will give a brief run down here for those of you that don’t know all the stuff we have been through lately.
Holden started getting lots of colds, but mostly fevers, around Christmas. Since Christmas he has had about 7-8 fevers. Most of the time it was with ear infections, but he also had one very weird rash (with a scary rash called petechiae). His fever would sometimes go up to 105 and last a 2-3 days, but most of the time they weren’t as high and didn’t last as long. In between all the fevers, and even while he had them he was still a pretty happy and playful guy. Because of all the ear infections we decided to get the tube surgery. His doctor said he as a 10 out of 10 for ear problems – constant fluid and infections for months. Oh, and in the middle of all of this I found a weird lump on his thigh that we needed to get checked out.
So a couple weeks ago we got the surgery and it went great. That was a Monday. On Wednesday he had an ultrasound of the lump on his leg and the doctors all agreed it didn’t look like anything to worry about, it was all in the fat layer. They thought it might be a hematoma or fat deposit and we should just watch for a month.
Then on that Friday he got another fever. It seemed low at first so I didn’t treat it. Eventually it got higher and I gave him Tylenol, but it didn’t seem to help very much. He was not acting like himself at all so I decided to take him to the doctor. While I was waiting in the waiting room Holden started to have a seizure – even now it is hard for me to type about this it was so scary. He just started shaking and I knew it was a seizure. I ran into the back and the nurses got the doctor. He just laid there on the table for about 2 minutes jerking, turning a little blue. The doctor was calm, I was shaking and crying. Eventually he stopped and was just kind of out of it for about 10 minutes. When he came too he was SO upset. He had a fever of 104.5 in his ear so I am guessing his actual temperature was probably more like 105.5 or 106. They gave him Motrin and we waited there for awhile. The doctor said it was a febrile seizure due to his fever and they are fairly common (1 in 20 children will get one) and kids usually out grow them by they time they are 5 (4 years from now!!!). He has a 30% chance of having another one next time he gets a fever so you can imagine my fear of fevers right now.
Anyway, that night we went to the ER. By the time we got there his fever was down and he was feeling a bit better. They ran a whole bunch of blood tests and everything came back fine. It was a very long day. The next day Holden was acting like nothing ever happened.
So that was about 2 weeks ago. I am still kind of a worried mess. I seriously kiss Holden about a 100 times a day to see if he is hot. Plus with everything he has been through I was convinced he had some other illness. His doctor just thinks he had a really rough winter, plus the very bad ears. We have done lots of tests and everything came back OK, but it has hard been hard to get over. The good thing is that he is totally on target development wise, walks all over, climbs, is growing and is generally very happy. Although I have to say that he has become VERY demanding lately and if you don’t get what he wants right away he lets you know how mad his is…especially on the toys/Colin front.
I have always enjoyed being a mother, it has been hard at times, but nothing has been like these past few months. The amount I worry about my kids is overwhelming sometimes (OK, I know that I am a worrier anyway.) All I want is for them to both be healthy. I know Holden will get another fever, probably soon with his history, but man I could use a break.
Alright, now that I have given the run down on the illnesses – here are some good bits:
Tidbits:
When I go in to say good night and I don’t really want to read another story because Chuck already did Colin says to me in the sweetest little voice “but mommy, I really want you to read me a story because you are my best friend and I love you.” – who can resist that? Little bugger.
Every night at dinner is (in Chuck’s words) like a summit meeting. We are constantly negotiating with Colin on eating: “If I eat my chicken then I can have more noodles? If I eat one bit of apple then I can have crackers?” and the other night it was all about getting jello “If I eat my pears I can have jello? All of them? Just a bite and then I can have jello? Chicken and milk too and then I can have jello?” he just would not stop so Chuck said “If you talk about jello anymore you aren’t going to get it.” to which Colin responds “If I eat my chicken then I can have some of that stuff?”
A few weeks ago we were outside over at a friends house, I could tell Colin was going to throw a toy and I said “Don’t throw that toy” so he promptly put it down on the ground and kicked it.
At the same friends house he was hoarding cars. I kept asking him to share and he said “We are each going to have 5.” and I said who decided that “I did.”
Colin got a bike helmet yesterday for his trike (which Holden wants very badly now so Colin will have to move onto a bike soon) and the very first time he put it on he decided to ride down the front hill. Of course he got to the sidewalk and the trike flipped over sending him over the handle bars and right onto his head – thank god for the helmet.
