Paul's sickness

February 5, 2009

Well, I always said I would NEVER be a blogger, however, with our current situation, this seems to be the easiest way to allow everyone to get updates at their leisure and frees me to focus on Paul, Jr. Anyone reading this blog probably knows our son, Paul, has been very sick and out of school since December. I am now homeschooling. We are on our third Dr. and still waiting for some kind of diagnosis for him. His main symptoms are still stomach pain, nausea, occasional cramps, diarrhea, low grade fevers, fullness after a few bites of food, loss of appetite, severe weakness, dark circles, paleness (yellow and sometimes a weird shade of green). He has lost approx. 3-1/2 pounds so far. It amazes me that the Dr.'s don't seem to think being out of school for a month is a big deal. We are now with Dr. Tarr at Children's, and while he is very busy, we feel we are in the best care now. We ended up in the ER late Tuesday evening due to some other strange symptoms Paul was having. In addition to everything else, he started shivering so bad with the chills, he could hardly hold the thermometer in his mouth. He complained of his legs feeling numb and started having chest cramps and was screaming this was the worst day of all. He couldn't fathom the thought of driving all the way to Children's and was pleading to be taken to St. Lukes. After 2-1/2 hours of waiting for the Dr., the symptoms dissipated and we went home (totally frustrating). He still has daily nausea and stomach pain and is extremely weak. He woke up today and stayed in bed until 1:00 p.m. I must say it is very disheartening to see an 11 year old (who typically can never be tamed) this way. Since December, he has had an Endoscopy, Upper GI, Ultrasound, Blood Work, Stool Samples (three rounds) and an x-ray. The only thing thus far that has been noticed, it an extra amount of bowel (possible obstruction) in the colon. He is also on Prevacid for Reflux. However, he does not really have heartburn or typical symptoms of Reflux and the Prevacid has not done anything for him in the last three weeks. We are still waiting to get a Breath Hydrogen Test which can measure his glucose levels to see if he is glucose intolerant or lactose intolerant. As a baby, he had reflux, colic, and was lactose intolerant. I guess it is possible to grow out of it and back into it. We are just plugging away hoping to get to the root of this problem. He deeply misses his friends and his active life (and as most of you know SO DO I!). Since the only thing he is really able to do is rest on the couch for most of the day, we are hosting a little video game basketball tournament for him next Friday, so he can see some of his buddies. Fortunately, he has been able to keep up on most of his school work. We are very blessed to have so many people praying for us and are grateful for the love and support. Paul loved his jumbo get well card from his classmates. We still need your prayers and will keep you posted when we know more.