We knew, with Will 0.3 going to school every day, that he was going to catch colds and be sick. We just didn’t know it would happen so soon.

I missed work with a sinus infection of Thursday (and probably should have stayed home Friday, too). Most of Will’s class was out sick on Friday, and we picked him up early to try to protect him a bit. Unfortunately, Willpower is now sick, and was really miserable Friday night, screaming in a way that we hadn’t heard before. We think he was choking on his own snot, and it was scaring him. He slept very poorly, and so did we, and was running a fever of 101 to 102 most of the night.

We got him a pediatrician’s appointment this morning, and explained to yet another new doctor everything about Will’s medicial history - for some reason, our hospital and doctors are unable or unwilling to update his patient records with everything that happens at Cardinal Glennon, so we have to explain all that he’s been through, and why we are so overcautious when he runs a fever. Their carelessness with his records is frustrating, to say the least.

That said, this pediatrician (Dr. Malcom Hill) was excellent. He understood all our concerns about treating infections aggressively because of Will’s possible immune system deficiency. He immediately reassured us that he was taking this very seriously, and order blood tests to see the extent of the infection, and a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia. Two hours later, the blood tests indicate a fairly serious infection, so he ordered a 24-hour dose of injected antibiotics, with a follow-up visit tomorrow morning. His nurse even took a copy of Will’s records from St. Louis, and marked them for high-priority entry in his records at Carle. Hopefully, Dr. Hill can become Will’s regular pediatrician.

The concern with this infection, as it is every time Will gets sick, is twofold. First, we don’t yet know if his immune system is deficient, so every infection needs to treated aggressively with anti-biotics, per his immunoligists at Cardinal Glennon.

Second, his IV antibiotics for his hip surgery ended only ten days ago, and there’s a possibility for the E.Coli bacteria that infected his hip to once again rear its ugly head. The blood tests they’re doing today include an overnight culture, so if they see any indications of that, they’ll let us know immediately rather than wait for the appointment tomorrow.

Right now, Will is napping with Mom on the couch. They’re both exhausted from last night, and Will is still pretty miserable.

Written by Gordy |