Salmonella Scare

It sure has been a tough couple of weeks.  Joey came down with stomach pains and a lot of poops and I do mean ALOT.  Plus he had fevers of 104-105 so we took him to Urgent Care Ped's and the doctor just told us that he thought it was a stomach virus that's going around and to keep monitoring him and give him lots of Pedialite so that's what we did... he didn't get any better.  After a few days I called his own Ped's Nurse Practioner and got him in the same day.  She said she'd never heard such an active stomache before and ordered some stool sample tests.  We got back the one for giardia and general parasites - he was all clear.  We put him on the BRAW diet which consists of bananna's, rice, applesauce (unsweetened) and white foods like bread, plain yogurt, etc.  He seemed to improve a bit but still complained of stomache pains and was still having the poops just not near as frequently.

After 12 days we ventured out to a play date.  I mean he hadn't had any high fevers for ten days and his tests had come back negative so I thought we were good to go, that he wasn't contagious any longer.  We headed over to the library for storytime and to check out some books.  We hooked up with about five mom's from my playgroup and their kiddo's.  We lasted about half way through storytime before Joey got to cranky to sit still and so we left and headed over to visit my pregnant friend Sam who's on restricted duty.  Her Mother-in-Law was at the library with her kids for storytime too.  Sam and I had a nice visit for about an hour while Joey played in her kids playroom and then we headed home.

Here is where the other shoe drops... I opened my mail to find results for one more test - Salmonella, and Joey was positive for it. Sh*t, literally.  I called Sam to make sure she didn't touch the diaper I had put in her garbage and to tell Eric to wash his hands after he'd taken out the garbage.  I also had to put up a message on our group message board to let the other mom's know what was going on.  I felt like an idiot exposing their kids to his germs but I honestly thought all the tests were in and we were good to go.

After researching it a little more and talking to Kaiser's Advice Nurse I discovered that he wasn't really contagious anymore at least not in a casual way.  The only way to pass it along is if they come into contact with Joey's fecal matter and don't wash their hands and then touch either their mouth or eyes.  So that meant pretty much that Larry and I were the only ones to have to worry about catching it since we're the ones who change his diapers.  Unfortunately I'm at the highest risk since I have a chronic health conditiona and because I take opiates on a daily basis.

I'd been keeping both his and my hands clean so I felt pretty safe with the practices we'd put into place as soon as he got sick.  Were down to about two poopy diapers a day, and his appetite is starting to come back so I think we're well on our way to recovery.  He only complains that his tummy hurts once in a while so hopefully things are beginning to settle down in there.  Still I think I'll keep him home for a few more days just to be on the safe side.

The real bummer about all this, well after Joey feeling so crappy, is that we were well on our way with regard to potty training and now I'm going to have to begin the process all over again.  So frustrating.