Triple Threat

We found out yesterday that Jaisal not only had rotavirus and c-diff, but also norovirus. All are stomach bugs and can cause vomiting and diarrhea. The nurse practitioner equated having all three bugs at one time as the equivalent of getting struck by lighteninng.  Kirk and I have gone through each minute of our days leading up to Jaisal getting sick and can't figure out how Jaisal could have contracted one, much less, all three of these bugs. It's really frustrating that we work so hard to keep Jaisal in "safe" situations, wash and sanitize our hands like maniacs, and keep our home as disinfected as possible and Jaisal still manages to get these bugs. I will say that we are lucky with how his body handled them. No crazy skyrocketing of his liver numbers, no dehydration leading to a hospital stay or multiple hospital stays, and a generally well-paced recovery. We've got to keep on looking at the bright side of things during this lifetime journey of liver transplantation.

Of course, I can't entirely ignore the one remaining downside of these illnesses. Jaisal's prograf and magnesium levels continue to bounce all over the place. Poor little man has had a lot of poking in the past 10 days and likely will need a few more rounds before all is said and done. His little arms are bruised and it just breaks my heart to look at them. Of course, Jaisal manages to be the strong one in all this. He is such a smart kid, so I know that he recognizes the hospital and the lab. Yet, he doesn't cry when he gets there. He doesn't cry when he goes into an exam room. He doesn't cry when we sit in the lab chair. He only starts crying once they tie the tourniquet on his arm. Amazingly, he doesn't even cry through the whole blood draw, just when they insert and remove the needle. While they're drawing blood, he fairly happily plays on the iPad. (By the way that thing is a LIFESAVER for keeping Jaisal happy during hospitalizations, clinic visits, lab draws, and when he's awake at 5 am and we don't want to quite get out of bed just yet - thanks again Ohio friends!)

I really hope everything is settled down by the time we go to clinic next week and that we can try to go back to an every other week lab schedule and once a month clinic visits, with no intervening hospitalizations. Fingers crossed and lots of wishful thinking (which I clearly believe will be more effective with Jaisal than it was in helping me win the massive Powerball prize last week).