Peter has been sick with the flu (at least I'm assuming based on my symptoms, I didn't get any official diagnosis) for the past week now. He has been really lethargic, easily upset, full of all kinds of boogers, feverish, just generally miserable. He has started to seem like he's on the upswing the last day or so, but it hasn't been a very dramatic upswing.
(Warning: I'm going to talk about poop for a minute. I'm a mom now, this is what I talk about.)
Last night he whimpered in his sleep several times, but that's been normal while he has been sick, and every time he went back to sleep fast enough that we never went in to check on him. This morning I was changing his diaper and realized that at some point during the night he had diarrhea, and I could tell it had been in his diaper for quite a while. He had some really bright redness and swelling, I'm assuming from that irritation all night, and got really upset about being wiped. I put some ointment on it and hoped that it would clear up easily, because he hasn't been prone to bad diaper rashes.
Throughout the morning he kept saying "ow" and pulling at his diaper, and was clearly upset and uncomfortable. I gave him a bath and some ibuprofen, hoping that would help soothe things, and then put him down for his nap. He barely slept at all and woke up even more upset. He had diarrhea in his diaper again, and was so sensitive with pain that he couldn't even let me put his diaper back on. At that point I called the doctor and got in for an appointment a couple of hours later. The doctor confirmed an infection, and wanted to skip topical antibiotics and go straight to oral ones. (I'm assuming because of the sensitivity and significance of the groin area, it's worth bringing out the big guns.) The infection seems pretty severe for having just occurred last night, and part of me is wondering if something was already going on and I just hadn't noticed it until it got aggravated last night.
THEN, as we were leaving the doctor's office and loading Peter into the car to go home, we noticed these raised bumps on his face, popping up quickly all over his face. We walked right back into the clinic and the doctor said that they were hives, and to give him some allergy medication, but we still don't have any clear idea of what triggered them. Apparently it's not terrible uncommon for toddlers to get hives when they are sick, or when they are stressed (both of which Peter would fit the bill for at the moment). He also may have come into contact with something at the doctor's office.
In the 30 minutes or so that it took to have the doctor look at the hives, they had already started to fade, and they were nearly all gone by the time we got home. Then they came back about an hour later, and faded again. We gave him some Benadryl before putting him to bed, and now will have to wait and watch closely and see how things look tomorrow.
I'll tell you what, being a parent is mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausting. I'm so exhausted from worrying. One day he's limping, the next she's almost choking to death, the next he's limping again, the next they both have the flu and look like zombies. I'm ready for a vacation. But I think it's impossible to get a vacation from worrying. I have come to believe that parenthood is God's primary way of showing unto us our weaknesses, and I have this sneaking feeling that I'm going to need to spend a long time and a lot of energy learning how to find peace in the midst of my heart running around outside of my body in the form of my children.
Labels: Family, Motherhood