Tuesday, July 26, 2011

We can see that Anthony has not yet fully recovered, but there are clear indications that he is getting quite a bit better. First he started becoming much more animated and making noise, to the extent that there have been times when we have wanted to say, "Just shut up already!" The other major sign is much less welcome: he nearly put another hole in the dining room wall this evening when he got inexplicably upset. We certainly did not miss that while he was ill.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Anthony is back home. We had hoped he would be released yesterday, but they kept him for a second night and were talking about a third because they wanted to ensure his oxygen level would be high enough without supplement while he was asleep. We could already tell he was feeling much better without the readings; he was to the point where it was impossible to keep the monitor on his finger or even his toe for any length of time.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Anthony is in the hospital this evening, at least overnight. He has not vomited--I misread him in that regard--but because of further incidents with diarrhea and looking very pale, my wife took him to the doctor thinking perhaps he would need antibiotics. To her surprise, the doctor said he had an unacceptably low oxygen saturation level, and that he needed to be hospitalized immediately. The doctor there confirmed that he has some kind of pneumonia, and further tests are being done tonight to determine whether and what kind of antibiotics should be prescribed. My wife is staying at the hospital with him.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

How do you deal with a child that acts like he is going to throw up, but doesn't have the cognitive ability to do so in the toilet? I tried holding a bucket in front of Anthony, but he doesn't like me doing that.

Friday, July 15, 2011

I have intentionally refrained from posting for some time. While I still think there is value in writing about Anthony--and have had several episodes in the last few months that would previously have spurred me to action--I know that anyone who has read through this blog by now has a reasonable understanding of what he is like. I am to the point where the many other projects awaiting my attention weigh more heavily than documenting yet more variations on a theme. I have decided that any posts going forward will be short unless something unprecedented happens, even if they suffer for readability as a result. My apologies in advance.

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We have had a rather malevolent virus run through our house, first affecting our daughter for about a month, then recently hitting our younger son, my wife, and, surprisingly, Anthony in short order. Anthony has not been sick since the last post in December while others in the family have been, and we still are not used to the idea of him being ill.

We have been caught off guard with Anthony's reaction to this virus, however. In addition to the continuing fever and cough the other family members have experienced, he has also been hit with diarrhea. My poor--and also sick--wife dealt a couple of days ago with the ramifications of him not making it to the bathroom. We hoped that was the worst of it, but yesterday morning had my wife dealing with an even more severe case without him getting out of bed. She made a quick trip to the store for Imodium and adult diapers. I guess we should have expected that no amount of coaxing would persuade Anthony to put the diapers on, so we are trying to monitor him more closely.