Sometimes I wonder if half of what I say on here contradicts the other half.  Largely because what is true one day may not be true another.

For example – I’ve been talking about increased alert time, great appetites, and healthy weight gain.

But right now, for today, we’re struggling with all 3.  The boys have had a cold of some sort brewing.  Colds don’t scare me generally.  We’ve had our share of sniffles and overall, they have handled them very well.  This one always seemed different though.  Landon’s cough has been weak, puny from day 1.   They have been very very lethargic, especially Landon.  And their appetites have disappeared.

There are several reasons it is hard to know how to react.

• They don’t always let you know that they don’t feel well.
• We do NOT want to underreact to an illness, especially knowing their immune system is still down from the steroid. (That said…we may overreact.)
• They just finished up their steroid, so that could be the reason their appetite is changing.
• They have been ramping up on Topamax, and just hit their first day at the max dose today, so that could be a reason for their increased drowsiness, and also their decreased appetite.

All that said, Children’s on Wednesday knew we would be at our pediatrician on Thursday, and recommended a chest x-ray locally to check on the subtle rattle in Landon’s lungs.  The local pediatrician had the same plan.  Long story short, he does NOT have pneumonia, and he tested negative for RSV.  So the illness appears to just be a mild little cold that is hitting him hard.

So last week ended up with an expected day of appointments on Wednesday, a scheduled 12 month well baby visit, and an unexpected chest x-ray and lab tests.  And we still don’t know whether it is an illness or a combination of medicine changes causing the problem.  I suspect the latter.

I’m sneaking in extra calories where I can, and we are working hard to get them to drink what we can.  Hopefully this will pass soon, and they’ll be back to eating like champs in no time!  In the meantime, we’ll just wait and see what tomorrow brings!