Sick, Sick, Sick

Itty Bitty is sick.

Don't worry, it's nothing scary, but it's not very much fun for her. Actually, Becca being Becca, for the most part, she's acting completely fine. In fact, she's "organizing" the movies right now. But here's the scoop:

This weekend Becca stopped chewing. Could be weird eating issues, could be ear pain. She has tubes but has gotten several ear infections since they were placed. Sunday night she had a fever. Monday morning, the fever was gone, but she had a goopey ear. By Wednesday, it was goopey enough that I called the doctor, and they called in antibiotic ear drops. Wednesday evening, I checked her ear and it was full of blood, mostly dried. I gave her her drops, and they dislodged a big clot of blood, which had puss behind it. (Gross, I know. Welcome to parenthood.) Her ear continued to seep blood, but she want to sleep fine.

This morning, she woke up to diarrhea, which has continued throughout the day. We saw Dr. Collins this morning, and she (gingerly) peeked into the ear and decided that we needed to do oral antibiotics, too. We never really determined what was going on (because she didn't want to dig around in a tiny, painful ear), but basically, whatever the issue is (ear infection, dislodged tube, etc.), it would be treated with drops and oral antibiotics. So we've started those. (The oral one is the yummy bubble gum medicine that we had as kids - you know, they one that stays in the fridge?) The diarrhea - and the vomiting that woke her up from her nap this afternoon - are likely from a stomach bug on top of the ear issue. Good times. But, again, it's nothing scary, since it isn't lung-related.

More concerning, though, was the fact that she had lost 4 ounces in 2 weeks, even while growing 1/4 of an inch. Chances are that the weight loss is attributed to the fact that she has thrown up once a day every day for eight straight days. Apart from today's episode, it's always been at a meal, and it's always been way more than she has eaten at that particular meal. Her speech/feeding therapist, Caroline, is confident that she's not gagging or having trouble swallowing, so we (John and I, Caroline, and Dr. Collins) are figuring that it must be reflux-related, so we are going to go ahead and see a G-I specialists because, as Dr. Collins said, "You need more doctors." It's actually quite amazing that we've made it this far without a GI, even in the NICU. Hopefully s/he will be able to help with the reflux and figure out a way to get some meat on Becca's bones without a feeding tube. Or maybe we'll have to go ahead with the tube finally. It certainly wouldn't be the end of the world!

Okay, I hope I haven't grossed you out too much. Oh, and one of the dogs was sick today, too. And just to make sure that this post isn't birth control for you childless folks out there, here's a picture of the pretty, pretty princess - she's even cute when she is pitiful.

Here she is after she threw up at our picnic - all her other clothes were gross!

In the post-puke bath:

And here she is cuddling with daddy after getting her ear drops.

UPDATE 3-28!

Becca is much better, though she threw up in the middle of the night last night (4 a.m., in fact), and has had a couple of gross diapers today...but that's better than the 6 poopy (though there wasn't much actual poop, just liquid, poor girl!) she had in the 12 hours she was awake on Friday. I think the stomach bug may have passed, and we're left with the diarrhea caused by the antibiotics...which she hates, by the way. Hates the yummy pink amoxicillin. But it smells so good! I feel like I'm putting us way back on the progress we've made with feeding when I force the syringe into her mouth, so I'm going to call the doctor tomorrow and see if we really have to do the full 10-day course. (Yes, I know you are supposed to give all the antibiotics even if symptoms have disappeared, but we're going for the lesser of the evils at this point.) Let's hope we have a restful, puke-free and poop-free night!