8 Months Old and Luke's Hospital Stay

Poor Luke started having congestion and  tummy issue last Friday. By Monday he was not looking well in the evening and since the last time I had weighed him he lost over a pound. While our kids all have gained weight slowly and lose a little when they are sick none had lost this drastically. He went from 11 lbs 11 oz to 10 lbs 6 oz. First thing Tuesday morning I called Dr.Taylor's office to see if he had any appointments available as soon as possible that day. At first they said he didn't have any appointments but as I was on the phone someone canceled and we were able to get in. When we went he could see how poorly sweet little Luke looked. In the two days he had barely kept anything down. He was keeping pedialyte down though so at least he wasn't too dehydrated yet. Dr.Taylor decided that Luke needed to see a pediatrician. We went to make that appointment and there was one available that day also but the insurance wouldn't cover two appointments for the same thing so I took him home with instructions to take him to the ER if he did worse before his appointment Wednesday afternoon.

We worked on just trying to keep pedialyte in him that night and he took enough that he was doing ok. Definitely not great though. He was so weak and so skinny (he was already so skinny but he lost so quickly that he did not look good). He was truly lethargic and miserable.

We took Luke to the pediatrician the next day and he was really worried about him as were we. At first he was going to do all the tests there at his office (in Spanish Fork) right then and send us home to try and rehydrate him at home that night. As we watched him during the appointment, he got worse. He was doing strange things and seemed kind of loopy and it was obvious he was dehydrated. The doctor decided  that it was time to get him rehydrated with an IV and have him watched very closely and have him see a peds GI doc while there. So we went to get Taylor and Mark at a friends house (she was kind enough to watch them while we went to SF for the appointment. She was my visiting teaching companion but our war boundaries changed last week and we are in a different ward now). When I got there she told me to leave them as long as we needed to get Luke settled at the hospital. That was so very helpful. I was grateful to have A.J. there with me while we got checked and got our stuff there. I stayed with Luke and he went to get Mark and Taylor and my mom who had picked Leata up from school dropped Leata off.

After A.J. left, Luke had his IV put in. He didn't even fight it. He was too weak. He was visibly upset, just didn't have the strength to fight. We got settled in the room and I nursed him and he immediately threw up. After that the pediatrician wanted to know exactly how much he was taking so I had to pump and give him a bottle. We did that and they added some formula to make it higher calorie. Again, he threw it all up. It was so sad. We let him be the rest of the night and didn't make him eat anything.

They next day Dr. Taylor came to see us in the hospital. He was making sure both Luke and I were ok. Later the nurse asked if Dr.Taylor came to see Luke. I told her he had and she said he must really be worried because he leaves things up t the peds in his group or at the hospital and hadn't been there on peds in over a year.
Luke did a combination of my milk and formula to see how he tolerated things. He again wasn't tolerating anything. By the evening he was tolerating some. We talked to the Peds GI who said he was short and skinny but him being short was not caused by him being skinny (sometimes kids who aren't getting enough for whatever reason will not grow). He decided we should look into giving him formula that has finely ground rice cereal in it that gels once it is in the stomach to see if it would stay down. With this formula, mixed half and half with my milk, he was able to start keeping it down. A.J. spent the night with him that second night since he was taking everything from a bottle and I stay at home and actually got some rest.

When I got to the hospital the next day Luke seemed to have perked up some. He had gained some of the weight back from being rehydrated. The pediatrician saw him and said he could go home that afternoon if he was keeping most of his feeding down. Of course we couldn't leave without one more blood draw too, that was his fourth blood draw. It was so sad because he knew what was coming. All of the basic tests came back normal except for his ferritin level which means he's anemic. There isconcern he has some sort of endocrine or metabolic disorder. They did finally let us go home with an appointment and another visit for a weight check with Dr.Taylor every week (so down to Springville twice a week) and then we will also be seeing the GI ped and possibly some other specialists.
Sorry the picture quality isn't any good. I only had my cheap phone to take pictures with. I am going to get some that A.J. took with his fancy phone though.

And Sunday Luke turned 8 months! All 11 lbs exactly (which is over a half a pound bigger than Wednesday). He's very vocal and can move across a room quickly and loves to play with his brother and sisters. He has the biggest toothless grin too! :)