Few things cease to matter when you have a sick child, or so that has been my experience. Its been a long few days and right now Gage is lying down with his Thomas the Tank Engine sippy cup, all cozy in his favorite helicopter footie pajamas, and is snuggled up with his blankie watching cartoons. He and I spend the better part of the afternoon and evening at the doctors office followed by the Emergency Room where poor little Gage was poked and prodded at, stuck with needles and x-rayed.
When Gage was born his blood work came back abnormal and had to be sent to the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh for genetic screening. It turned out that he has an enzyme deficiency called Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (or G6PD for short). I'm no doctor, and this is a complicated thing, so I'll break it down the best I can - it more or less means that he lacks the enzyme needed to adequately produce and maintain red blood cells. There are also a whole slew of foods and medications that he can't have that can interfere with his already weakened system of making these red blood cells, causing them to die off quicker - thus sending his little body into overdrive to try and produce more, which can lead to kidney failure.
For the past 2 and 1/2 days Gage hasn't been feeling well. He's been running a temperature, vomiting a little, not wanting to eat or drink. He definitely had a bug. Its winter, its that time of the year, and its going around. No cause for alarm for a normal child. But when we reached the 3 day mark and he still wasn't feeling any better and Children's Tylenol no longer seemed to help we called the pediatrician and went to the doctor who immediately advised us to go to the emergency room for blood work and X-rays to be sure that this wasn't a G6PD spike.
Thankfully all Gage has is a run of the mill virus. But it scares me to death that from now until forever that every time my poor little guy so much as gets a stomach ache he has to be rushed to the hospital.
His diet is already so strict as a result of all of this. What's going to happen when he goes to school, or wants to go over to a friends house for a sleep over? I'm scared to find out what's next?
5 comments:
hugs!
Oh my goodness, many many hugs... for now and all the years to come!! How stressful! These little kids just come into our lives and get under our skin and warm our hearts and make us nuts... can't live without them, though, ya know?
I hope you little guy feels better soon!!
Aww, that poor, poor little boy. I hope he starts feeling better and I hope that everything goes well for you and your family from now on.
Hugs to you and Gage [and the rest of the fam]. Keep your thoughts positive as it's all you have control over. If you worry about what's gonna happen and when, it does no good. Just take things as they come.
He's cute as a button, by the way...and that pic of both of you is just so adorable! :)
xxx
Bless Gage's heart. And yours. That is the sweetest little face in the whole world!
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