"Letting go" follow-up: Any Infectious disease specialists out there???

Parents Forum
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<p>Jym, Glad tp hear it was "only" pneumonia. I have sat thru this whole thread with my analytic doctor side weighing the unlikelihood of it being anything other than bronchopneumonia developing on top of a virus after being out of the country with all those stresses for 2 weeks - at war with the Mom side who is thinking of all the "it might be"s.
Just think, it is like this for us Dr. Moms every time someone gets sick- we know all the horror stories, so we always assume the worst.</p>

<p>So glad he is on the mend, and glad that it sounds like he is trying to take it easy, that's important now.</p>

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<p>soozie-
Congrats on your d's success!!! That's wonderful!! I enjoyed the blow-by-blow description of the day. Exciting, scary, worrisome, back to exciting. I am a recreational skiier, and am familiar with the slushy, sticky kinda conditions you can get when its warm and the snow starts to melt. Then, the next morning, it's all ice after it freezes that night. Neither condition is great. Almost as yukky is the late season corn snow. Tough to ski in. Does your d. do slalom or giant slalom? Is she on the tightly packed course that gets packed down by everyone turning at the same place at the gates? </p>

<p>While neither of my s's are competitive skiiers, they routinely bomb down the mountain, do all sorts of dare-devil stuff, and have had a few heart-stopping wipe-outs. If you recall, younger s. broke his collarbone snowboarding last year. He's my kid with the history of the broken bones (2 fingers, his nose, and his shoulder). The absolute scariest was when he was an infant. The babysitter didnt watch him carefully and he went down the basement stairs in his walker- sideways. Worse yet, she didn't call me. So when I got home from work a few hrs later, she said, in a sing-song voice "you have a hurt baby". His head was swollen like a football. I rushed him to the hospital. He had multiple skull fractures, (one on his crown and the rest orbital) and an epidural bleed!! If he'd had one more fracture around his eye, they'd have had to reconstruct his eye socket!!! This was all when he was 8 mos old!</p>

<p>I am giving the detail so the other doctor-moms (esp. Cangel, as I have just read your post) can shiver with me. It was awful. I remember being very stoic at first- putting on my "professional" face, until I saw the CT scan. I stood and looked at the films with the neurosurgeon (who happened to go to med school where I went to grad school at the same time, and we worked with the same neurologist there- so he was pretty up-front with me. He also happens to be the doc who just did the spina bifida surgery on baby Noor, the baby from Irag. But I digress...) When I called my mom to tell her what was going on I just lost it on the phone. Couldn't keep the "professional" demeanor up any more.</p>

<p>Older s. has had his share of yukky stuff. He lost the distal 1/3 of a pinky finger in a boating accident when he was 12. That year we spent back and forth to drs, he had 2 surgeries, first in an attempt to save the finger and then to repair the skin flap. He spent most of the year with his hand (his dominant one of course-- it figures, huh) in a cast. And literally the week after he finally got the cast off, he was on a scouting trip and some kid was horsing around and accidentally broke my s's finger - that very SAME finger, down at the base of his hand!! So back he goes into his cast. To make matters worse, this was the first year he was just starting a different, private school, so was trying to get settled in (the accident happened the day before school started, and he spent the first 2 days in the hospital). This was also his bar mitzvah year. Needless to say, this was a very challenging year. I hiope I am not going into too much detail and upsetting any of you, but I thought it'd help explain a bit why I am probably over-protective with him. He's also had mono, and then the awful c-diff with 3.5 day hospitalization just before he started college. Oh, and last year when he went back after winter break, he bent over too close to a newspaper rack and a piece of metal sticking out gashing him over his eye-- needing a bunch of stitches. He also had a bad case of the flu his sr yr of college, but was nowhere near as sick as he was this past 10 days. Fevers over 105, profuse sweating, drenching clothes and sheets, shivering, bad head, muscle, joint pain, dizziness, etc etc. So, when exotic diseases came up, I worried. (duh). Soooo, it's been a long haul with these guys. I couuld use a break...</p>

<p>Cangel. I can soooo agree with the challenge to balance the parent/professional thing. And as I ma in a side area of healthcare, I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous, but not enough to be totally on top of things. Just adds to the worry. If I call my sis-in-law the nurse, she fills my head with worry. (she means well, but is very focused on health issues and crises. One of her kids, as elementary schooler-- maybe no older than 10, referred to his bruise as ecchymosis!! What kid calls a black and blue mark ecchymosis!!???!!).</p>

<p>Well, the last call I had from my s. yesterday, he was talking about planning a spring break ski trip with his college friends. Part of me wants to bring him home and nail his feet to the floor. Parents, what should I do????</p>

<p>(<em>*edit</em>) younger s also had asthma as a chlild-- a few trips to the ER for breathing treatments, the home nebulizer and all that.. just more worry. He's outgrown it, though), thnk heavens)</p>

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<p>jym: Sorry, I did not mean to alarm you, it is just that sometimes Drs. do not know it all, and you have to keep their feet to the fire to get an definitive answer. I do not blame the Oregon Dr. who failed to diagnose my son properly for not being able to identify something that was out of the realm of experience for him. But I do blame him for failing to say to us that he "just did not know," rather than giving him cortisone shots in the dark. Because leishmaniasis is something that is seen, albeit rarely in Houston, the Dr. there asked one simple question: "did you recently travel outside the country?" When son said "yes," all the lights and whistle went off and a biopsy was taken and sent to the CDC. So, I told you all of that not to scare you, but just to give you heads up that while it probably is nothing more than the ID Dr. says it is, just keep vigilant.</p>

<p>As for my son, thank goodness his was cutaneous, not visceral, so the only residual effect is some scaring that can be repaired in a few years by plastic surgery. Of course he could just leave it be and say it is a football injury. Otherwise, he is doing great. Back on campus, and has his first EMS shift Sunday -- he says he will be on the lookout for kids needing assistance, AND freshman girls. Yup, he is feeling just fine!</p>

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<p>Concernneddaad-
So glad he's back at Tulane. Please give us an update on the conditions there. And just curious-- wh'd he see who diagnosed him in Houston???</p>

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<p>jym: I forget the Dr.'s name in Houston, he was a dermatologist, but I will ask him. In N.O., the Dr. who treated him is Dr. Susan McClellan. She is with Tulane's School of Tropical Medicine.</p>

<p>I will ask him for a full report when he gets settled into his dorm. It probably will not be unbiased, however, as he is such Tulane "homer."</p>

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<p>Hi jym:</p>

<p>Glad to hear that your S is feeling better. We are very vigilant (and probably overly protective) about medical issues in our house. Our D was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age six when she was very ill. She is now a VERY active teenager. I have to admit that I am still very neurotic every time she gets a cold, has a fever, etc. </p>

<p>I also decided that I think I will have to go back to college when she is ready, so that I can be her roommate!! I'm pretty sure she will have different thoughts. However, I have to admit, it will be really really really tough to let her go.</p>

<p>In fact, she is on an a 5 day overnight trip with her band group now. I suggested (insisted?) that Dad go as a chaperone. He didn't mind, because it is in Florida. I am still worried about her, even with Dad there! :)</p>

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<p>JYM, I was pleased to see that it's "only" pneumonia. Years ago when we got back from Africa, my son spent five days in bed with a fever of 104, so I know how scary it can be. (We never did find out what it was, but five days of Cipro made it go away.)</p>

<p>However, I did want to give some advice on pneumonia recovery, I had it a few times in my twenties, and then again last year. It takes a LONG time to fully recover, and you have to be aware of how easy it is to relapse if you don't take care of yourself (which is why I got it every winter for three years). There is a vaccine against some types of pneumonia, and getting a flu shot every year helps prevent the flu--which can turn into pneumonia way too easily. My doctor feels that everyone who's ever had pneumonia falls into the flu high-risk group that should get vaccinated every year. </p>

<p>And it's important to remember to wash your hands early and often!</p>

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<p>Quote:
I do think you are hitting just the perfect blend of 'worried mom' and 'he's-an-adult-now mom"! </p>

<p>musicmom-
Can I enlarge this, email it to my h and kids, frame it and hang it on my wall?!!?? Thank you, thank you, thank you </p>

<p>jym-
Yes, please do.....you've earned it! I can't say the same for myself, though it is a constant goal!</p>

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<p>Jym...you have had your share of angst with your kids regarding health and injuries! Yikes. I hope this is the last of it. </p>

<p>Followup to the ski questions you asked....
My daughter (and the entire team) race Giant Slalom and Slalom. Yesterday was Giant Slalom. My daughter has always preferred and did better at speed events but last year she truly did well at Slalom too so finally can no longer say that she doesn't feel that she is as good at Slalom. She still prefers GS though. </p>

<p>The conditions yesterday held up the race. It was like spring conditions, super warm, very soft snow that ruts up really quickly. I guess it was icy from overnight rain and then they let it soften and then put down salt to firm it up. Still, that kind of snow gets ruts from the racers all turning at the same place at each gate and so it can get dangerous if you get caught in the ruts....it wasn't really "smooth". It really wasn't the "safest".....and as you know, you can even get hurt when the conditions are great. I've been worried all morning about what is going on over there today for the slalom. They planned to start EXTREMELY early (not a normal ski race start time) to get it in before heavy rains, though the weather forecast is for LOTS of rain. All I kept thinking about is how sometimes sports are a bit insane and not common sensical. (is that a word? likely not!) In high school, I recall sitting through soccer games in the freezing rain and thinking, why aren't they canceling? These are just kids and this is just a game. I read that her HS soccer team this year played a play off game in an early season snowstorm, very unsafe conditions. That's just nuts. I recall having to explain to my dad who used to question this, how she had to participate because it was what her team was doing. The kid can't just say, "this is nuts, I'm not doing it"...but whomever runs these things should call it off. </p>

<p>So, today, I'm thinking....geez...the kids are going to race in the rain....first off, their thin lycra race suits will get soaking wet and they'll have to stay in them all day for both runs, and even if it is a warm 40 degrees, that is cold if you are soaked. The visibility would be tough...not like they have wipers on their goggles! and then the conditions? they can't salt the course in the rain....it would be super wet and soft...would rut up...her start number is down the list.....could be very dangerous. Last night my husband was telling her by phone, "Don't race if it seems too dangerous of conditions"....and I'm like, "yeah, right.....she can't make that call....if her team is racing....she'd NEVER bow out. " I just hoped that whoever runs this had SOME SENSE...this is JUST a SPORT. Why have even more kids get injured? </p>

<p>Alas, she called a short bit ago. They had to get up at 4:45 AM (this is a good indicator that kids do not do these ECs unless they are passionate about them.....find another college kid who gets up at this time!), load the van at 5:15 AM....inspect the course at 7:15 AM! She said it was raining when they were at the top of the course and they cancelled but then her team helped pull the entire course in the rain. Then her coach took them all out to breakfast and she was calling from the van ride back to the ski area where they are doing training camp. Thankfully, someone had sense to call the race! She was very happy to learn that her team, Brown, came in first yesterday and also personally happy to have her best college result ever. Getting 7th in a college race for her was quite something. She had never broken the top 10 last year. A great many of the better racers went to ski academies for high school and so are highly trained. She just went ot public high school and was not a recruited athlete. So, this was a nice thing for her. But it is truly about the team and so yay Brown...off to a good start. They won Easterns last year and came in second in Nationals. A lot of the best racers on her team are out the season due to injuries or other illnesses, so they did very well without them. Her being the second fastest racer on her team yesterday was unusual, though we are talking tenths of seconds separating them! It is a weird sport that way. Even though she was 7th, she was less than a full second off the winner. </p>

<p>Susan</p>

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<p>dmd77-
I just cut and pasted your reccomendations about pneumonia recovery into an email to my s. Then I followed it with lodging info to ski resorts at Breckenridge. Think I am conflicted?? Giving him mixed messages, I am sure. I did tell him I thought his choice to discuss ski plans while still recovering was a bit ill-timed (pun intended).</p>

<p>musicmom:
You are my new best friend :) I do not suspect that any of the male creatures in my house will agree with you, but I can hope.</p>

<p>concerneddad-
Good catch by a dermatologist! Really on the ball. My dermatologist friend says most of her practice involves 2 treatment courses: "If it's wet, dry it; if it's dry, wet it". Your s's problem certainly didn't fit that mold. I really DO want to hear about Tulane's progress. Younger s. still has it on his list. Where'd the subforums about Katrina go, btw??</p>

<p>Sokkermom:
Sorry to hear about the type I diabetes. No fun. As you well know, juvenile diabetes is a handful. Constant monitoring and vigilance required. Hard to relax and let your hair down. I don't blame you one bit for sending a "chaperone". My h. used to go along on a lot of the scouting campouts and hikes. He even went to Philmont with them. That's a tough trek. I sat home and read about all the diseases they could get while there. (real smart of them to leave that booklet with the moms, don't you think??) That didn't happen. Instead, they had a slight run-in with a bear!!</p>

<p>And soozie-
Glad to hear someone had the voice of reason and called the race. As you well know, because so many sports events schedules are tied to other schedules, it's disruptive when something gets cancelled and rescheduled. So, they do whatever they can, even when stupid, but usually just shy of downright dangerous, to get the events in as scheduled. Congrats on Brown's win, and your d's great times! Gee, the tenths of a second separating scores sorta feels like the one-point miss on the PSAT that is being discussed on another thread. So close, but not close enough...</p>

<p>One slight correction in my earlier post. Older s had his bad flu his sr yr of HS, not college, just before we left to go on a 1 wk ski trip. Always seems to time these illnesses and hospitalizations right before he's supposed to board a plane. What's up with that?</p>

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<p>jym: If memory serves, it was decided that the katrina sub-forums had fulfilled their duties. The circumstances of Katrina, and its real effect on almost every college in the country was so unique that the site adminstrator felt separate forum was warranted. But, such "non-college" forums are not really the focus of CC. Of course all are invited to still comment on the last effects of katrina in threads under the respective school be discussed.</p>

<p>CD</p>

<p>jym: keep reading the Tulane forum. I am guessing that there will be much discussion over the next few months and the students settle in. FYI, my son went to the "Hooka" (not Hooker) Cafe last night in the Frenchmen area, and he said the place was packed. The concert he wanted to go to at the House of Blues was sold out! SO, at least for college kids, the "joint is jumpin"</p>

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<p>cd-
thanks- I will follow the Tulane thread. I just wanted to go back and take a quick peek at some of the things that were talked about back when Katrina hit, and wanted to reread some of the posts on the Katrina thread. No luck. So, I had to go back 15 pgs on your list of posts to find some Katrina discussions! Are the Katrina discussions that were part of the sub-forum still accessible via the search option on CC, or have they been sent to the cyber black hole??</p>

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<p>Good question, I do not know. But I will find out.</p>

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<p>1sokkermom -- I empathize with you and other moms re: medical issues. S#2, who is turning 23, was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes
14 years ago. The worries are always there esp as they become more independent -- college, travel, live on their own. He hopes to teach English in Japan or bum around Africa for the summer -- I will age 10 yrs
during that time.</p>

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<p>jym626: I'd lean toward the "concerned mom" role with your S this semester due to his pneumonia. College kids just DO NOT seem to get the results of an illness and what can happen if you don't take care of yourself, which can lead to unfortunate consequences in college. My college junior D had strep C last fall which started on day 1 of classes, with two rounds of antibiotics--lasted for weeks. She just went on her merry way, staying up late and usual weekend activities plus a full load of difficult classses. The semester just got harder and harder, and she got weaker and weaker, then sick with a cold and then flu, and then serious depression. She really had trouble making it through the semester at all and keeping her grades up. We didn't let her work over winter break.</p>

<p>I'm sure you know all this as a dr., but your S needs to get lots of extra rest to get over this pneumonia, and he sounds like the "can't-keep-me-down" type like my D. This same scenario also happened to a good friend's D, who ended up leaving college and going home due to the results of pneumonia. The college kids don't realize it can take months to get over a serious bout of illness--part of their whole "invincible" age.</p>

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<p>bookiemom-
If I give you his cellphone # will you call him and yell at him?? When I called him today he was in the gym working out! :eek: He seems to have equated the Dr. saying he was "on the mend" with saying he was all better. He claims he was "following Drs. orders" (bull-- the Dr. said he could start to resume his normal activities, but to expect that he wouldn't be at his best). Then my s. tried to tell me that he couldn't clear out his lungs if he didnt work out. I blew the BS whistle on that one too!!! Puleeze. </p>

<p>So now he is plannng a ski trip over spring break. Grrrr. I have a few options as I see it: (1) wait it out and see if they really get it organized or if it all falls through like it probably will (last year, when he invited friends along on our family ski trip that required little to no organization on their part, the # that were going to come with us dwindled down significantly as the time drew closer.. ony 2 came for the whole trip and 2 joined us for 2 days.. the rest cancelled out), (2) let his g.f. guilt-trip him into coming to visit her instead, (3) remind him that we didn't get any real quality time with him over the xmas break, between his trip to Nicaragua, his gf's long visit and his pneumonia and (4) remind him that our parental college contribution covers living expenses-- NOT jaunts on airplanes to/from gf's and/or ski holidays with his buds. </p>

<p>To his credit, he has been pursuing several well-paying jobs (for a college student)-- mostly in the area of tutoring. There are nibbles, but no firm bites yet. So he doesn't have an outside income stream other than his savings. </p>

<p>He's also got a very heavy courseload this semester, and hasn't yet identified a class that he doesn't like and wants to drop. If he keeps them all (20 hrs including 2 labs) he'll fry. He knows that. I guess both of these issues (the school schedule and the spring break plans) will need to resolve with, as we say in the field. "tincture of time".... However, should anyone want to volunteer to read him the riot act, I sure would appreciate it :)</p>

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<p>Thanks 3boysnjmom:</p>

<p>I think I have aged ten years this year! I'm not sure if it is from worrying about D's diabetes, or the fact that she is now officially a teenager! :)</p>

<p>D (age 13) called last night on Dad's cell from the hotel. She was headed to the "ice cream social" that was part of the trip. I had to remind her (and Dad) that she should not have the ice cream without testing her blood and injecting extra insulin. The good thing is that she is having so much fun that she forgot about her condition. The bad thing is that she forgot her insulin without Mom's nagging... Hopefully I won't still have to nag in 5 years?</p>

<p>Does your S attend college close to home?</p>

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<p>soccermom and 3boysinnjmom-
Won't it be great when the insulin inhalant is available? While this certainly won't eliminate the risks and complications of diabetes, it will certainly make its management easier. My mother-in-law struggled with brittle diabetes for years. It was a challenge.</p>

<p>sokkermom-
Sorry to inform you, but based on my recent experience with my s., you won't get to stop nagging anytime soon. He wouldn't have gone to the first Dr, let alone had any follow-up, if I hadn't have been behind him with a cattle prod. (<strong>edit-- or was it the leash and the whip?? I forget</strong>) What's more challenging for you are the years when the adolescents.. girls especially, don't want to be "different". They want to be like their peers, do like their peers, act like their peers. I imagine your diligence in helping her to stay on track and manage her eating and her diabetes appropriately during these times will be appropriate and necessary. Your ice cream story reminds me of an incident with my s. after his second surgery on his hand, just after he turned 13. He was going to the TIP program at Duke just after the surgery. He had stitches in his finger and it was well bandaged. We were to make arrangements to get the stitches out at Duke, after the hand healed. In the meantime, he was instructed to keep the hand and the bandage dry. So what does he do the first day or so after he gets up ther?? Participates in a water balloon fight! Needless to say, we got the call (on my birthday, in fact), that they were taking him to a hand specialist to have everything looked at and re-bandaged. </p>

<p>Soooo, Sokkermom -- hang on. It's going to be a bumpy ride. I feel your pain :)</p>

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<p>girls are no better. My D 2 days after an being sent to the hospital for her asthma and possible pneumonia where she receive IV's and breathing treatments calls as she is headed off to a overnight field trip to 12,000 ft altitude. She is wheezing as she walks and talks to me, I ask if she had her inhaler. No she forgot it and it and she will miss the bus if she heads back to her dorm. For someone who is so smart I wonder about her.
I wonder if she will ever learn. She does seem to head to the health center when things are bad but doesn't seem to think that she needs to followup. My D would also do something so stupid as to think it was okay to go to the gym when she was getting over pneumonia.
You better head over to the sinner's alley and have a drink</p>

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<p>Sometimes kids cant win though ... if we push through it we are reckless and if we take it easy but dont recover quickly we are accused of not getting on with it. :)</p>

<p>I hope your daughter makes a speedy recovery from her asthma!</p>