To Children's We Shall Go

Sorry for the photo hiatus...my computer is in the shop. I should have it back this time next week!

It is entirely too late to be blogging, so let me be brief.

James's cardiology appointment went great. He still has an ever-so-slight leak in his valve, but "nothing abnormal" the doctor says. We don't go back for another appointment for 18 months!

Caleb's appointment was in regards to the high fevers he's been getting like clockwork every month the last several months. I had done my own mama research online, and had diagnosed my son with something called PFAPA (pronounced "fappa"). Turns out, I was right! It's a handful of symptoms--high fever, red throat, swollen glands, mouth ulcers--that recur on a very regular schedule. For us, it's about the middle of every month, almost to the day. The cause is uncertain, it's not contagious, it doesn't impede his growth or development, and he will gradually outgrow it. Until then, there are a couple ways to minimize it. The first is to give him a small dose of steroid at the onset each month. His fever should respond within hours (the real test of whether he has PFAPA or not). If that works, we'll continue on that course. The dose is small enough, and infrequent enough, that there are no harmful side effects. A more invasive option is a tonsillectomy, which seems to have a good success rate. However, doctors aren't taking tonsils out like they used to, and are much more careful to ensure that it's absolutely necessary.

Caleb was a trooper! After having his blood drawn a week ago, he was pretty leery of this doctor. The doctor assured him that he didn't have any needles, so Mr. C relaxed and shared his litany of owies. That kid is a walking bruise...much like his mama as a kid! The doctor regarded each scrape and scab and deemed them to be healing nicely. But alas, they needed to draw more blood. After I showered him with stickers pulled from my bag, and the nurse brought him more stickers and bubbles, Caleb sweetly passed out stickers to everyone: the nurse, myself, James, Jon. We all got stickers! I wondered how often the nurses receive stickers from patients, and was thankful for a generous boy. (I repeat that prayer of thanks when he shares his Starbursts with me at the library story hour. We've raised him well.)

Anyway, if this is truly PFAPA, Caleb will have another episode mid-September, and we'll give it the true test of the steroid dose and see what happens!