For some time now, I've had this feeling that something was just not quite right with Liam's health. Over the past 1.5 years he has struggled with ear infections, fevers, and constant skin issues. In September 2013, just a few weeks before Alanna was born, he got a staph infection. We had to take him to kidmed to get it taken care of. It was such a terrible experience. I thought it was just a bug bite for a few days but it continued to grow bigger and then Liam's screaming over the pain became uncontrollable so we took him in. His regular doctor didn't handle anything like that so they sent us to Kidmed. I chose not to be in the room when they did the surgery on it but Nathan sat with him and held his hand. I sat outside the door crying my eyes out listening to him scream. It was terrible. The next morning, he woke up with a fever over 103 and the doctors said to take him to the ER right away. His white blood cells were all off and the hospital felt he needed to be on a strong antibiotic and stay over night. They had to put an IV in his hand and he couldn't move more than one foot away from the IV. Trying to confine a two year old who is in pain from a staph infection, to an IV pole is NOT easy...especially when you are about eight months pregnant. It was a really really long two days and I was really happy when we were able to go home the next afternoon.
Just a few weeks after having the staph infection, a strange rash appeared on Liam. It spread all over his body within a few days and I became very concerned. We took him to the doctor and he had Scarlet Fever. Apparently it is very uncommon for people to get it now but he did. He was still recovering from it when Alanna was born. He also had an ear infection when she was born so he was waking up multiple times a night. I remember it being so hard to be up with him just minutes after finally getting Alanna back to sleep. Sometimes they were even crying at the same time. It was a little hard the first week after she was born.
Then near the end of January 2014 what looked like little bug bites began to appear all over his body. I thought it was so weird that he would be getting bit in the winter but couldn't think of what else it could be. I took him in to the doctor about two weeks after they appeared and they said it was Chicken Pox. He had already had the vaccine but they said some children still get it even though it's rare to. I believed them to be Chicken Pox until just a few weeks after they were gone, more showed up again. These "bites" or "Chicken Pox" came and went all throughout the Summer and Winter of 2014. Liam had a terrible time with them. The itching was awful and he would pick them open and they would bleed. I had to keep band aids on them to keep him from scratching them. I took him back in to the doctor in the Fall of 2014 and they said that it couldn't have ever been Chicken Pox because you don't get them twice, that it must be bug bites. They said maybe I had fleas or ticks or mosquitoes. I thought maybe they were right, that it was bug bites after all until I knew it just couldn't be. There were no bugs in my house and certainly no mosquitoes in the winter. I was at the doctor to have Liam seen for an ear infection back in February of this year but the "bites" were almost gone at that time. The doctor said the next time they appear (if ever..hopefully not) to come in and they will refer him to a dermatologist.
Then two weeks ago, a strange ring of white blisters showed up on Liam's hand. They started to eat away at Liam's skin so I took him in early last week. The doctor said it was most likely Mrsa. She didn't run a test on it because she said it seemed so obvious that it was. They treated it with a cream and within four days it was gone. While at the doctor's office, Liam's doctor said she had been studying everything that had gone on with him and asked me if I had ever thought that maybe Liam had something going on with his immune system. She asked if I would be ok with getting some blood work done on him. I told her I had been very concerned and that I had wanted to talk with her about it. I was really happy that she had noticed a trend with skin issues and that she wanted to find out what was going on. They took the blood and I waited to hear about the results.
A few days later, Saturday afternoon (the day before Easter) Liam got a really bad fever. It was 104 before he went to bed that night and ranged from 101.7-103.7 all day Sunday (Easter 2015) My best friend had her baby Easter morning so I spent the morning with her while my husband watched the kids. Liam didn't even get out of bed until 11:45 Sunday morning. He has never done that before when he was sick so whatever he was fighting must really have been hitting him hard. He spent all day Sunday laying on the couch.
Monday I took him to the doctor. I had called them asking if I should bring him in and because his fever was so high they wanted to do a CBC on him. We had to see the nurse practitioner because our doctor was on vacation and all the other doctor's were full. She checked Liam's ear and he had a very bad infection in his left ear (the same ear that was infected a few weeks ago and a few weeks before that). But because his fever was so high, I still wanted to do the CBC to see if there was something else going on. The nurse agreed and said she believed he had some kind of bacterial infection. When the blood work came back, it did show that he had a bacterial infection. She also said that they had received the blood work back for his immune system. His numbers were abnormal. His IGG number was 42 and normal is 44-189. His other number came back as a 435 and normal is 453 to I believe it was 900. I can't remember the name of that test. I will have to get a print out of it all when I go back next week. But because Liam's doctor was on vacation, I couldn't find out really what is going to happen next. The nurse said that his doctor may have him start seeing some specialists to find out what exactly is wrong with his immune system but she couldn't really tell me anything more than that.
She told me to come back in 10-14 days and have his ear checked, and to discuss with his doctor what all the blood work meant and what we will need to do next. I left feeling somewhat better but mostly I feel frustrated. I hate not being able to talk with his doctor until next week. I don't want to sit around all day wondering what could be wrong, or what will happen or what this all means. I know that he gets sick too much. I know that all these weird skin issues are not normal. But not knowing what the next step is to finding out what's going on inside his body, with his immune system is a little difficult. I've felt in my heart for months and months that something was just not right. Now I just want answers...now I just want to know how to help make it better.
I'm praying that this next week goes by fast and that Liam doesn't get another sickness from being on an antibiotic. He tends to get sick right after being on an antibiotic which is why I try to keep him off of them as much as possible but with having a bacterial infection I felt it best to give it to him.
He has been so much extra clingy and emotional the past few weeks. This is his third fever and second ear infection since February, plus the Mrsa, and this bacterial infection... I just hate seeing him suffer and just want him to be all better. Please pray that I can find peace while I wait for the doctor to get back into town and pray that we will have some answers soon.
*I did not list all the times he has had a cold, fever, and ear infection. I've lost count. I would have to call the doctor to get the information on how many times I've brought him in for ear infections, plus there have been multiple times where I knew he had one but I didn't take him in.
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