Where do I begin...

The last few days for our family have been quite the whirlwind. Cohen had been sick for over 10 days with flu like symptoms (I won't go into too much detail for this with weak stomachs). I took him to the Dr. on Tuesday 12/9 to have him checked out. I just didn't feel right about things. With all the throwing up, lack of sleep, lack of appetite, crying etc. I knew something was off with him. Everyone who knows Cohen has commented that he just wasn't himself. Well the Dr. determined that due to his earlier constipation (basically since he was born) that maybe his bowels were backed up and there was nowhere for the food to go but out. She gave us a prescription for a laxative and away we went. Now mind you I questioned her diagnosis due to the fact that like I said before he was having "flu like symptoms" which did not include constipation so why would she give him a laxative. I told myself that she was the expert so I should just do what I was told.

Fast forward to Wednesday 12/10. I was at work when I got a call that scared the bejesus out of me to say the least. The daycare director told me Cohen had been napping in his crib and had been in there for over 3 hours which for him is rare. His teacher thought it was strange that he was still sleeping after that long and couple that with the fact there were 2 very loud and upset babies crying on either side of him. She decided to check on him and when she did she found that he was not breathing. It had to have been for at least a few seconds because his lips were discolored. She starting rubbing his tummy and face and said after what seemed like forever he finally came to. I left work and picked him up as quickly as I could and drove him right to my Dr.'s office to see the after hours Dr. They said he seemed fine of course, but that it was not normal for a baby to stop breathing like that. He did an exam and said that there were not obvious reasons for it. He also mentioned that he could not understand why the Dr. who had seem him the day before would have ever thought it would be a good idea to put Cohen on a laxative given the 10 day history.

At this point I was so lost and confused. I had 2 Dr.s from the same office telling me two seperate things. They did call down to Spectrum's ICU dept. and asked the pediatrician what we should do. They suggested we bring Cohen there and admit him to be observed overnight. I thought that was a great idea. Of course there was no way I was going to be able to stay awake all night to make sure he was breathing.

So we got to the hospital around 7:45 last night and checked in. They came to do vitals, hook him up to the oxegyn monitor etc. When the resident pediatrician came in he told us he thinks Cohen has reflux and it having gone untreated for so long in combination with the virus that may have cause some dehydration they think this is what caused him to stop breathing. So we put Cohen in a bed that had an incline to it and fed him a bottle of formula mixed with rice cereal and settled in for the night. He did ok with sleep, but of course he was so out of his element you have to expect him to wake a few times.

This morning they told us the printout of the oxegyn levels looked great and that he didn't appear to have anymore problems with breathing during the night. We got a prescription for the reflux and went on our way. We are home now and he is taking a nap in his car seat.

What a scary scary time we had. All in all I was very impressed with the care we received at Spectrum (as usual). I just wish I could say the same for our family Dr. I will immediately be looking for someone new to have the kids see. This time around I will go only based on personal recommendations from people I know and definately someone who specializes in pediatrics. What makes me more angry than anything is reflux was brought up by me to the Dr. in the first few weeks after Cohen was born. She told me no that wasn't it and I trusted her. Lesson learned I guess!

P.S. while we were at the Dr.'s office last night the results of his head scan came in and everything was A OK! He apparently just has a big head :)