Urgent Care, Pediatricians and Children's Hospital

We had quite a bit of stress last week as a family. On September 18, Riley's teacher called to inform me that Riley was asleep on the floor in Kindergarten. I rushed to pick him up and take him home. He was exhausted all week and by Sunday was complaining of stomach pain. He had no flu symptoms (no fever, nothing)! Sunday night he woke up in pain so we took him to the Urgent Care nearby. They examined him, checked his belly for swelling, and urine for infection and sent us home with no answers other then "give him tylenol for pain".



Monday morning he woke up and fell back asleep on the floor in the family room. I called the pediatrician and they got him in right away after I talked to the triage nurse. He slept right up until we got on the elevator. (can you picture me carrying a child who is more then half my height?) Once we got into a room he just laid on the exam table. The PA came in and knowing how he normally is knew something was just not right. I gave her a history of the past few days symptoms and also told her how we had noticed over the past many months that he has periods of extreme fatigue and doesn't seem to have as much energy as other kids his age. She was concerned and did a thorough physical, including a rectal exam (lovely right?). She ruled out constipation and other of those types of issues. She also had blood drawn. Riley was so brave and did exactly what the nurse told him to. They put a rush on the results for us and I headed home to await a phone call. At 5:00 the PA called. She said the blood counts were ok, including the white blood counts. She said she had consulted with his pediatrician because the electrolytes were off and they both agreed that they wanted me to take him straight to the Emergency Room at Children's for further testing. I packed a bag, because I wanted to be prepared for an overnight stay and headed out for the 25 minute drive. When we arrived we were admitted right away and met with a nurse and doctor. They put in an IV and drew more blood samples and started him on saline with sugar. They did this rapidly (I think 30 minutes) and he perked right up. However, 30 minutes later he had slumped back down again and the doctor was concerned so they ran his labs again. Sure enough, his sodium and glucose had both dropped again. He talked to our pediatrician and the endocronologist and they were concerned that he had an adrenal or steroidal difficiency of some sort. They admitted us for overnight observation. Poor Riley tossed and turned all night and I slept maybe an hour or two total. They drew another blood sample at 6:30AM and sent that off. The results came back normal. The attending doctor who had not been there the night before came to talk to us for oh about 2 minutes and we were discharged a couple hours later. his electrolytes were back to normal and she needed to clear the board so to speak. His diagnosis on the discharge papers: abnormal electrolytes.



So, we headed home. By Tuesday afternoon he woke up from a 30 minute nap screaming in pain. It was the worst sound ever! My brother was working on our siding with Randy so I hollered for him to come in and help Randy give Riley a blessing. It was amazing. I could feel the spirit so strong and felt the blessing of comfort literally and immediatly calm Riley down. We called the pediatrician and were told to take him back to Children's. When we arrived we were bumped ahead of all the other children in the waiting area and got a room. We met the doctor and she reviewed his history with us. Randy wanted her to fix the pain, I wanted her to figure out what was wrong. She said she would do an xray on his stomach and she would do his blood work again to make sure it was still ok. She asked if there was anything else we needed her to do and I broke down crying and said "Do whatever you need to do to make him better." They came to put in another IV and draw more blood. The vein couldn't hold it and blew, but they got enough blood to run the tests. The nurse asked if I wanted her to poke him again for another IV in case he needed fluids. I asked if we could wait for the results to see if he needed them. (I didn't feel he was dehydrated). We waited for well over an hour during which time we heard traumas come in (we were right by the trauma doors). We heard a lot of eye opening things while we waited there. finally nurses started trickling in to check on us and see what we were waiting on. They finally got us back for the xray. a few minutes later the doctor walked in and told us that his xrays showed everything was fine except that he was severly constipated. Poor kid. So we had the option of enima or at home laxitives. We chose to take him home and treat him there. I asked her if this is what would cause the abnormal electrolytes and she said no. So we were to await further lab results in the coming days. His sodium level on Monday was hyponatremia rather then hyper and he was also hypoglycemic. She told us she had been there for 9 hours that day and this was the first child she had been able to discharge.



By Thursday he was starting to feel better. His pediatrician called with some lab results they had gotten back. They showed that he has mono. He is in the recovery phase so past the contagious stage. And I have no idea where he got it or when it was or anything! The doctor said that typically in young children they do not see the extreme fatigue, that is expected more in a 15 year old. I asked him if that was why his electrolytes were abnormal and he said no. He said he would call me with those results as soon as he got them. So we waited again.



On Friday I got another call from his doctor after he got the results back. He said he had talked to the endocronologist and everything was normal at this time. He said that he feels like Riley's fatigue should get better over time but that if I feel like he is getting worse or if he gets better for a while and then I continue to have concerns that he wants me to bring him back in for more lab work. He said it could very well have been a weird fluke.



So, we have some answers and are hopeful that he will continue to improve. I am working on treating his constipation issues and getting those resolved over the coming weeks. I am also hoping his fatigue will begin to improve as well. And hopefully nothing will trigger another string of blood tests for him in the future. It was a very trying, and stressful week and I am so glad that things were not worse. I am very thankful to all those who stepped in to help us get through the week. (Thanks Matt, Jennie, Jan, Mom and Mom and Carolyn) And thanks to all who kept us in your prayers.