A while ago we all came down with and recovered from some god forsaken respiratory flu.
But Sam just couldn't shake his. His fevers continued to bounce back over a month's time and, after three trips to our pediatrician (and so many missed days of school), his doctor was finally concerned enough to do a chest x-ray and some blood work. Lo and behold, even though his lungs sounded just fine at every appointment, he had pneumonia.
My poor boy. I love our pediatrician, but I could have slugged her for not being more proactive. My normally happy and healthy boy had deteriorated over the course of a few weeks as his body tried valiantly to fight this persistent virus off alone. He was a trooper, but it was awful to not have answers for so long. This was more or less easily remedied once they figured it out, but it made me think about families who are dealing with truly life-threatening illnesses. Their anguish and exhaustion is unimaginable to me and, especially after this ordeal, they will remain in my prayers.
He was excited about the x-ray. He thought something might go awry with the equipment and he'd become a superhero like Hulk or Spiderman. :)
The blood work...not so much. They had to stick him a few times in both arms. But with a little distraction from me, the promise of camouflage bandages, and his utmost bravery, he didn't shed a tear.
This last photo was from just a few days ago when, after being on a very high dose of antibiotics for over a week, he broke out in a terrible rash everywhere...I mean everywhere. Ends up he's not allergic to the medicine, just sensitive to it. Today is his last dose and we are all very glad to be rid of this terrible miserable no good crud!
One positive thing came out of this mess. Sam stopped sucking his thumb! We've been talking to him about it for some time, but I think the fact that he was so miserable and isolated for so long drove home that his thumb is a squishy little vehicle for nasty germs to ride into his body. It's been over a week now with no thumb sucking and he said this morning that it's getting easier every day.
Yippee!
He amazes (and exacerbates...but mostly amazes) me every day, my brave Sammy boy.
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