It's Not So Easy Being A Real Doggie - Updated!

Thanks to all of you for all your well-wishes over the last couple of days. We've certainly needed them, and hopefully now we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Kevin is over his illness, there's no sign of a new baby appearing in the next few days, and maybe, possibly, Leonard is on the mend. But not without some added drama.

As of yesterday morning, the Great Big Doggie had stopped vomiting, but still was not eating or drinking, preferring instead to refuse all food and drink with the logic that "I'm a doggie and I don't have hands to lift a drink." By last night, the poor guy was so wobbly we took him to the ER for fluids. After a five hour wait we were finally seen, bloodwork was drawn and an IV started. It just was so hard watching Leonard cry, and hear him saying about the nurses, "Those guys came and hurt the doggie, and the doggie does not like to be hurt!" But he did perk up after about 300 mL of fluids, and at least began speaking in complete sentences again and informed us in no uncertain terms that "The doggie wants to head home. Please can we go home? I really don't want to be in this place..."

We did get to come home after the fluids were run, but it turns out that his bloodwork revealed some elevated liver enzymes. It may be nothing, or it may be he has Hepatitis A. So yeah, after eight hours in the ER, and arriving home at 4:30 AM, we got to visit our pediatrician this morning. This visit was followed by another hospital trip to draw more blood, during which Leonard kept yelling, "This is not the doggie's favorite thing!" Clearly Leonard is developing a knack for understatement, as he also informed us on the trip home that, "Bloodwork is not so much fun."

Our pediatrician should call us with the results sometime this afternoon, and hopefully this will all turn out to be nothing. I'll keep everyone posted. At the moment the doggie looks better than he has in several days (despite having been up virtually all night), is drinking well, and has won himself all the Sesame Street on Demand he can handle. Actually, we're all pretty tired. I got three hours of sleep last night, but Kevin has been up since 6:00 yesterday morning and is attempting to work from home today in the midst of the chaos. After two sick days, he's got stuff from work that can't wait, particularly with paternity leave coming up at any moment.

Sorry about the sorry construction of this post - I just need some sleep. I'm off to see if I can convince the guys to take a nap, but I will keep everyone posted.

Thanks again for all the good wishes, everyone!

Updated 8:45 P.M. - So the bloodwork came back. It's not normal, but it's not alarming, either. Leonard's transaminases are still elevated, but aren't climbing higher, so whatever it is isn't getting worse. It might be some variety of hepatitis, or it might be something related to the flu. The plan is to keep him hydrated and try to convince him to eat something over the weekend, and while we're doing that, his pediatrician is going to call one of the pediatric GI guys and run this problem past him. We'll go back to her office on Monday to check the great big doggie's weight and assess his liver status if necessary. Hopefully we will not need to repeat the bloodwork, because no one's nerves are up to that at the moment. Thanks for the encouragement, guys, and I will again keep everyone posted!