Sick Boy

This poor boy has been very sick. Fever, congestion, cough, no appetite, etc.

But today he is feeling a little better - day 3 of antibiotics and he's starting to feel good enough to play outside on his bike.

After 3 or 4 sleep-deprived nights, I took him to the doctor because I thought he had influenza. The doctor didn't think that was the case and ran a strep test. That came back negative and so he did a facial X-ray to rule out a sinus infection. That showed the problem. The doctor's words were, "His sinuses are junk." So, we went home with a strong dose of antibiotics and instructions to take it for 10 days and then refill it for another 10 days and come back for a follow-up in 3 weeks.

After day 5 on the antibiotics, he still had a fever and no appetite and the horrible cough. The nurse said it could take 5-7 days for the medicine to work when a sinus infection is severe, or he could have a secondary infection. I sort of lost track of how many days it had been since I slept through the night. The poor boy would wake up every 4-5 hours with an awful coughing fit and a raging fever. And when Jonathan has a coughing fit, he usually throws up. We would give him more cough medicine and ibuprofen and tuck him back in bed. This went on for a week or longer, and finally, one night, we all slept through the night. Kind of. The first night Jonathan slept through the night, I woke up around his standard 4:30 am wake up time. But after that I was able to sleep better and so did Jonathan!

I'm pretty sure he had a secondary infection with the massive sinus infection. And thankfully he is much better. Now, if we could just figure out the cause of these recurring sinus infections. I have several questions for the doctor at his follow-up appointment - could food allergies be causing the sinus issues?

The good news for now is that he is feeling good enough to play outside and is starting to tease and torment his brother again. Even Andrew was getting a little antsy about Jonathan being sick. He would walk in the front door after school and his first question would be, "Do you feel better today?" He missed his best buddy and playmate. And now that Jonathan is teasing him again, all is right with the world. At least, our little corner of it.