Sickness

There have been so many illnesses going around that last month or so, and of course there is the corona virus scare going around, and I am incredibly grateful that Seth has been as healthy as he has been his whole life. That being said, we have had to worry about him and make multiple trips to the ER, some turning out fine, some funny, and some sucked.
With myself having lupus, there were several health risks we had to worry about before and immediately following birth. First due to some of my antibodies, Seth was at risk for being born with heart problems. He had a fetal echocardiogram at 20 weeks with my first ultrasound and then I had an ultrasound every month to monitor his heart develop for any changes. Luckily he has a super healthy ticker and it was something that we never needed to deal with any further. The other thing that could have happened is that he could have been born with neonatal lupus since babies are born with their mother's immune system. Boys are at a higher risk for this complication because for reasons unknown boys do not do as well as girls with lupus. Luckily for us he also showed no signs of neonatal lupus at birth or during our time at the hospital. I was told to watch for any rashes at all as that might have showed as a sign of a developing issue, but again we were so very lucky and he made it through scot free.
However, there are issues that come with babyhood and toddlerhood that have nothing to do with my issues. His first ER visit was when he was three weeks old. He got an eye infection, very common with tear ducts still developing. He had no problem at all with me putting the cream in for him and he healed up fine. Too bad that a few days later my eyes were gunked shut. :)
He of course also had a cold or two which nothing can be done for during his first winter. But the fun part I have found is trying to play the game of what is causing the symptoms. For Seth and ear infection and teething symptoms are almost identical. His first ear infection happened to coincide with cutting a tooth but it was fairly mild on both fronts. He had trouble sleeping through the pain but some baby Tylenol and antibiotics got him through both pretty quick. His next ear infection was my first epic fail as a mom. I knew he was cutting a tooth, I could see it and feel it. I attributed his crankiness and slight fever to the tooth as they had done before. When I went to work that day, he was warm but not too high of a fever and obviously cranky but otherwise okay. Carroll called me from work to tell me that he was not doing well and was just laying around and he was on his way to the emergency room with him. I met them there as they were going in. My little baby had a high fever by then (almost 103) and was just miserable. He definitely had an ear infection and started to perk up quickly once the medicine started working. I have never felt so horrible as a mom as I did that day not realizing that something was really wrong and just blaming teething.
The next two trips into the ER were easier. We brought him in one time after he refused to eat for two days and was barely taking fluids. We were worried about dehydration and weren't sure what the issue was. Of course in that instance it was teething making him miserable and not want to eat. Just to make us look bad, he ate an entire popsicle for the nurse while laughing and playing with all the staff there. The last trip was just a couple days ago. Seth was home with Carroll and after taking a bite of a chicken nugget started screaming and holding the side of his face. His crying and whining continued periodically for the rest of the afternoon even though nothing was visible to cause the issue. Carroll gave him some Tylenol and when I got home two hours later he seemed okay but kept pointing to his ear to indicate it was hurting. He isn't cutting any teeth and everything looked okay, but we trusted him and went to have him checked. The official diagnosis was an ear block, he doesn't have an infection, he is perfectly healthy, and he never acted hurt after being checked. I personally believe he just wanted to go flirt with the nurses, but we will never know for sure.