James has been having a rough couple of weeks since his “berry surgery” on February 3rd. He had a lot more secretions than normal and an elevated heart rate the day after surgery. Then his bowel movements weren’t as frequent as they normally are. This was followed by some breathing difficulty, low oxygen sats, and a high heart rate.
On the 10th, James was still struggling to have bowel movements, so Stacy gave him some fiber which seemed to help. He started to have a few bowel movements.
On Friday the 11th, he spiked a fever of 103.4 so Stacy gave him some Tylenol which started to bring his temperature back down.
On Saturday Stacy had what I call a “light bulb moment”. It’s one of those times when you’re struggling to figure something out (in this case, James’ fever) and then the answer kinda just hits you. Stacy realized that James has some more teeth that are starting to break through. Symptoms of teething include a temperature and increased drooling. Ding, ding, ding! Maybe this is the cause of James’ temperature.
James continued to have a bit of a fever throughout the weekend, so we kept up with the Tylenol to keep his temperature down.
On Tuesday James had an EEG for his new neurologist. The neuro said it was abnormal, but it did look better than James’ last EEG. That is good news, right? As long as it’s better than last time, we’re on the right path.
Since James’ had been having frequent fevers, we took him to see the pediatrician after the EEG, just to see if he thought it could be something else other than teething. He prescribed an antibiotic in case there was an infection that was causing the fever. He also sent James down to the lab to get some blood work. That came back normal.
The neuro eye doc called on Tuesday with the results of the VEP test that James took. He said that he saw a connection between James’ left eye and the brain. This was good news. Since the optic nerve didn’t fully develop in his left eye, we weren’t sure if he would have any vision in that eye. It seems like he does have some sort of vision there. Some is better than none.
James has been on the antibiotic for a couple of days now. He still has a bit of a fever, but not nearly as bad as it had been, so we think we’re on the right road. One thing that Stacy noticed earlier this week is that James seems to be a totally different kid when he is on his belly. When he is sitting up, he is pretty juicy with secretions, and has an elevated heartrate. But when he is on his belly, he gets nice and relaxed and his heart rate comes back down. I suppose this could be related to the surgery. Maybe sitting puts more pressure on his boy parts and there is less pressure on that area when he is on his belly?
