Thor's First Hospital Visit

First, let me thank all of you for your prayers and support while Thor was in the hospital. You all bless my family in so many ways.

Thor has been throwing up and having diarrhea for 2 months now.  It was so bad Wednesday that he couldn't keep anything down at all and the poop smell was just awful! He was vomitting til he was dry heaving. On Thursday, our pediatrician sent him straight to the children's hospital--bypassed the ER--where they had a bed waiting for him. He was severly dehydrated. It was good that we didn't wait any longer. His liver enzymers were 5 times what they should have been.

He tested positive for the rotovirus. He had all his vaccinations for it, but this must have been a strain other than type A (the one that causes 90% of infections and that the vaccine is supposed to prevent). The pediatric gastroentologist thinks he also has a milk protein sensitivity.

Because it's a virus, there is no cure.  He was on IV fluids only for 2 days so he wouldn't become deydrated again.  Getting the IV in was horribly upsetting for everyone involved. Becuase he was so dehydrated his veins were hard to hit.  Add to that his chubby little arms and legs and it took 3 nurses and 40 minutes of trying on both arms to finally get a vein. He screamed lilke we were killing him, and I bet he felt like we were. It was terrible! Then they had to draw blood every day for more tests-uggh!

Before the IV, just feeling crappy:

 He loved chewing on the IV.

 Up close look:

By Saturday we were able to start him on his new (very expensive!) formula. He tolerated it fairly well. By late Saturday night he was on the mend, keeping his food down and only 3 bouts of diarrhea. They couldn't do anything more for him so they released him. He is still sick, but feeling better than before. He may still have vomitting and diarrhea for 1-2 weeks, but hopefully not as bad, or else he will be back in the hospital.

He will have a follow-up with the GI doc after the virus is done to see if he really does have an allergy. Then we can hopefully get this under control!