Worries

Noah has been sick on and off for the last month. This past week he has been very lethargic. No fever, a little cough and congestion. He looks washed out. Sunday evening he almost fell asleep at dinner, and that was after sleeping over 13 hours the night before.

Sunday night was spent weighing the options. Send him to school since he doesn't have a fever and hope he makes it. Or take another day off work* (the 7th in a three week period due to sick kids, sick me, and the two days I took off for Orlando).

I sent him to school. He wasn't acting sick after all, he was just dragging ass. And I had a rare meeting free day at work and six hours that I could use to catch up on administrative crap that has been piling up on me for months.

So I took a chance. 

(Does that ever work for you? Because it sure didn't for me.)

By 10am the school nurse called and said he fell asleep at his desk and was now laying on one of her cots sound asleep. I told her I'd be there within the hour.

Before I left to go get him I called his pediatrician and arranged to bring him in that afternoon.

The waiting room at the pediatricians office was standing room only.

The doctor checked him out and couldn't find anything wrong with him. No fever, ears were fine, throat was fine, chest was fine, glands not swollen.

I wasn't taking that for an answer though, because I knew something was wrong. I pushed a bit and used the "I know my kid" line. He agreed to order blood work and then told me to call Noah's psychiatrist and tell him what was going on.

I kept Noah home on Tuesday. He was still washed out, but he didn't sleep like he did the day before. He did play Legos all freaking day long. Mommy put a couple hours of Lego building in too.

Results of the blood work came back yesterday. His white blood cells and platelets are low. Not scary low, but low. He tested positive for a prior infection of mono, but not an active infection.

We think the blood count abnormalities are an adverse effect of one of his medications. It doesn't really explain the lethargy though.

So we have a plan:

• Most importantly, I will not freak out.
• We will start tapering him off this medication (a mood stabilizer).
• We will repeat the blood work in ten days.
• I will continue to not freak out.
• When the results are back I will have a phone consult with his psychiatrist.
• We will continue to wean him off the medication and cross taper with a different mood stabilizer
• If his white count and platelets have not increased I will freak out.

So I'm worried about the possibilities and have pretty much thought through all the bad ones (I'm really trying not to). I'm also worried about how he is going to handle this cross taper of meds. I really don't want to see him go manic and crash like he did last November. But, at least I will know what is going on if it does happen.

Noah goes through so much with his crazy, mixed up brain. Why does it have to get even more difficult for him.

If you have any healing thoughts you can spare, I'd appreciate a few sent Noah's way.


*I'm lucky that my job is flexible and my boss understanding, so when I do have things like this happen I know I can put my family first without worrying about job security. I work hard though, to make sure I give back even more when I am at work. I need them to need me, so I do everything I can to make sure that is the case.