A Small Scare

Wednesday is our doctor's day off.

Although James' appetite had returned to a degree on Tuesday, on Wednesday, he had almost no appetite and became rather lethargic throughout the day. He would lie around on the couch or the floor, sit up for brief periods and then go back to reclining. He wasn't willing to hold his drinking cup, and well before time, he began asking for a nap.

Obviously if you know James - or any other 2 1/2 year old - you can imagine that this was a little concerning. But without a fever or any other symptoms, we didn't know what to think.

So around dinnertime, we called Ben's mom who knows a ton about medical things. She insisted that we call Ben's sister to see what she thought. They agreed that if we didn't want to call our doctor, we should get an appt with a nighttime care center, rather than going to an ER where James, Ben and I would all be exposed to who-knows-what.

We called our doctor, and he graciously called us back. He couldn't think of anything it might be, but encouraged us to have James seen just to rule out anything he had missed by not observing him. The earliest appt available was 9:30 p.m.

We decided to put James down for the night, and get him up when it was time to go. When I was rocking him at bedtime, he was begging me to put him in his crib so he could lie down (usually he doesn't want the rocking to end, and when it does, he wants to climb into his crib on his own). As you can imagine, this shot fear through Ben and my hearts.

We left his room, me in tears, and prayed for wisdom. Ben decided we would just get him up and go to our community ER.

God was so kind. Not only did James perk up when we put him in the car. But when we arrived at the ER, we were seen immediately. We checked in, sat down, and they called us. In addition, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that at this hospital, they have a totally separate Pediatric Emergency Department, with at least 7 rooms with glass sliding doors. Any exposure to the "who-knows-what" that had concerned us seemed minimized right away.

Inerestingly, James returned to his usual upbeat self, even throwing a fit when the blood pressure cuff started to expand on his arm, eating tortilla chips I'd brought along, and being generally agreeable.

The doc ordered an x-ray of his belly (which was a bit more distended than usual, so she wanted to make sure there wasn't something really going on in there), and there James did a fabulous job. Nothing showed up.

We were on our way home before 9:30 (we'd cancelled our appt with the outpatient center). James was in bed by 10. And he slept peacefully until after 7 this morning! And he's been my regular boy ever since (with still a diminished appetite, but better than yesterday).

Today, I feel a bit weak. So I'm wondering if maybe there's something to the bug we had that kinda kicks you again after a few days.

But whatever the case, our precious boy is back to his life-loving self, playing with play-dough, putting together jigsaw puzzles, helping me read This Is the Farmer (by Nancy Tafuri), holding his own cup and climbing into his crib. Thank you, Lord!