Playing Doctor

Google is a great tool. Heck, any good search engine is great! Google just happens to be my search enging of choice. But sometimes, these great little search engines and the information available online can be a very dangerous or scary thing.

Take for example what happened today. BB has been home with us now for almost 2 weeks. After having to leave him at the hospital every day for a week, it was so nice to get him home and in comfortable surroundings.

But on Saturday, poor little BB started puking. Everything. In. His. Stomach. For those of you with little or no experience with little ones, think about Linda Blair in "The Exorcist"... but imagine her as a 9 pound newborn and instead of split pea soup it's milk.

I figured the little man must have a stomach virus, as did the nurse who called me back Saturday. So, BB spent 24 hours drinking Pedialyte to fight dehydration. On Sunday, all seemed ok so he went back to enjoying his milk, with only a few "spit up" issues on Sunday and Monday.
But today, it was "The Exorcist Revisited" in our home.

This time, I felt sure BB had no stomach virus... but he was allergic to his formula. After all, I was allergic as a newborn... so was The Hub. Googie had to be on Soy Formula for a few months. I figured the apple didn't fall far from the tree in BB's case.

But the phone conversation I had with a nurse today was anything but reassuring when she said two words. Pyloric Stenosis. I was given an appointment to see the pediatrician almost immediately. But there was plenty of time for me to Google PS.

If you haven't already Googled the term by now, it's essentially a thickening of the muscles at the top of the stomach. Symptoms generaly start showing up by the 3rd week of life (BB is 18 days old as we speak). It affects caucasians, particularly firstborn males. And to remedy the problem, surgery is required.

So, a little knowedge can be a dangerous thing. I had about an hour and a half to mull all that over in my head before seeing a doctor. I was brought to tears before I even closed my laptop. Everything Cam seemed to be experiencing was all spelled out on the webpage Google had found for me. I was so scared.

I cried the whole way to the doctor's office, sobbing over the phone to a wonderful friend.

Was BB just trying to trump his big sister's 10 day stay in the NICU? Did he decide his 7 day stay in the hospital wasn't enough drama for him Mom and Dad? He was going to have to have surgery?

Thankfully, that does not appear to be the case. Given the family history, it seems to be a milk allergy (much as I suspected... thank you maternal instinct!). BB also has a bit of stridor (go ahead and Google that... I'm too tired to explain and it's after 1am...) and that, the doctor believes, is also contributing to reflux.

So the little man is on a super duper hypoallergenic formula and medicine to help with his reflux. It may take a week before we really notice a difference... but hopefully this will make everything better!

Just remember this little story the next time you hear some medical jargon and decide to play DotCom Doctor yourself. You could give yourself a heart attack!