+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Much better
Things were much better today. Alex was able to come home this afternoon, after his repeated blood tests showe that his hemoglobin was increasing again. His appetite returned today, too, though after so much time in the hospital, he is REALLY trying to exert his authority over anything he can. For example, this morning, I brought some orange juice to the hospital with me because Alex wouldn't drink anything that came in the hospital containers. It was a 1 quart carton, and he refused to let me put in into any of his cups (even his normal sippy cups). The only way he would drink it was from the carton directly...something that was pretty funny to see. He took a good nap when we got home, and woke up grouchy...it took him an hour or two to realize that he was in a safe place again. Then he ate dinner and wanted to play outside. Hopefully, he'll improve over the weekend and be back to normal after a few nights of good sleep.
Dan is doing better too. As it turns out, he probably just needed some uninterrupted sleep, which he got after he came home early this morning. Perhaps we can all now rest and get back to normal.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Holding pattern
You guessed it...Alex is still in the hospital. His blood test yesterday showed that his red blood cell level was dropping since he came in the day before, so either the fluids they've been giving him have diluted the results (since he was dehydrated when he had the first one), or he is bleeding somewhere (probably his esophagus - we've already established that it's probably raw from the throwing up). I don't know what the plan is other than to repeat the blood test this morning and see where he is. If it keeps going down, I'd imagine more tests are in store. They stopped his IV fluids yesterday to give him a chance to be thirsty and start drinking, so that should eliminate any dilution effect.
As for us, we're starting to show wear and tear. Dan came home this morning after his own ER visit (he's been staying with Alex at night to give me and my almost-seven-month pregnant belly time to rest). He had spiked a 102 degree fever and was pretty nauseous, so he called his wonderful sister Abby who came right in to take over for him. We've both been fighting off the GI bug that Alex had, but I've been getting rest and he hasn't. In any case, we're hoping that this all works out pretty soon.
+ 0 - 0 | § ¶Getting better slowly
Alex is still in the hospital, though he is significantly better than in my last post. Early yesterday morning (3AM Tuesday?), they transferred Alex to Albany Med because of a positive test for blood in his throw-up. They were concerned that he had a GI bleed, and needed to have the surgery group do a consult. So, Dan called me and we both went with him back to Albany's ER, where we spent another four hours, after which he was admitted. Since then, they've determined that it was likely NOT a GI bleed (another barium swallow), and that all of his blood cultures that had been taken in Schenectady were negative for bacteria. (This means no blood infection.) The working diagnosis at this point was what Dan had believed, which was that an ill-timed GI virus had make Alex throw up and irritate Alex's healing recently-dilated esophagus causing the positive test for blood.
At this point, Alex is improving steadily. He is still on IV fluids, but as soon as he can demonstrate that he can eat and drink and keep them down, they'll let him leave. He actually ate a pretty good dinner last night (mac n cheese and bread mainly), but he isn't willing to drink at all. I think that it's partially because the IV is keeping him hydrated, so he doesn't have to, so we've been asking them to turn the flow rate down to give him a chance to be thirsty. They did it for a time last night, but the nurse got nervous about a lack of wet diapers, so she turned it back up. The thing is that Alex hasn't been wetting his diapers at night at much, choosing to save it for the morning. Since this illness, he keeps saying "ucky pee" every time he has to go...which is what he called the diarrhea. I think that he's become scared of the feeling of the pee in his diaper...he thinks he's getting sick again. Oh, well...hopefully we'll be home today or tomorrow.