Taylor has had a busy few days since I last wrote - unfortunately they haven't been fun. She's had a raging double ear infection since Sunday and just started to show signs of improvement today.
First on Friday, we had her 9 month appt with Dr. Dudas. This was late, but he wanted her to see all of the specialists first and I had to cancel once for one of her therapy appts. Anyway, Taylor is a total peanut - 3% in height/weight/head circumference. Lauren was around 5% at this age too (and is now 75% height - go figure), so we aren't too concerned about that - her parents aren't huge people. She now weighs 16 pounds. The appt was very uneventful - it was mostly me updating Dr. Dudas on the various specialist appts and keeping him updated. He's a great generalist pediatrician and we've seen the specialists, but I still wonder if we need someone else that is really well-versed with her condition. I think we should explore this more. The best part - she didn't need shots, so it was a relatively easy appt. The worst was completing the questionnaire for normal development milestones at the beginning of the appt. Of course, that is not too fun for us.
The rest of the week-end - bless her heart - we had another fun, sunny week-end with lots of pool and beach time. She typically goes for awhile and then one of us takes her home. Unlike Lauren and Jacob, who are having the best time in the sun - Friday and Saturday were 5 hour beach club days for them! I knew Taylor wasn't chipper, but didn't realize she was sick. I just thought the heat was making her lethargic. We didn't realize until Sunday night that she was sick.
On Sunday, we went to church and it was a good time of rejuvenation. I was a little emotional on Sunday for some reason - I got teary eyed on my morning long run and then again at church. Coincidentally, we were seated across the aisle from a lovely family that we've seen before. The child is clearly a patient at nearby Children's Hospital for cancer treatment - he's probably 3 or 4 years old. During the opening hymn, I saw the father look up to the sky, close his eyes, and then realized he was crying. My heart went out to him and I was again reminded that we are truly blessed. Our load is much, much lighter than that poor family's. I hugged Taylor extra tight and realized she was having a blast looking at the light from the stained glass windows.
That evening we went over to David's sister's house for a family dinner - our first since they returned from Hawaii. We're so thrilled they are home. Taylor was clearly out of sorts and didn't want to be held by anyone but David or I. I learned a good lesson - my first instinct was to think it was related to her cortical vision condition - oh no, she doesn't like lots of faces and is overwhelmed by too many people. She did seem to calm down when I took her to a quiet place, but as it turns out, she was just sick.
After we got home I put her to bed and woke up at midnight to her shrieking in pain. She was contracting her stomach so I was worried that her stomach was upset. I was also worried that she was dehydrated from the heat, so tried to give her a bottle which she wouldn't take (very unusual for her). For the next four hours, she was really upset and cried whenever I tried to lay her down. It was an exhausting night for everyone. I've never seen her that upset. Finally, at 4am, it dawned on me that it was probably an ear infection (she's had a lingering runny nose), not stomach pain. We gave her Tylenol and she slept a few hours upright in her swing (without pressure on her ears). You would think after all of the ear infections we've seen, we would have diagnosed it more quickly (Lauren had a bunch and Jake has had two sets of tubes put in his ears).
Anyway, I took her back to Dr. Dudas on Monday and she had a double ear infection, 103 degree fever, and was generally miserable. She gagged every time I tried to give her a bottle or even her binky and only managed to drink a few ounces of Pedialyte. I held her all day and she was a limp noodle. The grand finale - when I took her to Dr. Dudas' office she threw up 4 times!!! It was seriously unbelievable - kinda like the girl in the blueberry pie eating contest in the movie Stand By Me. She threw up once by the check-in desk, once nearly on Dr. Dudas' shoes, and twice in the pharmacy. Thankfully, they were little and mainly Pedialyte, but she and I were both a disgusting mess by the time we finally got home. Dr. Dudas said it wasn't the stomach flu - she was choking on mucus and gagging herself - ewwww.....but at least it isn't contagious. We were quite the pair at the doctor's office though.
Today she was still very lethargic and slept a ton, but she ate nearly normally and hopefully will feel better tomorrow. My big lesson - I can't jump to associate a bad night out with her condition. It's easy to think every small thing might mean something bigger, and we need to start small (ear infection) before jumping to big conclusions. I'm looking forward to seeing her smile and laugh again when she feels better - and I'm so thankful that the cause is an easily treatable ear infection - not chemotherapy like the poor family at church.
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