You Are Not Alone on This Highway!

Our story began, or at least we thought, in the summer of 2007. Our family went on a wonderful trip to Disney and all seemed to be going fine. A few days before we left my then 13 month old, the youngest of the four kids, started vomiting and had violent diarrhea. At the time it seemed to be the Rotavirus and we did everything to make him as comfortable as possible and went on with our trip. On the way home he was very tired and he was still having diarrhea, and if your child has ever had Rotavirus you know how bad that smell is. He seemed to improve as far as his energy was concerned after a few more days, but his poops continued.

At his 15-month appointment we were ready to put up a fight and demand the doctor send him to a specialist. He was having tons of poops a day and they were even worse smelling then rotavirus (not sure how it's possible? Believe me it is!!). They were full of mucus and the food that he was eating was not getting digested. It was coming out just as it went in! He had not gained any weight (he had been having weight gain issues starting at 6 months), and he was eating as if every meal was going to be his last meal! I lost count how many comments I have had about the way he eats! Before I even had a chance to mention our concerns I could tell the doctor was very concerned about my son. His first words to us were to ask if he had been sick. After going over everything, he referred us to the Peds GI. This referral was the first step in a long process to finding out what he really had. We are still in the beginning stages. Every experience is different for every family, ours was a "short" time frame compared to others, as well as one of the least complicated medically. There are some that have had life threatening experiences.