Eli, Eli, Eli

He had the longest hospital stay and if you can remember back that far he threw us for a loop his first night home when he stopped breathing.  Seems he can't catch a break (medically speaking) and he has definitely been my "sick" kido.  Nothing serious (he's got the breathing thing down pat) but he manages to catch EVERY bug he meets and it feels like he has been under the weather for ever!  In addition to his seemingly pathetic immune system he has also struggled with gaining weight, fevers, his bladder, and now his ears and adenoids.  I can never remember who I tell what so I figured I should summarize it all here.

Weight
From day one (at least week 6 in utero) Eli was the biggest of my munchkins.  He consistently measured the largest in ultrasounds and was born weighing the most (a whopping 3 pounds 9 ounces).  He was a tubby little baby but somewhere along the way that started to change.  Mikie caught up with him and eventually passed him but what has been the most concerning is his recent downward trend on the growth curve (from the 50th to the 5th percentile in the past 6 months).  He is holding steady for now at the 10th percentile and we will continue to watch this.

Fevers
Eli gets a lot of fevers.  I don't know if he gets more fevers then most kids do but he certainly gets more then Annie and Mikie do.  And he never gets fevers of 101 or 102.  When he gets them he basically shoots right up to 104 or even 104.5.  They seem to end as quickly as they start and we often never know the cause - teething, virus, who knows!  His pediatrician has said that he could just be "that kid" who when he gets a fever, he gets it good.  Lucky boy!


Bladder
Several weeks ago he got one of his fevers.  But this time, instead of lasting 48 hours it lasted 6 days.  We took him to see his pediatrician and (surprise) he had an ear infection.  But the doctor felt there was more going on and decided to check his urine as well.  Turns out he had a raging urinary tract infection.  This bought us a trip to Boston for further testing where it was discovered that he has bilateral Stage II Vesicoureteral Reflux.  In other words, the valves in his bladder don't work properly and allow urine to back flow into his kidneys.  This leads to re-occuring UTI's and, if untreated/uncorrected, can result in kidney scaring and ultimately kidney failure.  Thankfully, at his age there is a chance the valves will tighten up on their own and will never require surgical intervention.  So he will take an antibiotic daily for the next year at which time the tests will all be repeated.  We'll see...

Ears/Adenoids
Numerous ear infections (5-6 since Thanksgiving alone), mouth breathing (exclusively), occasional snoring, a persistent barky cough (since birth) and speech delays all led up to this weeks appointment with ENT.  Eli aced his hearing tests (yippee) and will go later this week for a neck X-ray to evaluate his adenoids.  The doctor recommended tubes for his ears and depending on the X-ray results will remove his adenoids at the same time.  If any of this happens it will likely not be until the fall.  I will keep you posted.

Gosh, I think I covered it all.