Dr visit AGAIN!

I ended up taking Aidyn BACK to the doctor once again this afternoon. He normally eats around 20-28 oz of formula a day, PLUS cereal in the morning and veggies at all of his other feedings (except before bed). However, since last Saturday and Sunday when he started acting all yuckie, he has only been averaging about 14 oz per day. Sometimes a little more, but not usually much. Since he normally eats a 7oz bottle, that means he is basically eating only 2 times in the 12+ hours that he's up. Not good! Luckily, he sometimes will still eat his cereal and/or veggies.

On Monday, when we went for his skin, the dr suggested trying apple juice with water, just water, or Pedialyte...anything cool basically that might taste good and soothe Aidyn's throat. However, since apparently he has learned to associate the bottle with pain, he turns his head and cries when he sees it coming! When he totally refuses it, we just skip ahead to the cereal or veggies. On some days, he'll eat later during the day or early evening...but I think it's because he's just starving. He's also started waking up in the middle of the night again (fun!) because he's hungry. So, ofcourse I feed him...I'm just glad he's eating something and he usually eats the entire 7 oz then as well.

So, anyhow, today he got up at 7am and by 5pm he had only eaten 4 oz and 3-4 cubes of squash. That's it...in 10 hours!!! I decided to go ahead and call back and see if I needed to bring him back in or not. Not for his skin this time, but because he won't eat. And, as you can tell from the title of this post, we went back in at 3:15pm.

We saw Dr.Taylor, again. Part of me wanted to see someone differently for a 2nd opinion, but then since he knew how his skin and throat looked previously, I was kinda glad it was him.

I explained the eating and that Aidyn has cut his intake in half (liquid and solids) and that he just hasn't been himself. The nurse wanted a weight check, and I'm glad we did. On Monday, Aidyn weighed 17 lbs 3 oz. Today, only 2 days later, he weighed 16 lbs 13 oz...that's a loss of 6 oz in 2 days. You can probably imagine how this freaked me out. On the way to the dr, I had told my mom that I was hoping maybe he'd lost an ounce or two so that maybe the drs would take me/him more seriously. I DID NOT anticipate 6 oz though! Ugh!

I asked if maybe he had an ear infection...nope, ears looked great. I asked if the sore spots were thrush...nope, the coloring, location, and "intensity" was not the same. I askd if he had strep...nope, they did a test and it came back negative. So, I asked how the sores got on his throat and what they were. This time, Dr. Taylor let me look at his throat. The sore spots (on Monday) were more yellowish and almost puss-like according to the dr. Today, they had gone down in size and were not as big. Not better, but not worse. Aidyn's throat was very red and just raw looking. Dr.Taylor said it's just sore but will improve within a day or two. I hope he's right!

Now, you can imagine that at this point I started crying and said, "So he's gonna be ok?" I couldn't take it anymore. As soon as I said that, while the dr was holding Aidyn (like he was standing on the exam table), wouldn't you know that Aidyn started laughing, smiling, and kicking his feet like he wanted to dance. And I'm in tears, haha...go figure. The dr just turned to look at me and said, "Look, mom, he's happy and fine. He's just got a sore throat and that's why he doesn't want to eat. There's a big difference in a sick baby and a baby that just doesn't feel well, and he just doesn't feel well. You don't need to worry." And then he continued to fuss at Aidyn for making his mommy worry. ;) And I was able to dry myself up and regain composure, ha.

I explained to him that we have tried cool milk (formula), water, juice, and Pedialyte but it's like he knows the bottle will hurt and so he refuses it. The dr agreed that he's associating the bottle with pain and so it may take some "convincing" for Aidyn to realize there's cold, yummy stuff in the bottle that will help his throat. Even when he is better, it may take a few days for him to realize the bottle "doesn't hurt" anymore. In the meantime, we are to feed him WHATEVER he'll eat...cold (slushly like) veggies, applesauce, infant yogurt (sparingly), juice, jello, cold formula, cereal, etc. The important thing is getting SOMETHING in him, not what the something is necessarily.

Now that I realize he IS going to be ok (I hope...right? ha), I'll try to stop worrying and realize that he'll eat when he's hungry and hopefully his throat will clear up soon enough.

Now, for the "crazy" part... (yep, you just thought this was a long post already!)

Dr.Taylor still isn't satisfied with how Aidyn's dry skin patches (1 on his shoulder, 2 on his back, and 1 on his tummy) are, or aren't, healing. He agreed that it is looking better, but not as quickly as it should. If we don't get it cleared up soon, he's afraid it may get infected and cause more issues...and we DEFINITELY don't want that. When he stepped out of the room to ask the nurse to do the strep test, he saw Dr.Pearson (another dr in the group). He came in, checked his throat and skin, and agreed with everything we'd already discussed and decided upon. He, just like Dr.Taylor, felt like we need to go ahead and take Aidyn to a dermatologist (skin specialist) to see if we can get everything cleared up.

Since there aren't any pediatric dermatologist (PDs) in the area, we had to get a referral to an adult dr that works with the Pediatrician's office. The peds office should call me back soon about setting up an appointment. HOWEVER, if that doesn't work or they can't get anything figured out or "fixed", then Dr.Taylor suggests we visit a PD in...get this...Nashville or Cincinnati. Nashville is a 4.5-5hr drive west from our house and I don't even know how far Cincinnati would be. I'm going to try and not think about that!

So, for now...
We're continuing his Prevacid for reflux twice a day. I want to start weaning from it (I don't think he needs it much anymore), but we want to wait until his throat clears up and he's back to feeling 100%, or close to it.

We're continuing baths only twice a week (to help his skin from drying out), medicated ointment on the dry patches twice a day, and thick Aveeno baby cream as many times as possible on the rest of his body.

We're now adding Omoxycilin (sp?) twice a day, for the next ten days, to help his throat feel better and maybe the dry skin...I'm not really sure on that one.

Aaaaaaand, Tylenol or Motrin as he seems to be "hurting" and needs it. I have been trying to use these VERY sparingly unless he seems uncomfortable. Today, he had T in the morning at the sitter's and then M tonight before eating and going to bed.

Yes, I said he ate! After only eating 4 oz from 7-5pm today and a few squash, he ate an entire bottle at 5:30pm (I think he was starved) and 4 additional oz before going to bed at 9:30pm.

So, there you have it. I hope I answered or responded to everything I could think of, questions I asked today, and what the drs said. If you think of something I didn't address, feel free to leave a comment here or on my Facebook wall...and if you've read this far...God bless you! :)