Goodbye Bacteria!

I love the fact that there's time for me to blog today. That means that things are quiet, uneventful, and free of sickness :) Last weekend was absolutely none of the above. Eli was sick for the first time...and it wasn't exactly the 'typical cold.' Last week was such a blur. I worked a few days, and by Thursday I was ready for a few normal days at home with my little guy. Of course Thursday was just the beginning of 7 straight days of misery. It all started with a minor upset stomach for Eli, that led into a bloody messy diaper and fever, which then carried us from the pediatricians office straight to the children's hospital in Savannah. They admitted us straight into the Pediatric Surgery Unit(PSU). We were pretty confused as to why we were there, and also thought that it all seemed a little extreme. Eli just wasn't acting that sick yet. Our pediatrician had been consulting with 2 Dr's in the PSU since that morning, and they weren't comfortable with letting Eli go through the weekend without ruling out the worst case scenarios. They were very worried that Eli was suffering from Intussusception. Here's a quick medical lesson..

What Is Intussusception?
"Intussusception occurs when one portion of the bowel slides into the next, much like the pieces of a telescope. When this occurs, it creates an obstruction in the bowel, with the walls of the intestines pressing against one another. This, in turn, leads to swelling, inflammation, and decreased blood flow to the intestines involved.

The most common cause of intestinal obstruction in children between the ages of 3 months and 6 years, intussusception:

•occurs most often in children between 5 and 10 months of age (80% occur before a child is 24 months old)
•affects between one and four infants out of 1,000
•is three to four times more common in boys than in girls"

When we arrived at the hospital, we had no idea that we would be in for an overnight stay. After a long talk with the Dr's, they agreed that Eli didn't look sick enough to keep overnight, as we could monitor and hydrate him from home. As long as the results of his abdominal xray and blood work came back fine, they would discharge us.
After many ours of poking, and no sleep, they let us go home.

Needless to say, after a LONG 7 days, Eli is now on the mend :) He tested positive for Salmonella. Gross, I know. I've become an absolute nut case about hand washing and cloroxing. I have the dry and cracked hands to prove my recent insanity! I'm trying not to let it drive me crazy, because we'll never really know exactly where he picked it up. We're just so glad to have our happy boy back. Our house just wasn't the same without his contagious laughs and giggles.

On a lighter note, we took Eli to his first football game on Friday night. He was a HUGE fan! Again, it must be in his blood :)




Here's Eli all dressed & ready for church in his new outfit from mimi :)



Thats it for now, I'll update in a few days with more pictures. Thanks for all of your prayers for our little guy!