Pediatrician follow-up visit - and diarrhea fingerpaint? ;0

This morning I arrived at the pediatrician's office the moment their doors opened - without an appointment. We were instructed to have him seen Monday and I wanted to get Cooper in first thing 1) to have them look at a bump at his IV site which I was worried might be a dangerous blood clot (it wasn't), and 2) to avoid being there when a lot of sick kids were there (within minutes of us arriving a mom walked in to ask where she should have her kid wait since she thinks he has chicken pox - my heart sank - the receptionist told her to signal to them when they're at the door with the boy so they could rush him in and avoid him sitting in the waiting room. I asked them to put us in a room that was not in the pathway of where that boy had just walked (call me crazy but our luck sucks lately).

Dr.Mike looked Cooper over. No fever, no new wheezing sounds, discussed the meds and he said the diarrhea is totally normal and due to the antibiotics. He looked at Cooper's mouth/tongue for signs of Thrush (which apparently is a common byproduct of a strong dose of antibiotics) and said he'll probably get that (just what we need - yet another thing to deal with) but he doesn't have it yet. He asked if Dr.E (GI specialist) had weighed in on the situation and I told him he had not come to the hospital nor called even though we told the nurses that he should be notified. Dr.Mike said that Dr.E will probably want to run some tests to see the severity of the reflux now that we've "upped the anty" with the aspiration pneumonia. Lovely - more poking and prodding in the future. He described some of the tests (swallow test, pH test) and told me about a corrective surgery for severe GERD cases but that Dr.E would need to make the determination as to whether that would be appropriate. Dr. Mike said that reflux peaks between 3-5 months in infants and since Cooper's "adjusted age" (due to being 5 weeks premature) puts him closer to 2.75 months old he's just now approaching that peak time and he said things could get worse before they get better. Not exactly what I needed to hear. He said that at Cooper's 4 month checkup appointment (10/22) they'll order a follow-up chest x-ray to see if the lung cleared up. He said that it can take a few weeks for the lung to clear even though he's getting all these treatments. (big sigh)

TMI ALERT -- By the way, this morning before we headed out the door I went to check Cooper's temperature because he felt hot to me and as soon as I got the thermometer into his little rear he sprayed me with diarrhea! OMG it was so gross to have that all over my hand!! Cooper laughed as it happened - nice huh!? I cleaned up the mess on the changing pad (which thankfully was covered with a disposable waterproof pad on top of the regular cover) and my hand and then tried again. Well, I got sprayed again! After cleaning up a second time I decided the nurse at the doctor's office can check it. LOL Well she did, and she didn't get sprayed - I guess I emptied him out. ICK.

Once home from the doc's office I called Dr.E's office and left a message for him. His secretary called me back and wanted to know why Dr.E wasn't notified while Cooper was in the hospital. I told her to call the pediatric unit and ask the nurses since they were told (by me) that Dr.E should be notified. I mean, come on, right!? There I was, scared to death with a 3 month old with pneumonia and I'm supposed to tell the nurses how to do their jobs?? They asked me when we arrived if he had a GI specialist, I said yes, it's Dr.E whose office is across the street, and that it'd be good if he could be notified and then I got back to the business of worrying about and caring for my son. If Dr.E gives me ANY crap for this when he calls me back I'm might have to open a can of whoop ass over the phone and remind him that 1) I'm a first time mom that's never had a child hospitalized before, and 2) He should be taking it up with the hospital staff and not me.

Needless to say, Dr.E hasn't called me yet (only his secretary called to find out why he hadn't been notified while we were at the hospital and she said he'd call "sometime today").

Cooper had a good 2 hour nap, woke up and ate again and was cranky so I put him in his swing and he fell asleep - that was 90 minutes ago and he's still napping. I feel so bad for him - his little body is being bombarded with medications and his cough still sounds painful. I'm glad he can at least get some rest. I napped next to him for about 30-40 minutes during his first morning nap - I would have slept longer if the winds hadn't knocked over a chair on the patio causing the dog to bark and wake me up.

OK, my little guy is stirring so I better get a bottle warmed up before he really wakes up.

I'll post again later after I hear from Dr.E (GI specialist).