The Treadway Chronicles: First health issue

So Connor had his first health issue over the weekend. During the day on Saturday, I started noticing more and more discharge coming out of his eyes. It was kind of goopy. It wasn't so bad that I was too concerned, but I told Jeff that we should keep an eye on it.

Around midnight on Saturday night, Connor woke up and when I went to get him I noticed that his left eye was caked in eye crusties and his right eye had more goop as well. (Yes, very technical terms I know).

As a little kid, I had conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye, enough to remember that this was a pretty good symptom. I know pink eye is very contagious, so after I fed Connor I called the after hours doctor to see if they agreed with my assessment and maybe they'd even call in a prescription ointment for me or something.

The nurse on call was so nice and so very helpful and totally made me feel like a normal Mom for calling at 12:30AM about eye goop. She asked me a lot of good questions and I felt better about the whole thing. Because Connor didn't have a fever and his eyes weren't actually red or swollen, it was just gross discharge, the nurse assessed that it was mostly likely clogged tear ducts that build up and can cause an infection. It's weird, because clogged ducts actually cause more eye leakage.

On Sunday we kept an eye on Connor and unfortunately it wasn't getting any better and when I took his temperature it was 99.8. That scared me and Connor seemed a bit more sleepy, so I called again. Again, the nurses were super nice and reassured me that it was good that I called. The nurse told me that in an infant, they don't really consider 99.8 a fever and based on his symptoms it didn't sound like pink eye but more like clogged tear ducts, so she said to call the doctor in the morning and they would definitely see Connor and hopefully get him some eye drops to reduce the symptoms. With him being only 6 weeks old, she didn't feel comfortable calling in a prescription for him without an exam by the doctor. She did say that eye drops don't really cure anything, because in infants, eye ducts can continue to get clogged until nearly a year, but it should lessen the goop and it will reduce the risk of further infection.

So today was the day. Connor still had discharge, so we called the doctor this morning. They are great and said they could see us by 9:15. The doctor agreed after seeing him that it was back up from clogged tear ducts and not pink eye. She did take a culture of the goop and gave us a prescription eye drop to lessen the effects. We also have to massage his tear ducts to get them to open up.

So all in all, it was kind of a good practice run for future illnesses that happen after hours, which I am sure will happen more than we'd like. I was so impressed with how nice, caring, and truly interested in Connor's health everyone seemed. It makes me feel good about my choice in pediatrician, that's for sure.

Also, we got to get Connor weighed again, which is always nice, because when you are nursing, you can never be sure they are getting enough. Anyway, Connor is up to 11 pounds 14 ounces, so almost 12 pounds. What a big boy. He still looks skinny to me, so I guess it's all in his length. We didn't get that measured but we will at his two month appointment on the 20th. I'll let you all know percentiles, etc. then.

For now, let's hope the goop goes bye bye.

I took this photo on Friday, but I'm belated in posting it. He's so much more alert and has much better head control. He's still pretty squirmy and floppy, but he's getting better every day.

You can see his long limbs.

I thought this photo was funny. He's got crazy hair and he sort of looks a little crazy himself. Our own mad scientist.

This was him on Sunday. He was a little lethargic, but actually in great spirits despite the eye goop. I don't think you can see it in this photo, plus we were pretty good about wiping it. It was worse when he slept or cried.