Thank goodness for Western Medicine...

So it has been a few weeks since my last post, I told you all I wasn't good at this, hehehe. Anyway, I felt like I needed to make a post today because we are right in the middle of a very crazy time. Last Thursday was Luke's 6 month check up, I know I can't believe he is already 6 months either. He has been more fussy than usual and I thought he was just teething. So when the doctor examined him I explained to her that he was fussy and didn't really want to eat because I thought he was getting 2 teeth at the same time. That day he also got his first booster for the DTaP immunization. When we got home he went to bed and slept until dinner, which isn't unusual but I thought he had grown out of his afternoon nap. The next morning when he woke up he was lethargic and acted like he didn't feel good. He still didn't want to eat although I kind of forced him to so he wouldn't starve, and he wouldn't let me put him down. This progressed to Sunday night when he wouldn't even hold his head up. The whole weekend I kept thinking he's just teething and had no fever so it was nothing. When he was still acting that way on Monday I called the doctor and she wanted to see him immediately. When she got a look at him she didn't like what she saw and instructed me to take him to the ER at Primary Children's right away. So last night we checked into the ER around 5:30 and after almost 6 hours of observation and I.V. fluids he was admitted to the Infant Med Surg Unit here at Primary's. The "clinical diagnosis" is Botulism. That's right Botulism. So you're probably thinking what I did, WHAT THE @(&$! Seriously! Apparently it is contracted through spores in the soil and it is so random that they have only had 6-8 cases per year here at Primary Children's. Anyway, we thought ok, they'll get him stable, treat him and send us home right? YEAH RIGHT! So the way this thing works is, it's not the food born botulism that we are all familiar with, but it is similar. An infant's stomach and intestines doesn't have the bacteria that a healthy child or adults does so where this would normally not even affect you or I, it can make a baby very sick. You may have heard of floppy baby syndrome? This is where that comes from. It causes the baby to not have control over their muscles and thus looses the ability to move, swallow, and worse case breathe. So this is what we are looking at, so far Luke can hardly move, and he can still swallow but they are concerned that he may choke and aspirate fluid, so he has an NJ tube. For those who don't know, like me, this is a feeding tube that goes all the way into your intestines and completely bypasses the stomach. His breathing is very normal and hasn't changed since we got here, which is a VERY good sign, although the doctors say that could change within the next 24-48 hrs. So for now he is comfortable and eating and resting very well. The hard part is that he will be here for at least 6 weeks. So if you feel like we have fallen of the face of the earth, it is because we pretty much have. Meanwhile, my little trooper Maddie is being taken care of by all of our wonderful and compassionate family members and friends, and don't worry, if you haven't been called to babysit, you probably will ;), hahaha. I'll try to keep you posted since I will be here, at the hospital, everyday, all day, yippie!