I FINALLY got some answers today. I didn't even have to ask. The doctor, Dr. Pitts, took one look at his chart and said "this kids been sick too long and somethings gotta give". I could have hugged his neck...seriously. I was a little nervous about seeing him. I'd never heard of him before (the practice we go to has a million Dr's), so I looked him up on their website once I made the appointment. He was the only one available that morning, and of course he was at the office 1 hr away and not the closest one. Apparently I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. He was old. Had been practicing for a LONG time (he mentioned 30 yrs of listening to chests with the baby crying), he was a male...I, for some reason, have never ever like male Dr's for me or for him. I don't think they are personable enough, they don't understand a mother's concern, etc. Ya know, the same reasons I don't use male OB's....Anyways....He ran lots of blood work on Logan. Even checked his liver since his fever had been so high (apparently that can cause liver damage?) and since he'd been on Motrin/Tylenol for so long. The bad part about that was that it was an actual needle stick in his arm and not just a toe prick like usual. Bless his bitty heart, he even has a big knot on his arm from it. He also ordered STAT chest x-ray and sinus x-rays. After all this was done we were to return to the office to get the results and also to get an antibiotic shot for Logan's ear infections.
Turns out Logan not only had an infection in each ear, but he has pneumonia in his mid and upper right lung. His whole right heart border was obscured by the pneumonia, which the Dr. showed me and fully explained. I really like that this Dr, even though I was a work-in at this point, still took the time to explain the anatomy, problems, etc on the x-rays. He also explained his sinus x-ray. He said children of Logan's age had already developed maxillary sinuses and showed me where they were suppose to be. On the x-ray you couldn't even see the sinuses because they were completely filled with pus. They should have looked like black circles or air bubbles. So that meant Logan also had what he considered a "severe" sinus infection. He told me he thought the sinus infection had been the root of all the trouble and what had been dragging out this illness so much. He didn't say this but I'm guessing the drainage from his sinuses caused the ear infection (I know when I had my sinus infection my ears hurt like crazy), and the drainage from his sinuses and ears got in his lungs and caused the pneumonia. That's just the way my mind plays it out, so who really knows!
They ended up giving him Rocephin (I have no idea if that's the right spelling), which is an antibiotic injection. They usually have their patients wait 15 minutes after this injection to see if they have a reaction, but due to Logan's past history with reactions we had to wait 30 minutes. Luckily, he had no reaction and by 4:00 we were finally on our way home. It was a long, long day...(we left the house at 10 to make our 11:15 appt). We have to go back tomorrow at 2 for a repeat dose of the antibiotic and to recheck his lungs, fever, etc. I haven't noticed a difference in him yet, but in all honesty he was running and playing as long as his fever hadn't spiked, so I'm not really sure what I'm suppose to be looking for now that he has this medicine in him.
Getting his x-rays was a stressful situation. It was even more stressful than getting his blood drawn. Once again I couldn't go back, but I did get to help a little this time. I'd help get him positioned on the table and then I had to run behind the window/lead wall while the took the film and then run back in. They wanted me there as much as possible, but I think it made things worse for him with me running in and out on him. Once again they commented on how strong he is for his age. I seriously think every single medical person that's dealt with him has mentioned that at one time or another!
I still don't understand why things got this bad. We've been in there pretty much every week, sometimes more, for the past 4 weeks. He's had two rounds of antibiotics, one of which he didn't technically finish due to the reaction. But still...it looks like all of that would have kept something this serious at bay. Dr Pitts kept asking me if there's anyone in the family with an immuno-suppressed disease...which I know of none really. Brent's Crohn's is consider immuno-suppressed, and I told him that history but that's all I could come up with. It's not like Brent doesn't react to antibiotics or anything though...
I'll update tomorrow when I know more. Hopefully this medicine has kicked in and we're almost through with the sickies around here. Well, except for Brent who has been passed out upstairs since he got home apparently with whatever I had last weekend. He said if feels like someone took a chainsaw to his throat and he's hurting all over. I hope he remembers how he told me "it's just a sinus infection" ;)
I'm hoping that one of these days I get to rest and recover myself. I'm still not over whatever I had. I forgot my medicine all day on Friday and I could definitely tell it on Saturday, but I have remembered it since and am slowly feeling better. There's no time for me to be sick, so this needs to just disappear.....
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