We haven't had much luck since Thanksgiving. Some or all of us have been sick in one way or the other pretty much since then. Jake is pretty resilient and gets sick but gets better fast, and is usually in high spirits even when he IS sick. Manny has been hit the hardest, and has not seen a 2 week period where he is not been really ill in four months.
Manny threw up once on Thursday and once on Friday. He has been otherwise OK, but has just slept a lot. Last night, after Manny was in bed, I got violently ill. Within an hour Jake was in the same boat, and Steve, who took care of EVERYTHING, thank the universe, was hit hard around 3 AM. Its been quite a 24 hours. The rest of us have recovered to some extent, while Manny still remains ill and can't keep much down. I worry about the little guy. I plan to take him to the doctor in the morning if he has not vastly improved, or to the ER tonight if he gets any worse.
I don't plan on grasping at straws too much with Manny like I did with Jake, however, you have to wonder if laying around with various stomach bugs and colds for almost four months straight has affected his development to some extent. You can't LEARN anything when you're just laying there. That being said I still get frustrated when people say "oh.. its probably just...." I've been down that road already. I also realized that, according to his weight checks at the doctor, that he has gained only 4 ounces in 3 months, and has probably lost that the last few days. During the almost 3 days where he felt OK he jumped forward again with his speech and interaction. This roller coaster that started with Jake and his developmental issues is simply killing me.
Whether or not I have to take him in for a sick appointment this weekend, I plan to make a 18 month check up appointment first thing next week so that I can discuss these things with the doctor. Steve says that his gut feeling is that Manny does have Neurofibromatosis, since all of his symptoms such as low muscle tone and poor development are consistent. There's really no "real" reason to come to that conclusion, but its hard not to think the worst sometimes.
Meanwhile, I need to work on getting my entire family healthy. I've tried probiotics, healthy foods, completely cutting out the icky stuff, and somehow we are still puny. Spring can't come soon enough.
