Specialist

Since Thanksgiving, Helen has thrown up a completely disproportionate number of times. The stomach bug has passed through our house three times, getting Helen all three times, Alice and Jerry twice (though very mildly), and luckily sparing me. Each time it comes through, Alice and Jerry have it for less than 24 hours, and Helen gets it for a week or more. Currently, we’re on day 6 of this most recent traverse. I think that with Helen, it initially starts with a virus but then just lingers because of another underlying issue. Not sure what that issue IS, though.

Helen throws up mostly at night after she’s been asleep for a few hours, and is getting to the point where she’s afraid to eat. This isn’t good. And she’s FINE immediately after she throws up. No refractory period, nothing — just wants to run around and play instantly. Which is annoying — I can’t take her anywhere, because it might be a virus. Her life gets canceled because it might be a virus. But she’s fine. Which translates: CABIN FEVER. Helen has been extremely whiny for about 6 weeks now. I hate it.

Finally, I called the pediatrician yesterday to give the “Advice Nurse” Helen’s history. She used to throw up 40+ times per day as a breastfeeding infant until I gave up dairy. She always throws up excessively EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. she gets a runny nose. She’s very very picky and will not drink anything with carbonation (never has), will not drink orange juice (never has liked it), and doesn’t like anything spicy. “Is it spicy?” is a question she asks every time she’s faced with a new food. She’s taken to wearing Pull-ups again on the days she doesn’t feel good because her body is so unpredictable.

She’s had a full allergy workup, and that came back with nothing. So I don’t think it’s allergies. Not sure that we tested for food allergies, though — I’ll have to call the allergist’s office and see.

We now have an appointment with a GI specialist in 2 weeks. So until then, I’m keeping a food/events diary so that when I go in there and he asks what she’s been eating and how often she’s thrown up/had diarrhea I’ll be able to report accurately. I’m not going to try to feed her differently for the next two weeks just because I’m writing it down, so maybe I’ll be able to see what some of her triggers are. I suspect that one of them is chocolate — over the holidays she did have a lot of it. So that could be part of the problem.

Wish us luck. This ain’t fun. And I’m trying not to be the hysterical mother that uses the internet to pre-diagnose her child. I just want the puking to stop.

I haven’t slept well in weeks because I’m either cleaning up from a pukefest or I’m expecting to do so… So I’ve been avoiding going to bed at all because I anticipate having to get up anyway, and I might as well just BE up. Not healthy. I’m exhausted, grumpy, and it’s not like Helen’s doing this on purpose. So then I feel guilty. And every night the cycle repeats. I know that Jerry’s frustrated that I’m staying up so late, but when I just lie there in bed waiting to hear a splatter over the monitor, I’d just rather be awake, you know? And all of this sleeplessness is making getting up in the mornings very very hard.

*sigh*

Parenting is such a joy sometimes.